The 2025 Kangaroo tour of England and France will be a tour by the Australia national rugby league team, in which the 2025 Ashes Series (branded as the ABK Beer Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) will be contested.[1][2][3] The tour will occur following the conclusions of the domestic seasons in the UK and Australia.[4]
The tour was originally scheduled be a tour of Australia by England.[5] However, in October 2024, talks began regarding moving the tour to England, thus making Australia the tourists.[4]
Previous Ashes revivals had been planned for 2020[11] and 2024,[12] but were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the aforementioned change to the international calendar as a result of the postponed World Cup.[13]
Great Britain were Australia's traditional Ashes opponents, having played against each other from 1908 to 2003. The Great Britain side had begun to disband starting with the 1995 Rugby League World Cup in favour of the four home nations playing as individual teams. This process was completed with the 2007 All Golds Tour, the centenary of the first ever international tour.
In 2024, the Rugby Football League (RFL) 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.[14] 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.[15] A fan poll was conducted in regards to this subject.[16]
Host change
On 28 October 2024, the Australian Rugby League Commission announced talks were underway between themselves and Rugby League Commercial (a branch of the Rugby Football League) regarding the games being moved to England, with stadiums in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and London being considered for the venues.[4][17]BBC Sport attributed the host change to Australia now hosting the 2026 Rugby League World Cup, originally to be hosted by France in 2025.[18]
Upon the announcement of the tour, Australia were the best ranked team in the world with England ranked third.
Australia had played England / Great Britain 162 times previously, winning 88, drawing 7, and losing 67.[21]
The original Ashes ended in 2003 with 20 series wins to Australia and 19 to Great Britain. However 13 of the Australian wins came consecutively in the final 13 series, leaving Great Britain without an Ashes victory since 1970.
Three months ahead of the tour Australia changed their head coach, appointing Kevin Walters after Mal Meninga departed to become head coach of Perth Bears.[22]
On 3 March 2025, it was reported that Wembley Stadium, Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium and Headingley Rugby Stadium would be the test venues with the RFL being close to confirming the change in host.[26] These venues were confirmed by the RFL on 26 March upon the official announcement of the change of host.[1]
Criticism was made by fans in regards to Headingley's inclusion as a host venue, stating that the size of the ground showed lack of ambition from the RFL.[27] The RFL stated that the larger Elland Road, also in Leeds (37,645 capacity), was under consideration; however, unspecified logistical challenges prevented its inclusion. Further the RFL cited reasons for Headingley's inclusion, stating that the game would be a guaranteed sell out thus increasing ticket sales in the first two games, and given that England had played at Headingley in their previous two international series the ground felt like a home stadium to most of the players. The RFL were also keen to reward Leeds Rhinos for the increase in commercial revenue generated for the RFL by their recent stadium redevelopment.[28]
Ticketing
The Rugby Football League gave a two day priority window for anyone who had bought tickets to an England game with in the previous ten years as a way of rewarding loyal supporters. A two-week presale then followed for people who had registered interest in purchasing tickets before remaining tickets were put on general sale.[1] 30,000 people had signed up for the presale in the first 24 hours,[29] this had rose to 50,000 by the start of presale.[30][31]
Tickets were priced between £30 and £60 depending on category, with an additional £80 category at Wembley.[32]
60,000 were bought within the first 24 hours of presale. All seated tickets for Headingley, in addition to South and East stand terraces, had sold out in less than 80 minutes, leaving only the western standing terrace tickets available. All category one seats at Everton had also sold out within the first day.[30][31] By day two of presale, Headingley had sold out completely with over 75,000 tickets sold in total.[33] Everton sold out within hours of general sale,[34] with an estimated fewer than 1,500 tickets available after presale.[35] In May, Rugby League Commercial revealed tickets for Wembley had surpassed 30,000,[36] with the 40,000 mark being reach in September. Addition tickets were released for the Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium following Everton successfully passing the test events required for a new stadium and a final capacity being made official for the stadium. These tickets went to supporters on a waiting list who missed out on tickets during the original sale. Total ticket sales were at 110,000 at this point.[37]
Fixtures
In March 2025, France head coach Laurent Frayssinous revealed in an interview with L'Indépendant that the three fixtures against England had been scheduled for 25 October, 1 November, and 8 November, and that then Australia head coach Mal Meninga had requested a warm up game against France – a request endorsed by the French Rugby League Federation.[38] Fixtures against England were confirmed on 26 March.[1] An NRL media released on 25 August stated that Australia would contest "at least one opposed session with the French national team". However it was never stated if this would be an official fixture.[39]
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