The rugby league Ashes will return at the end of 2025, and Australian coach Mal Meninga is keen on playing more than just three Tests.
While originally being slated to be held in Australia when the International Rugby League first released a new calendar, shuffles to the program, including the 2026 Rugby League World Cup being hosted in Australia, saw the Kangaroos and Australian Rugby League Commission agree to travel to England.
The series against England - where they will play as England rather than Great Britain will feature three Tests, but Meninga, per a News Corp report, now wants to add a tour game against either the English Super League winners, and France.
It's understood clubs in England could pitch for the game in a match that would serve as a throwback to Kangaroos tours of the United Kingdom of yesteryear.
โPlaying against a club side would offer tribalism and you'd fill the stadium. There would be a lot of interest from clubs over there wanting to play us,โ Meninga told the publication.
โThere would be a carrot there not only for the Kangaroos but also for the club side, who wouldn't have experienced anything like this before. The clubs and owners over there could pitch for the game.โ
Meninga, who wants to start the tour with a three-day camp in Dubai if the schedule allows it, also wants a Test against France before the series against England, to be played in the Catalans region where rugby league continues to grow.
The coach spoke passionately last year about the expansion of global rugby league, but there is no doubt a part of that is returning France to its former status, and giving the English game - which has been in decline - a jumpstart.
Using the Australian team to do it could be an excellent vehicle for the sport in Europe, with the next World Cup to then be hosted down under in 2026, albeit as a reduced version to what was last on display in 2021.
The Ashes were last held in 2003, with that tour featuring matches against France, England A and Wales before the Tests.
All of the last three Ashes series were held in England, with 2003 preceeded by 2001 and 1994, while Australia last hosted in 1992. 1994 was the last time Australia played club opposition in England as a warm-up to the Test matches.
Australia haven't lost an Ashes series since 1970 though, having won all of the last 13 series between the two nations.
England have hosted Samoa and Tonga over the last two years, and are likely to host New Zealand in 2027 before considering touring themselves to the southern hemisphere in the following years.
Australia's tour to England will see them withdrawn from the Pacific Cup, with Samoa to simply take their place after missing the 2024 edition while they toured.
Samoa will be joined in the Pacific Championship by Tonga and New Zealand, while Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands will play the Pacific Bowl tournament at the end of 2025.
Australia, England, New Zealand, Fiji, Lebanon, Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea have already qualified for the ten-team 2026 World Cup, while the Cook Islands, Jamaica, South Africa and France will compete at a World Series tournament at the back-end of this year to determine the other two teams travelling to Australia in 2026.
