The 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia, also known as the Qatar Airways Lions Men's Tour to Australia 2025,[1] 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 four Super Rugby franchises, one against an invitational side made up of players from Australia and New Zealand, and another match against a side made of players with First Nations and Pasifika origin. The Lions were also due to play against the Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby franchise, but they were disbanded in 2024; the match against the First Nations & Pasifika XV was scheduled instead. Ireland coach Andy Farrell was appointed as the Lions' head coach for the tour in January 2024.
The fixtures for the tour were announced on 19 July 2023.[2] 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; they were scheduled to face the Melbourne Rebels in the week between the first and second tests, but the Rebels were disbanded at the end of the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season after going into administration earlier in the year.[3] A match against a team of players with indigenous Australian and Pacific Islander heritage was proposed in its place in November 2024[4] and confirmed in March 2025.[5] 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.[2][6] 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.[7]
Lions Chair and tour manager Ieuan Evans announced a 38-player squad on 8 May 2025 at the The O2 Arena in London. In a first for the Lions, the squad was announced in front of 2,000 fans.[16][17]
English player Maro Itoje was named as the 47th Lions captain, becoming the second English player to lead the side in the professional era and the first since Martin Johnson in 2001.[18]
On 9 June, Zander Fagerson withdrew from the squad ahead of the squad meet-up due to a calf injury and was replaced by Finlay Bealham.[19]
Due to wider squad availability during the respective domestic final weeks, England’s Jamie George and Asher Opoku-Fordjour travelled with squad for their Portugal training camp to train with the squad.[20]
Notes: Ages listed are as of the first tour match on 20 June against Argentina. Bold denotes that the player was selected for a previous Lions squad. Italic denotes a player that withdrew from the squad following selection.
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell was appointed as the Lions' head coach for the tour in January 2024. He takes over from former Wales head coach Warren Gatland, who had led the team on the previous three tours. Farrell was one of Gatland's assistant coaches on the 2013 and 2017 tours to Australia and New Zealand, respectively.[21][22]
Farrell announced his five assistant coaches on 26 March 2025.[23] Three of the coaches selected worked directly under Farrell at Ireland – defence coach Simon Easterby, scrum coach John Fogarty and attack coach Andrew Goodman.[24] Forwards coach John Dalziel was selected from Scotland, whilst Richard Wigglesworth (who previously worked under Farrell as a player at Saracens) was selected from England. For all five assistant coaches, this would be their first involvement on a Lions tour, although Easterby had toured as a player in 2005.[25] It would also be the first tour since 2001 without any representation from Wales among the coaches.[26]
On 17 April, Johnny Sexton was a further addition to the coaching staff.[27] Prior to joining the Lions as an assistant coach, Sexton (who also toured with the Lions as a player in 2013 and 2017) had been part of the Irish set-up since the 2024 November internationals.
Australia
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England
Ireland
Scotland
Wales
Toulouse
Andrew Goodman
British & Irish Lions
Argentina
