Results
| Year | Winner | Score | Runners-up | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 2025 | ||||
 2028 |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Rugby league |
| Established | 2023 |
| Participants | |
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 inaugural tournament will take place in 2025 and is a revival of the original Ashes series between Australia and Great Britain which was contested 39 times between 1908 and 2003.
The original Ashes series was a best-of-three series of test matches between Australia and Great Britain national rugby league football teams. [1] [2] It had been contested 39 times from 1908 until 2003 largely with hosting rights alternating between the two countries. [3]
By the time of the series demise in 2003, Australia led Great Britain 20 series win to 19, with Australia winning a record thirteen consecutive title since 1973.
In 2009 with the prospect of not contesting them until after the 2013 World Cup, Britain's Rugby Football League (RFL) challenged the Australian Rugby League (ARL) to play the round-robin stage match of the Four Nations tournament with the Ashes at stake. The one-off game would be a departure from the usual three-match series, additionally the contest would be between England, rather than Great Britain, and Australia. [4] The ARL initially agreed to the proposal but later, facing hostility from former Ashes players and fans who thought the proposals devalued the Ashes, the two governing bodies decided not to proceed. [5] [6] [7]
In 2016, newly appointed Australian team coach Mal Meninga, who as a player was selected to a record 4 Kangaroo Tours (the last two as captain) and played in a record 6 Ashes series (1982, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1992 and 1994 - playing a record 17 Ashes tests, only missing 1988 through injury), publicly advocated for a return of the Kangaroo Tours which would see The Ashes revived in 2020. [8] The proposed 2020 series was cancelled in June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was later suggested that the series may instead be played in 2022, however this never eventuated. [9] In October 2022, Meninga stated that talks were underway for a potential Ashes tour of England in 2024. [10]
On 3 August 2023, the revival of The Ashes was announced by International Rugby League as part of their new 7-year international calendar and long-term strategy for growth of the international game. The revamped competition will also feature a women's test series for the first time, [lower-alpha 1] with the first edition to take place in 2025. [11] [12]
| Year | Winner | Score | Runners-up | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | ||||
| 2028 |
The Ashes series, similar to the cricket series of the same name, was a best-of-three series of test matches between Australia and Great Britain national rugby league football teams. It had been contested 39 times from 1908 until 2003 largely with hosting rights alternating between the two countries. Since 1973, Australia has won a record thirteen consecutive Ashes series.
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.
The Australian national rugby league team, the Kangaroos, have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competitions since the establishment of the game in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League Commission, the Kangaroos are ranked first in the IRL Men's World Rankings. The team is the most successful in Rugby League World Cup history, having won the competition 12 times, and contested 15 of the 16 finals, only failing to reach the final in the 1954 inaugural tournament. Only five nations have beaten Australia in test matches, and Australia has an overall win percentage of 69%.
Malcolm Norman Meninga is an Australian professional rugby league coach and a former professional rugby league footballer. Meninga is widely regarded as one of the finest players in the game's history. He enjoyed a long career in both Australia and England, playing mainly as a goal-kicking centre. After retiring, Meninga has enjoyed success as a coach, and is currently the head coach of Australian national team.
Laurie William Daley AM, also known by the nicknames of "Lozza" and "Loz", is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and a former player who played as a centre and five-eighth in the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s.
Robert Fulton, also nicknamed "Bozo", was an Australian international rugby league footballer, coach and later commentator. Fulton played, coached, selected for and has commentated on the game with great success at the highest levels and has been named amongst Australia's greatest rugby league players of the 20th century. As a player Fulton won three premierships with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the 1970s, the last as captain. He represented the Australian national side on thirty-five occasions, seven times as captain. He had a long coaching career at the first grade level, taking Manly to premiership victory in 1987 and 1996. He coached the Australian national team in thirty-nine Tests. He was a New South Wales State selector and a national selector. He was a radio commentator with 2GB at the time of his death in 2021, aged 73. In 1981, he was selected as one of the initial four post-war "Immortals" of the Australian game and, in 2008, he was named in Australia's team of the century.
