[1] The team played its first fixture in almost exactly 30 years against England Counties XV at the RFUEA grounds in early June 2012.

[4] In 1935, Danie Craven captained Stellenbosch University on a tour of the region;[5] though none of these encounters included a match against a representative East Africa team.

Between 1963 and 1966 several clubs and universities toured East Africa and played against the full representative side including, in 1964, Wales.

Tours from South Africa were no longer welcomed as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were participating in the boycott protesting the apartheid regime in that country.

It is during this period that East Africa saw an increase in touring sides from France (including ACBB, Club Sportif Municipal (CSM) Clamart and ASCO ONERA), Italy (Including Rugby Roma Olimpic), Argentina (Old Georgians and various islands in the Indian Ocean (Réunion and Mauritius).

[7] Wales' game, held at the RFUEA Ground, Nairobi, on 12 May 1964, was the first time that they had played a match outside of Europe[16] and therefore also their first in the Southern Hemisphere,[17] albeit a mere hundred miles from the Equator.

It must also be remembered that prior to the innovation, by Sherborne School,[a] in the 1960s of using the hooker to throw the ball into the line-out, this was the job of the winger.

The Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) took the opportunity of the 1955 match to invite the Lions manager (J.A.E.

The capacity crowd of 6000 was treated to a magnificent display of running handling rugby that had characterised the tourists' games in South Africa.

According to the match programme, East Africa fielded seven players who were winning their first cap, Brodziak, Chambers, Darroch, MacLean, Meintjes, Tippett and Wheeler.

As was usual for touring teams visiting East Africa during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the Lions were given private hospitality as opposed to staying in hotels.

[23] There is a frequently repeated urban legend[24][25] that Idi Amin (later to become the infamous military dictator of Uganda) was selected as a replacement by East Africa for their match against the 1955 British Lions.

[26] Mike Gibson of Ireland is generally recognised as being the first ever replacement in a rugby union match (he came on for the injured Barry John during the first test in Pretoria on the 1968 British Lions tour to South Africa).

The Barbarians, managed by Brigadier HL Glyn-Hughes and H Waddell, had just completed a successful tour of South Africa and stopped off in Nairobi on their way home.

Members of this team who had previously visited Nairobi with the 1955 Lions were RH Williams, AJF O'Reilly, REG Jeeps, HF McLeod, JT Greenwood, CI Morgan, AR Smith and AC Pedlow.

The match was played before a capacity crowd in the late afternoon to early evening on a Wednesday; the papers reported that the colony's Legislative Council (Legco.)

Tony O'Reilly scored seven tries, no doubt making up for the fact that he had been injured and unable to play when he had come to Nairobi with the Lions three years earlier.

The Welsh tries were great[peacock prose] efforts, especially Dewi Bebb's who snatched a chance from a lineout three yards from the line and dived over before the opposition could lay a finger on him.

The East African team fought valiantly and often caused the visitors defence problems with strong surging runs; their star player was Eric Weaver a Welshman serving in Nairobi with the RAF, he had previously played professional football with Swindon town.

The final two games were played on May 27 and May 30 against Northern Transvaal at Pretoria (lost 9–22) and the Orange Free State at Bloemfontein (won 14–6).

When their first tour was being organised a few uncharitable nicknames were suggested for the team and thus the Tuskers moniker was quickly adopted and an appropriate emblem designed.

The manager of that team was Archie Evans, a member of the Nondescripts RFC in Nairobi and he was able to communicate this proposal to the fledgling Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA).

Rodney Evans (Nondescripts) was player-coach and took over the captain's role with Omaido injured ahead of the test against Zimbabwe.

The first black player to represent East Africa was J.K. "Ted" Kabetu (Mombasa Sports Club), who played on the wing against Richmond F.C.

was the first black player to represent East Africa as a forward, playing prop on the Fourth Tuskers tour of Ireland 1972.

There is a frequently repeated urban myth[24][25] that Idi Amin was selected as a replacement by the team for their 1955 match against the British Lions, while still a sergeant in the King's African Rifles.

^ In the 1960s, rugby teams started separating backs and forwards in practice as the game had evolved such that their functions and tactics became increasingly disconnected.

Holmes) began to use the hooker to throw the ball in to line-outs at practice rather than disrupt the rehearsal of moves by the backs.