The 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia is an international rugby union tour scheduled to take place in Australia between June and August 2025. The British & Irish Lions, a team selected from players eligible to represent England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, are scheduled to play a three-match test series against the Australia national team, as well as matches against Australia's five Super Rugby franchises and one against an invitational side made up of players from Australia and New Zealand. Ireland coach Andy Farrell was appointed as the Lions' head coach for the tour in January 2024.
Schedule
The fixtures for the tour were announced on 19 July 2023.[1] The tour will culminate with a three-match test series between the British & Irish Lions and the Australia national team, and will also feature matches against Australia's five Super Rugby franchises. The Lions will open the tour with matches against the Western Force, Queensland Reds, New South Wales Waratahs and ACT Brumbies, and they will face the Melbourne Rebels in the week between the first and second tests. The week before the first test, they will play a match in Adelaide against an invitational team made up of players from Australia and New Zealand.[1][2] A warm-up match against Argentina, to be played at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on 20 June 2025, was announced on 7 December 2023; it will be the Lions' first ever match in Ireland.[3]
Ireland coach Andy Farrell was appointed as the Lions' head coach for the tour in January 2024. He takes over from Warren Gatland, who had led the team on the last three tours. Farrell was one of Gatland's assistant coaches on the 2013 and 2017 tours to Australia and New Zealand, respectively.[12]
^"About Accor Stadium". venuesnsw.com. Venues NSW. Originally built to host more than 110,000 spectators, a reconfiguration of the Stadium in 2003 reduced capacity to 83,500 but also gave the Stadium the ability to host five professional sporting codes – Rugby League, Rugby Union, Football, AFL and Cricket.
^Kowalski, Kuba (31 March 2023). "Australia: The country's largest stadium will get even bigger?". StadiumDB.com. Crucial to the stadium's shape today was a 1988 study that showed the terrible condition of the southern part of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. So, by 1992, a new semicircular stand, the largest of its kind, was built, named the "Great Southern Stand." It was to cost $100 million, but absorbed half as much funding. Thanks to further changes in the early 21st century, the magic capacity – 100,000 – was crossed. Will more renovations take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and when?
Andy Farrell
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