With 2025 winding down, England head into an Ashes series against Australia as big underdogs, hopeful of making history but understanding the monumental challenge that lies ahead.
A sentence that could easily be talking about the men’s cricket team soon to be flying Down Under but in fact applies to the men’s rugby league side facing an even bigger task after 22 years of waiting.
Not since 2003, the same year that Jonny Wilkinson was breaking Wallaby hearts with his dramatic drop goal in rugby’s other code, has rugby league seen the Ashes contested. This three-match series, starting at Wembley on Saturday, is long overdue.
In the intervening decades, the Great Britain side has morphed into its three constituent parts, meaning England will pick up the Ashes mantle in 2025, but Australia’s dominance of the rugby league landscape hasn’t wavered – in fact, it has only grown.
Sure, they surprisingly lost the 2008 World Cup final to New Zealand, the only time the Kangaroos haven’t lifted the trophy in the 10 editions since 1972, but that was a rare defeat and they have lost just one international match since the Covid pandemic.
Meanwhile, Australia’s domestic league the NRL has become a global juggernaut and the gold-standard for rugby league worldwide, while their State of Origin series is the pinnacle of the club game.
Before the 22-year hiatus – where the Tri-Nations, then the Four Nations, then a blank void failed to satisfactorily fill the GB-vs-Australia-shaped hole in the calendar – the Ashes had become Australia’s domain.
They racked up a record 13 straight series wins between 1973 and 2003 (albeit the majority by just a 2-1 scoreline), meaning 1970 remains the most recent Great Britain triumph and 1959 was the last British series victory on home soil. Even during the losing streak, memories were created though – who could forget Jonathan Davies’ sensational Wembley try or Adrian Morley’s 2003 red card after just 12 seconds of play.
GB’s most recent victory in an individual match against the Kangaroos was during the 2006 Tri-Nations in Sydney, while the England brand have lost 13 straight matches to the men in green and gold since an Andy Farrell and Jason Robinson-inspired win in the opening fixture of the 1995 World Cup.
All this is to say it would be a huge success if Shaun Wane’s current England side could win just one of the upcoming three Tests at Wembley, Everton’s brand-new Hill Dickinson Stadium and Headingley.
Not that the 61-year-old coach will be cowed in the face of mammoth odds.
“It would be good to stick it to the doubters,” said Wane during the Ashes launch at Wembley earlier this week. “I’m not on social media but I know a lot of stuff has been said. They’re going to be physical with us and we’ll be physical with them. It’s going to be a smash-up and the best team will come out in the end. I hope it’s us.”
Wane took the England job in February 2020 and immediately circled the return of the Ashes that summer on his calendar, only to see it nixed when Covid ravaged the world.
As the NRL and State of Origin only grew in popularity, international rugby league was on the wane (no pun intended) and had been for a while. But the delayed 2021 World Cup, eventually played in the autumn of 2022, demonstrated green shoots of recovery.
Attendances across England were healthy and, while the hosts’ stunning 27-26, golden point defeat to Samoa in an all-time classic of a semi-final was devastating for Wane and co, it was brilliant for the sport that for the first time since 1968, there was a team other than Australia, New Zealand or England/Great Britain in the final.
A mammoth 67,502 people crammed into Old Trafford for the final as the Kangaroos somewhat inevitably won 30-10 but afterwards players praised the atmosphere throughout the tournament and spoke of a recaptured love of pulling on the green and gold jersey.
The emergence of Samoa, Fiji and Tonga as competitive, standalone entities over the past few years had led to the creation of the Rugby League Pacific Championship in 2019, giving the islands regular opportunities to face Australia and New Zealand, and this tournament only grew in strength off the back of the World Cup.
To their credit, International Rugby League (IRL) created a seven-year international calendar in 2023 as part of a long-term strategy to aid the growth of the global game and this long-awaited Ashes return forms a cornerstone of that.
A competitive series would do wonders for the sport and the chances of that have been aided by England bouncing back from World Cup heartbreak with an unbeaten run ever since, which consists of impressive series sweeps of Tonga in 2023 and Samoa in 2024, plus two thrashings of France.
Conspicuous by their absence from that list of fixtures are, of course, the juggernauts of Australia and New Zealand but now the Kangaroos are coming to town for a first fixture between the teams since the 2017 World Cup final, which the hosts won 6-0 in a tense affair in Brisbane.
Australia will likely have too much quality for their Ashes foes but shock victories by St Helens and Wigan Warriors over NRL dynasty the Penrith Panthers in the last two World Club Challenges should give England a further boost.
So will a raucous home crowd. Undoubtedly helped by the always-tantalising prospect of an Ashes series, regardless of sport, ticket sales have been really strong.
The third Test at the 19,700-capacity Headingley predictably sold out during the pre-sale period but the Rugby Football League (RFL) must have been delighted to see their gamble of going to the Hill Dickinson Stadium pay off so spectacularly, as Everton’s new 52,769-capacity ground sold out within hours of tickets going on general sale.
Wembley will kick things off on Saturday and ticket sales were a shade slower there but the London fanbase have helped that number climb steadily over the past few months. The biggest rugby league Ashes crowd in UK history is 57,034 and by the Thursday of gameweek, that number had been surpassed by tickets sold for the 2025 opener.
The record attendance for an England rugby league international, of 67,545 against New Zealand at Wembley in the 2013 World Cup semi-finals, will likely remain but clearing 60,000 fans in London on Saturday now seems a nigh-on certainty. More than 130,000 tickets sold for the series as a whole is a fantastic return.
Despite their status as heavy favourites, the Kangaroos are taking this Ashes seriously, with ex-captain James Tedesco the only front-line player not travelling to the UK – opting instead to attend his brother’s wedding.
Truthfully, Tedesco may not have started anyway, given the presence of superstar full back Reece Walsh – dubbed by Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V'landys, in a very sweet attempt at a modern cultural reference, as ‘the Justin Bieber of rugby league’ due to his star quality and 640k Instagram followers.
Australia did make a slightly surprising coaching switch over the summer, with rugby league icon Mal Meninga resigning to coach Perth Bears, an expansion franchise joining the NRL in 2027.
Kevin Walters has stepped up just a year out from a home World Cup, although it is generally thought that the Ashes will act as an audition of sorts and Meninga can be quietly restored to the role ahead of the World Cup should things not go well.
“When I got the job, I rang a few of the players because there is noise around Australia about international rugby and where it sits on the calendar,” explained Walters. “They were very excited by it all.
“We have really skipped a generation of English and Australian players in these sorts of games and series; it could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for these players and staff. It is a unique experience, and if you are in the world of rugby league, this is where you want to be.”
The Ashes are back and international rugby league appears to be on the right trajectory once more. Let the rivalry commence.
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