British and Irish Lions to face joint Australia-New Zealand side on 2025 tour

The clash against an "Anzac XV" in Adelaide will be part of a nine-game visit that will also see the Lions, with players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, take on all five Australian Super Rugby sides.

"The British and Irish Lions tour is one of the great sporting festivals - it is a real landmark of Australian and world sport," said Rugby Australia chief and former Wallabies legend Phil Waugh.

"It is an exciting fixture of matches all around the country with the Lions taking on our Super Rugby franchises, three massive Test matches, and a marquee match in Adelaide featuring a combined invitational Australia-New Zealand side."

The official announcement called what shapes as a blockbuster Anzac clash as "something of a fourth Test".

A combined Anzac team last played in 1989 when they lost 19-15 to the Lions at Ballymore in Brisbane, but it was mostly Australians with just three All Blacks taking part.

The game fell between New Zealand Tests against Argentina, and All Blacks players made individual choices about whether they would risk injury and play.

Sydney's Stadium Australia and the Melbourne Cricket Ground were locked in for Lions Tests under long-term funding agreements and there had been speculation that Adelaide Oval could be awarded the third.

Instead, it will host the "Anzac XV" with Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium preferred.

The Lions last tour saw them in South Africa during the Covid pandemic in 2021, losing two of the three-match series under coach Warren Gatland when no fans were allowed in stadiums.

They only play Australia once every 12 years. When they last met in 2013, also a three-match series, the Lions won 2-1, with New Zealander Gatland again at the helm.

The tour will start in Perth against Western Force