THE BRITISH AND IRISH Lions will face a joint Australia-New Zealand side in an unofficial “fourth Test” on their 2025 tour, which will include matches against the Wallabies in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, it was announced this morning.
The clash against an “Anzac XV” in Adelaide will be part of a nine-game visit that will also see the Lions take on all five Australian Super Rugby sides.
“The British and Irish Lions tour is one of the great sporting festivals — it is a real landmark of Australian and world sport,” said Rugby Australia chief and former Wallabies legend Phil Waugh.
“It is an exciting fixture of matches all around the country with the Lions taking on our Super Rugby franchises, three massive Test matches, and a marquee match in Adelaide featuring a combined invitational Australia-New Zealand side.”
The official announcement called what shapes as a blockbuster Anzac clash as “something of a fourth Test”.
A combined Anzac team last played in 1989 when they lost 19-15 to the Lions at Ballymore in Brisbane, but it was mostly Australians with just three All Blacks taking part.
The game fell between New Zealand Tests against Argentina, and All Blacks players made individual choices about whether they would risk injury and play.
Sydney’s Stadium Australia and the Melbourne Cricket Ground were locked in for Lions Tests under long-term funding agreements and there had been speculation that Adelaide Oval could be awarded the third.
Instead, it will host the “Anzac XV” with Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium preferred.
The Lions last tour saw them in South Africa during the Covid pandemic in 2021, losing two of the three-match series under coach Warren Gatland when no fans were allowed in stadiums.
They only play Australia once every 12 years. When they last met in 2013, also a three-match series, the Lions won 2-1, with New Zealander Gatland again at the helm.
The tour will start in Perth against Western Force on June 28 before taking on the Queensland Reds (2 July) and NSW Waratahs (5 July).
They will then head south to play the ACT Brumbies (9 July) ahead of the Anzac clash on 12 July.
The first Wallabies Test is in Brisbane on 19 July, followed by a game against the Melbourne Rebels (22 July) ahead of the second Test in Melbourne (26 July) and the final Test in Sydney on 2 August.
Lions 2025 schedule:
- Saturday 28 June: v Western Force, Optus Stadium, Perth
- Wednesday 2 July: v Queensland Reds, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
- Saturday 5 July: s New South Wales Waratahs, Allianz Stadium, Sydney
- Wednesday 9 July: v ACT Brumbies, GIO Stadium, Canberra
- Saturday 12 July: v Invitational Australian and New Zealand XV, Adelaide Oval
- Saturday 19 July : v Wallabies, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
- Tuesday 22 July: v Melbourne Rebels, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
- Saturday 26 July: v Wallabies, Melbourne Cricket Ground
- Saturday 2 August: v Wallabies, Stadium Australia, Sydney
