The British and Irish Lions will face a team with indigenous and Pacific heritage during their 2025 tour, Rugby Australia has confirmed.
The match against the First Nations & Pasifika XV on July 22, three days after the first Test, fills the gap in the tour schedule created when the Melbourne Rebels went into administration.
Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh, who revealed plans for the fixture in November, said the match at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium will be a “great celebration” of communities which contribute to Australian rugby.
The announcement comes 100 days from the opening match of the tour against Western Force in Perth on June 28 and as the final tickets for the tour are released.
Lions chief executive Ben Calveley described the match as one which “everyone at the Lions is hugely excited about”.
Waugh played down speculation that Australia would not pick players against the Lions who were heading to play overseas.
He told the Sydney Morning Herald: “We’ve got to win the Lions series… we’ve got to be as competitive as we can be in the Lions series.
“We’re going to work really hard to retain as many as we can, conscious that we’ve got some really big events, and the Lions is one of them.
“But we need to put our best possible team onto the field to win Test matches for Australia.”
Ian Foster, who coached New Zealand to the 2023 Rugby World Cup final, has been named as part of the coaching staff for the Australia and New Zealand side which will face the Lions in Adelaide on July 12, the final warm-up match before the Test series.
Lions coach Andy Farrell will name his touring party in front of a live audience at London’s O2 Arena on May 8.
