IT’S a contest with a full 117 years of history behind it – the first Rugby League Ashes test was played on 12th December, 1908.
Now, 22 years on from the 39th and last time the Ashes were contested, rugby league’s greatest international rivalry is returning, and we’ve selected 10 games from that rich history to tell the story of how we arrived in 2025.
It’s not been easy. The matches on our list weren’t necessarily the closest encounters nor, given the nature of the Ashes, necessarily the most ferocious.
But they are, we think, possibly the most significant: they define eras, coaching styles, philosophies and dynasties.
All English fans – and how we wish we could say all Great Britain fans – will be hoping the pendulum swings once again this autumn and we can add another match of significance to this list. But in the meantime…
10. 1908 – First test, Park Royal, London
Great Britain 22 Australia 22
The first Ashes test, the first drawn Ashes match and the first Ashes hat-trick. All at once. Just like today, rugby league’s bigwigs wanted to put their sport on a wider stage. So the first encounter took place in London, at the former home of Queens Park Rangers (now an industrial estate if you are ever moved to pay pilgrimage). The organisers were not rewarded with a decent crowd – a paltry 2,000 – as rugby union’s Varsity match and Chelsea against Newcastle United were taking place simultaneously and nearby. But they were rewarded with a cracking match which Britain rescued with a last-minute penalty after Australia’s Jim Devereux had notched a hat-trick of tries. The Ashes had kicked-off.
9. 1988 – Third test, Sydney Football Stadium
Australia 12 Great Britain 26
If 1982 had been a watershed, then maybe the third test of the 1988 Ashes was light at the end of a poorly lit British tunnel. Hindsight showed us it wasn’t, and the fact that hardly any Australians bothered to turn up, revealed how low expectations were for a competitive game. But Britain avoided a whitewash with one of the finest backs-to-the-wall performances seen in an Ashes test. Henderson Gill did “a bit of a boogie”, Phil Ford was the “rubber man” and Mike Gregory sealed victory with a length-of-the-field try. Hopes were raised…
8. 1990 – First test, Wembley, London
Great Britain 19 Australia 12
When the Ashes returned to Britain following that Sydney victory, the Lions stunned Australia again, meaning they had just taken back-to-back victories. A bumper crowd of 54,569 turned up to see Hull winger Paul Eastwood score two tries and kick three goals to stun Mal Meninga’s Kangaroos. But 35 years later, it’s all too easy to see these two victories as pretty much the high point of the five and a half decades since Britain tasted Ashes series success. They remain the only time since 1970 that Britain has won two tests in a row. Exceptions that proved the rule. Just a blip in the era of seemingly endless Australian hegemony.
7. 1958 – Third test, Sydney Cricket Ground
Australia 17 Great Britain 40
There was, however, a time when Great Britain ruled the roost in much the same way the Kangaroos do now. In fact, in terms of Ashes series won, even today Australia only lead Great Britain by 20 to 19, despite having taken the last 13. And that’s because between 1921 and 1962 Australia won only two out of 17. The peak of Britain’s dominance probably came on 19th July, 1958. In the second test the Lions fought a brilliant rear-guard action to level the series, with captain Alan Prescott staying on the field despite a broken arm to inspire his team to victory. And in the deciding third test they racked up a 40-17 victory, a record that still stands today, with a Mick Sullivan hat-trick and eight goals from Eric Fraser leaving an expectant Australia stupefied. “Australia have much to learn,” wrote Eddie Waring. Of course, in the end, they did.
6. 1933 – Third test, Station Road, Swinton
Great Britain 19 Australia 16
That long run of almost uninterrupted British Ashes series victories contained two 3-0 whitewashes (Australia have since gone on to rack up five). When Great Britain took victory in the third test of the first of those, at Swinton in December 1933, it was the first time either side had won a series 3-0. And it was a thrilling manner in which they achieved it, squeezing home by three points after Australia had led 14-12 late in the game, Stan Smith scoring the vital try in the corner. Britain would take another clean sweep in 1948 before Australia finally tasted victory again two years later.
5. 1914 – Third test, Sydney Cricket Ground
Australia 6 Great Britain 14
If much has been written down the years about Alan Prescott’s heroics in the second test of 1958, since dubbed ‘The Battle of Brisbane’, then even more has been written about ‘The Rorke’s Drift Test’ of 1914. Even today it is probably the most famous rugby league test ever. Britain had objected to being forced into a tighter three-match schedule than initially planned and six key players were injured. The against-the-odds British victory at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, which had taken place 35 years earlier during the Zulu War, was invoked as the team survived the loss of three more players on the field to overcome Australia 14-6 with only 10 men. Captain Harold Wagstaff later wrote. “Even the Australian crowd cheered us on.” Perhaps, in the context of Ashes history, the game has less significance than the others here, but as an example of the stubbornness and defiance required to win the Ashes it has no equal.
4. 1930 – Third test. Station Road, Swinton
Great Britain 0 Australia 0
1930 was the only time an Ashes series went to a fourth and deciding test. And it did so because the third and original deciding match had ended 0-0, the only scoreless draw in Ashes history. However, the Australians were certain they had been robbed. Just as the British felt aggrieved before the 1914 decider, the Kangaroos were convinced they were the victims of officialdom. With two minutes to go Aussie scrum-half Joe “Chimpy” Busch dived over in the corner. The referee (and Busch) thought it was a try, the touch judge said Busch had touched the corner flag, and his ruling took precedence. The controversy led to a fourth test being hastily arranged at Rochdale. Maybe justice wasn’t done. Britain prevailed 3-0 and retained the Ashes.
3. 1963 – Second test. Station Road, Swinton
Great Britain 12 Australia 50
It had taken take them 51 years but in 1963 Australia won the Ashes on British soil for the first time since 1912. And they did it in emphatic style running up a record score of 50-12, one that still stands today. After a dominant victory in the first test at Wembley the Kangaroos were confident. And led by three-quarters Peter Dimond, Reg Gasnier and Graeme Langlands who scored two tries each and Ken Irvine who scored a hat-trick, they swamped the Lions in a 12-try blitz. Britain would only taste Ashes success once more. Their era of dominance was ending.
2. 1970 – Third test. Sydney Cricket Ground
Australia 17 Great Britain 21
The last British Ashes victory was a full 55 years ago. And still the quest goes on to expunge that depressing record from the history books. The deciding third test was tight, with Australia only a point behind until Roger Millward scampered 40 metres to score in the last minute. Earlier tries from Leeds duo John Atkinson, who notched two, and Syd Hynes (who had been sent off in the second test) helped Britain scrape home. As veteran journalist Raymond Fletcher wrote the last time the Ashes were contested in 2003: “If only we knew then, what we know now”.
1. 1982 – First test, Boothferry Park, Hull
Great Britain 4 Australia 40
A strange choice at number one, you might think. Well, think again. This match set the template for the rugby league of the future, the kind of rugby league we play today. Before Australia arrived the British still believed that off-the-cuff guile, individual brilliance and a bit of biff up front would suffice. They were proved devastatingly wrong. Team-work, fitness, professionalism, dedication to craft and coaching were the new watchwords, with skills practised again and again until they became second nature. Britain were outplayed, left totally shellshocked. The scoreline could have been doubled. Britain scored no tries, and only one in the entire Ashes series. We had never seen anything like it and, it can be argued, we still haven’t recovered. “British rugby league lies stunned,” wrote Paul Fitzpatrick of The Guardian. “It could take decades to recover.” Indeed. From that day on Australia were the innovators, rugby league became their game and, it’s fair to say, we are still even now playing catch-up.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 506 (March 2025)
