British & Irish Lions to face Argentina in first ever Ireland fixture ahead of 2025 tour to Australia

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell is the favourite to take charge of the Lions
The British & Irish Lions will tour Australia in 2025
POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Nick Purewal7 December 2023

The British & Irish Lions will play their first ever match in Ireland when they face Argentina before jetting out to Australia for their 2025 tour. 

The Lions will host the Pumas at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on Friday, June 20, 2025 – eight days before opening their Australia tour against Western Force in Perth. 

Ahead of their 2021 South Africa tour, the Lions faced Japan in Edinburgh, while back in 2005 they took on Argentina in Cardiff. 

Argentina reached the World Cup semi-finals, where they were swept away by New Zealand. Michael Cheika’s Pumas were then squeezed out by England in the third-place play-off. 

Andy Farrell is the overwhelming favourite to lead the Lions’ Australia tour, especially after long-time recurring boss Warren Gatland tipped the Ireland head coach for the role. 

Lions chiefs hope the home shores Test will allow supporters who cannot travel to Australia a chance to watch the famed tourists live. 

“British and Irish Lions tours have a rich heritage built over 130 years of touring but alongside our strong history which we are very proud of, it is important that we look for ways in which to evolve our tours,” said Lions CEO Ben Calveley. 

“This pre-tour fixture is one such example of this and builds on the success of the fixture against Japan at Murrayfield in 2021. The fans are a core part of what makes a great Lions tour. 

“This fixture in Aviva Stadium gives fans who may not be travelling to Australia the opportunity to see the Lions in action which is really important to us.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in