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The 2025 England Lions and Lionesses tour of Australia was originally scheduled be a joint tour of Australia by the England men's and England women's national rugby league teams.[1]
In 2024, talks began regarding moving the tour to England, thus making the Australia men's and Australia women's national teams the tourists. The tour will see the return of The Ashes and will occur following the conclusions of the domestic seasons in the UK and Australia.[2]
New International Calendar
Following France withdrawing as host and the subsequent cancellation of the 2025 Rugby League World Cup,[3][4] the International Rugby League saw need to revamp the international calendar. The confirmation of the replacement 2026 Rugby League World Cup came with it a selection of new and returning international rugby league competitions and tours between 2025 and 2030, including the return of The Ashes. The tournament return will begin with England's 2025 tour of Australia, which will see the inaugural women's Ashes being played, and Australia's 2028 tour of England. The 2025 Ashes will be the first since the 2003 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France.[1][5]
Great Britain or England
Great Britain were Australia's traditional Ashes opponents, having played against each other from 1908 to 2003. The Great Britain side started to disbanded started with the 1995 Rugby League World Cup in favour of the four home nations playing as individuals sides. This process was completed with the 2007 All Golds Tour, the centenary of the first ever international tour.
In 2024, the Rugby Football League considered the return of the Great Britain team for the 2025 tour, and possibly all future away tours, with the hope that the return of a traditional sporting brand would help connect more people to the team.[6] However, in September of that year, the governing body confirmed during the new England kit launch that England would continue the 2025 tour as planned.[7] A fan poll was conducted in regards to this subject.[8]
Rugby League Las Vegas
In 2023, ahead of the 2024 season, Australia's National Rugby League launched the Rugby League Las Vegas event to open their domestic season.[9][10] For the 2025, this was expanded to the UK's Super League with one regular season fixture being played.[11][12] Further, the 2025 event will also feature a women's test match between Australia and England, which was later confirmed to be match one of the inaugural women's Ashes Series with the remaining two to be completed during the tour.[13]
Host change
On 28 October 2024, The Guardian revealed that talks were underway between Rugby League Commercial (a branch of the Rugby Football League) and the Australian Rugby League Commission regarding the men's games being moved to England, with venues in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and London being considered for the three test games.[2] BBC Sport attributed the host change to Australia now hosting the 2026 Rugby League World Cup, originally to be hosted by France in 2025.[14]
Pending confirmation of a change of host, Rugby League Commercial will be looking to stage the three tests in Lancashire, London, and Yorkshire.[2] For the Lancashire venue, Wigan Warriors's Brick Community Stadium was reported as one of the favourites[15] along with Everton's Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium.[16] In London, Wembley Stadium and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium were reporting as being the front runners.[16] Finally, Leeds United's Elland Road and Hull FC's MKM Stadium were reported as the likely venues for the Yorkshire match.[17]
Fixtures to be confirmed
Test 1
1 March 2025 18:00 PST |
Tests 2 and 3
Fixtures to be confirmed
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