British & Irish Lions vs AUNZ Invitational XV live: Reaction as tourists produce dominant display in big win

The quadrennial trip this year heads for Australia for three Tests against the Wallabies which forms the jewels in the wider crown of a 10-match itinerary.

First formed in 1888, the Lions brings together the best rugby players in Britain and Ireland to take on the three Southern Hemisphere giants (New Zealand, Australia and South Africa) in turn at four year intervals.

This summer’s business opened with a one-off encounter with Argentina in Dublin as the touring side played in Ireland for the first time - though it was night for the Pumas as they secured their first win over the Lions.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the tour.

Here’s a list of the remaining Lions matches during the 2025 Tour:

• Saturday 19 July - Lions v Australia, first Test, Brisbane (Suncorp Stadium)
• Tuesday 22 July - Lions v Melbourne Rebels, Melbourne (Marvel Stadium)
• Saturday 26 July - Lions v Australia, second Test, Melbourne (Melbourne Cricket Ground/MCG)
• Saturday 2 August - Lions v Australia, third Test, Sydney (Accor Stadium)

The Lions’ next game is of course the first Test against Australia.

That takes place on 19 July in Brisbane, with kick-off at 11am BST.

He’s [Cowan-Dickie] good and in good spirits. He got up straight away off the stretcher, and he’s back to being his normal self.

"It's unfortunate for him and it looked like a concussion. We’ll see what the medics say.”

On whether the hooker will miss the first Test, he adds: “It looks like it, but we’ll have to see”.

Owen Farrell made his first appearance on the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia but it was the player he replaced, Huw Jones who lit up a 48-0 victory over an AUNZ Invitational XV.

The Lions delivered their most emphatic win a week out from the first Test against the Wallabies in an eight-try demolition at Adelaide Oval that was marred only by a head injury to Luke Cowan-Dickie.

Cowan-Dickie was forced off after appearing to be knocked out when making a tackle and while he was seen walking around the field at half-time, he will face a spell on the sidelines that may force the Lions to call up additional cover at hooker.

And given that Garry Ringrose may miss the series opener because of suspected concussion, Jones timed his swashbuckling reminder of his threat from outside centre to perfection.

“It’s the collective isn’t it, even on stuff like the kick chase and pressure we created. How we worked so hard on defence for one another. [It’s] very pleasing.

“We need to enjoy a bit of down time now, it’s been full on for 14, 15 days. I’m really proud of everyone involved.

“This group will roll on together,” he adds.

Lions coach Andy Farrell calls the game “a good, professional performance”.

When you play these types of games, the type of personnel you come up against, all sorts can happen, but we played a nice, controlled game of rugby,” he says.

“We stayed at it, it was never going to be perfect, but we kept going as a team. That’s the main thing isn’t it. We gelled well as a team today,” he adds.

There’s a brief interview with Pollock too, as the youngster says the squad “worked hard all week”.

“Credit to the boys out there. We loved it.

“We always talk about team performance, and that really showed tonight. We’re in a really good spot at the minute.

“It’s been enjoyable,” he adds as he leaves.

Captain Tadhg Beirne is next to speak to Sky, and he says the team is “very pleased with how we performed, both in attack and defence”, as well as the fact they didn’t allow the AUNZ to score.

“We’re continuing to improve. There’ll be elements of the attack we could’ve been better. Discipline-wise, we got a warning at one point,” he adds.

On the first Test, he says: “It’s going be a new challenge, a different challenge next week.”

As he finishes, he calls captaining the side “a very proud moment”.

Man of the match Ben Earl is first to speak to Sky.

“We’re really pleased with what we put out there. The ruthlessness we want to be known for, we showed that today,” he says.

“We’ve been known for coughing up opportunities, but today it felt like every time we got in there we were going to score.

“We’ve got a full week of prep before the big one, we’re looking forward to that,” he adds.

“We’ll enjoy tonight, we’ll enjoy Adelaide and then we’ll get into it on Monday.

“Every game feels like a home game. If we have that going forward we’ll be in a good place,” he adds just before he finishes.

On Farrell’s return, he says: “It’s amazing to have him back, both at club and internaitnoal level,”