Frank Burge was one of the greatest forwards in the history of rugby league in Australia. Later Burge became one of the game's finest coaches. His club career was with Glebe and the St. George Dragons. He represented New South Wales on twenty-six occasions and played thirteen test matches for the Kangaroos and played for Australia in a further twenty-three tour matches.
Graeme Frank Langlands, MBE,, also known by the nickname of "Changa", was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played from the 1950s till the 1970s and coached in the 1970s.
Michael David O'Connor is an Australian former rugby league and rugby union footballer who represented Australia in both codes. He played for the Wallabies in 13 Tests from 1979 to 1982 and then the Kangaroos in 17 Tests from 1985 to 1990. O'Connor played club football in the NSWRL Premiership for the St. George Dragons from 1983 until 1986, and later the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles from 1987 until his retirement at the end of 1992, becoming captain of Manly in 1990, as well as winning the 1987 Winfield Cup with the Sea Eagles.
The 1994 Kangaroo Tour was the 18th and last Kangaroo Tour played in the conventional format, where the Australia national rugby league team played a number of matches against British and French clubs or provincial outfits, in additions to the Test matches. The outbreak of the Super League war in early 1995 meant that the next Kangaroo tour, set for 1998, never eventuated; although shortened, test only tours were staged in 2001 and 2003.
A Test match in rugby league football is a representative match between teams representing members of the International Rugby League (IRL).
The 1990 Kangaroo Tour was the seventeenth Kangaroo Tour, where the Australian national rugby league team travelled to Europe and played eighteen matches against British and French club and representative rugby league teams, in addition to three Test matches against Great Britain and two Tests against the French. It followed the tour of 1986 and the next was staged in 1994.
The 1986 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France was the sixteenth Kangaroo tour in which the Australian national rugby league team plays a number of tour matches against British and French teams, in addition to the Test matches. The next Kangaroo tour was staged in 1990.
The 1982 Kangaroo tour was the fifteenth Kangaroo tour where the Australian national rugby league team played a number of matches against British and French rugby league teams, in addition to the Test matches. The Australia national rugby league team have generally since 1908 barring wartime, toured Great Britain every four years often capping the tour with matches and Tests in France. This regular touring side are known as the Kangaroos.
The 1911–12 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain was the second ever Kangaroo tour and was actually a tour by an "Australasian" squad that included four New Zealand players in addition to 24 Australian representatives. It took place over the British winter of 1911–12 and this time, to help promote the game of Rugby league in New Zealand, the Northern Rugby Football Union invited a combined Australian and New Zealand team. They became the first tourists to win the Ashes. and the last to do so on British soil for over half a century. The tour was a success in performance and organisation. Matches were well attended, the squad's touring payments were maintained throughout and the players all shared in a bonus at the tour's end.
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.
The 1992 Great Britain Lions tour was a tour by the Great Britain national rugby league team, nicknamed the 'Lions', of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand which took place between May and July 1992. The tour was the last of such length undertaken by the Great Britain team, and included a test match against Papua New Guinea, a three-test series against Australia for The Ashes, and a two-test series against New Zealand for the Baskerville Shield, all interspersed with matches against local club and representative teams.
The Super League Test series was a rugby three-test match series between the Great Britain Lions and Super League's Australian national team held during November 1997 in England. Named the British Gas Test series due to sponsorship from Centrica's British Gas brand, it went to a decider in the third test that was won by Australia.
The 1992 Rugby League World Cup final was the conclusive game of the 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup tournament and was played between Great Britain and Australia on 24 October 1992 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Australia won the final by 10 points to 6 in front of an international record crowd of 73,631. Australia, the defending champions, won the Rugby League World Cup for the 7th time.
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.
Rugby league Ashes  / | |
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| Teams |
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| Men's original series | |
| Men's modern series | |
| Women's series | |
