A clash between a combined Wallabies-All Blacks team and the British and Irish Lions in 2025 has moved a step closer to reality, with New Zealand Rugby boss Mark Robinson saying they are “aligned in principle” with Rugby Australia about the proposed fixture.
Wallabies star Quade Cooper also raised hopes the concept had legs when he said players would jump at the chance to team up with trans-Tasman rivals and represent an Anzac XV against the Lions, likening it to an NBA All-Star weekend.
“As a fan you watch your favourite players playing on the same team, and it’s cool,” Cooper said. “I imagine it would be a great concept and I am sure it would be a success. I would hate to be the selectors.”
The prospect of the Anzac XV being revived for the first time since 1989 arose this week when Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan revealed RA and the NZR were in talks about staging a clash between a mixed Wallabies-All Blacks and the Lions on their Australian tour in 2025.
Speaking from Europe, McLennan confirmed he’d pitched the game to the NZR several times and was confident it would not only be hugely engaging with fans, but a big money-spinner, too.
McLennan said the beauty of the idea is that an Anzac XV game could also be part of the Lions tour schedule to New Zealand in 2029, and Rugby Australia would “return the favour” and commit players.
Nick Farr-Jones playing for the ANZAC XV in 1989.Credit:Fairfax
“We have raised it with New Zealand on a number of occasions and they’re definitely looking at it. It would be great,” McLennan said.
“If we talk about an Anzac alignment, this is the sort of stuff we should do and it would be a massive hit. It is progressive thinking and doing it differently, and working together.”
Robinson, the New Zealand Rugby chief executive, told the Herald that while scheduling and financial arrangements need working out, the NZR is on board.
“We’re aligned in principle,” Robinson said via email. “[It’s] early days however, with a lot of detail to be worked through around scheduling and in understanding commercials.”
While still a long way from signing on, an open-minded attitude from the NZR about putting All Blacks onto the same field as Wallabies players can’t be underestimated. The union has traditionally been conservative and ultra-protective of the All Blacks brand, and furthermore, McLennan has been publicly combative with the NZR in recent years.
Sharing the spoils of a sold-out ANZAC v Lions clash would be perfectly negotiable but scheduling the game, in what will likely be an 8-9 game Lions tour, will be a trickier assignment and potentially determine how many top-tier Wallabies and All Blacks are available.
The 1989 Anzac-Lions game is not regarded as a major success because only three All Blacks played in the Ballymore fixture. Eleven All Blacks declined invitations to play.
McLennan said the idea would be to have as many Test players as possible.
Quade Cooper is a big fan of the Anzac XV concept.Credit:Getty
“That’s the point, we want Test players in there,” McLennan said. “You may not get every top tier player but if you had four or five from each side, that would be good. Then maybe give some young guns exposure in a big game like that.”
Cooper, who was born in New Zealand and grew up in Australia, said he doubted he’d still be going in 2025 but he’d have loved to play in an Anzac XV.
“As a player, if I had the opportunity to play against the All Blacks currently or some of the guys I played against … guys I had good friendships with and also big rivalries with. So you would jump at the opportunity to be part of something like that,” Cooper said.
“If I was able to play a game and Aaron Smith was my number nine, you look outside and you have guys like Rieko Ioane, if you had some of those players around you, Brodie Retallick, these guys.
“I was born in New Zealand and basically raised in Australia. I have a huge respect for New Zealand culture so to be part of something like that would be amazing.”
Watch all the action from the Wallabies’ Spring Tour with every match streaming ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport. Continues this weekend (all times AEDT) with Scotland v Fiji and Italy v Samoa (both Saturday 11.50pm), Wales v All Blacks (Sunday 2am), Ireland v South Africa (Sunday 4.20am), France v Wallabies (Sunday 6.40am) and England v Argentina (Monday 1.05am).
