Women's Ashes
Test 1
Tests 2 and 3
Fixtures to be confirmed
The 2025 England Lions and Lionesses tour of Australia will be a joint tour of Australia by the England men's and England women's national rugby league teams. The tour will see the return of The Ashes and will occur following the conclusions of the domestic seasons in the UK and Australia.
Following France withdrawing as host and the subsequent cancellation of the 2025 Rugby League World Cup, [1] [2] 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. [3] [4]
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. [5] 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. [6] A fan poll was conducted in regards to this subject. [7]
In 2023, ahead of the 2024 season, Australia's National Rugby League launched the Rugby League Las Vegas event to open their domestic season. [8] [9] For the 2025, this was expanded to the UK's Super League with one regular season fixture being played. [10] [11] 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. [12]
Fixtures to be confirmed
Fixtures to be confirmed
The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Football League.
The Great Britain national rugby league team represents Great Britain in rugby league. Administered by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the team is nicknamed The Lions.
Cuthwyn Ellery Hanley is an English former rugby league player and coach. Over a nineteen-year professional career (1978–1997), he played for Bradford Northern, Wigan, Balmain, Western Suburbs and Leeds. He won 36 caps for Great Britain, captaining the team from 1988 to 1992, and 2 for England. Nicknamed 'Mr Magic' and 'The Black Pearl', he played most often as a stand-off or loose forward after starting out as a centre or wing.
Shaun Edwards, OBE is an English rugby union coach and former rugby league player, who is the defence coach for the France national team. A scrum-half or stand-off, Edwards is the most decorated player in rugby league history, with 37 winner's medals. In 2015 he was the 25th person inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame.
Andrew David Farrell is an English professional rugby union coach and former player for both rugby league and rugby union. Farrell has been head coach of the Ireland national team since 2019.
Kristian John Radlinski MBE is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played mainly as a fullback. He is currently CEO of Wigan Warriors whom he played his entire professional career for, making over 300 appearances between 1993 and 2006, and also represented England and Great Britain at international level.
Sean Bernard Long, also known by the nickname of "Longy", is an English former professional rugby league footballer, who is the current head coach of Oldham RLFC in the RFL League 1. He has played in the 1990s and 2000s. An England and Great Britain international scrum-half, Long is regarded by many as one of the finest British players of his generation. He began his career with the Wigan Warriors, and also played for the Widnes Vikings and Hull FC, but is best known for his time playing for St Helens in the Super League with whom he won a total of four Super League championships and five Challenge Cups, as well as numerous individual accolades including the Man of Steel award, and three Lance Todd Trophies.
Michael Keith Gregory was an English professional rugby league footballer and coach. As a player, Gregory played either as a second-row or loose forward, and spent most of his club career at Warrington, making over 200 appearances between 1982 and 1994, but also had brief spells with Salford and Australian club Cronulla Sharks. He won 20 caps for Great Britain, nine of them as captain, and took part in the 1988 and 1990 Lions tours.
Gary John Connolly is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s as a fullback and centre for St Helens, Canterbury Bulldogs, Wigan Warriors, Leeds Rhinos and for the Great Britain national side. He also played rugby union for Harlequins, Orrell and Irish side Munster.
Andrew Gregory is an English former professional rugby league footballer. A Great Britain international representative scrum-half, he is an inductee of the Wigan Hall of Fame. He was the first player to win five Challenge Cup Final winners medals, first player to play in eight Challenge Cup finals and one of only two players to have played in six Ashes series against Australia, the other being Garry Schofield.
The Magic Weekend is an annual event organised by the Rugby Football League in which an entire round of Super League matches is played over a weekend at a single stadium to promote the sport of rugby league.
Kelvin Skerrett is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 2000s. He played at representative level for Great Britain and Wales, and at club level for Hunslet, Bradford Northern, Western Suburbs Magpies, Wigan and the Halifax Blue Sox, as prop or second-row, and coached at club level for Oulton Raiders ARLFC, and Methley Royals ARLFC.
The 1990–91 Rugby Football League season was the 96th ever season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Fourteen teams competed from August, 1990 until May, 1991 for the Stones Bitter Championship, Premiership Trophy and Silk Cut Challenge Cup.
Rugby league is played across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but its heartland in parts of Northern England is where the sport is most popular, and is where the majority of professional clubs are based. The sport was first established in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, where 22 clubs split from the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Rugby Football Union.
Daryl Clark is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a hooker for St Helens in the Super League and England at international level.
The England women's national Rugby League team represents England in Women's Rugby League. They are administered by the Rugby Football League.
Rugby League Las Vegas is an annual event held at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas showcasing the sport of rugby league. The event was started in 2024 by Australia's National Rugby League (NRL) before being joined by Super League clubs from the United Kingdom in 2025.
The 2025 season will be the Wigan Warriors's 45th consecutive season playing in England's top division of rugby league. They will compete in the 2025 Super League season and the 2025 Challenge Cup.
The Ashes series, similar to the cricket series of the same name, is a best-of-three series of test matches between Australia and England national rugby league football teams.
The Ashes series, similar to the cricket series of the same name, is a best-of-three series of test matches between Australia and England women's national rugby league football teams.
 Rugby league Ashes  /  | |
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| Men's original series | |
| Men's modern series | |
| Women's series | |