The 1973 Kangaroo Tour was the thirteenth

Kangaroo Tour Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France, tours to New Zealand and the one-off tour to Papua New Guinea (1991). The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours to ...

, and saw the

Australian national rugby league team The Australian National Rugby League Team, the Kangaroos, have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the 'Northern Union game' in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian ...

travel to Europe and play nineteen matches against British and French club and representative rugby league teams, in addition to three

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and two Tests against the French. It followed the tour of 1967-68 and the next was staged in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

The squad's leadership

The team was captain-coached by

Graeme Langlands Graeme Frank Langlands, MBE, (2 September 1941 – 20 January 2018), also known by the nickname of "Changa", was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. and coached in the 1970s. He retire ...

making his third Kangaroo Tour. Managers of the team were Albert Bishop and Charlie Gibson with Alf Richards as the team trainer.

Touring squad

The following players were in the touring squad. , - bgcolor="#CCCCFF" , Player , Club , Position(s) , Tests , Games , Tries , Goals , F/Goals , Points , - , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" ,

Arthur Beetson Arthur Henry "Artie" Beetson OAM (21 January 1945 – 1 December 2011

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Eastern Suburbs Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen New S ...

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Ray Branighan Ray Branighan (born 5 December 1947) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer, a star and of the 1970s for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, as well as the New South Wales state and Australian nat ...

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

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Gerringong Lions The Gerringong Lions are an Australian rugby league football team based in Gerringong, a coastal town of the Illawarra and South Coast regions. The club was formed in 1914 as one of the founding members of South Coast Rugby League, and continue ...

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Graham Eadie Graham "Wombat" Eadie (born 25 November 1953), is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been named amongst Australia's finest of the 20th century. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian ...

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Bob Fulton Robert Fulton (1 December 1947 – 23 May 2021), also nicknamed "Bozo", was an Australian international rugby league footballer, coach and later commentator. Fulton played, coached, selected for and has commentated on the game with great succe ...

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St George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until th ...

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Eastern Suburbs Tigers The Brisbane Tigers are a rugby league club based at Langlands Park, in the suburb of Coorparoo in Brisbane, Australia. Since 1996, they have competed in the Queensland Cup, having competed in the Brisbane Rugby League from 1934 to 1997, where ...

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Ken Maddison Ken Maddison is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s.Ken M ...

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

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Bob McCarthy Bob McCarthy MBE (born 5 August 1946) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and coach. He played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, New South Wales and for the Australian national side. He lat ...

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South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen pla ...

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Bob O'Reilly Robert Edward O'Reilly (born 16 February 1949) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. An Australian international and New South Wales interstate representative prop forward, he p ...

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

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Wests Panthers The Western Suburbs Panthers, often simply referred to as Wests for short, are a rugby league club based in the western suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The club is the oldest in the QRL and despite absences from the top grade in rec ...

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Tim Pickup Timothy Alexander Pickup (6 October 1948 – 7 June 2021) was an Australian Rugby League footballer for the North Sydney Bears, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, New South Wales and Australian national side in the 1970s. He played Rugby Union for ...

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in the ...

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Greg Pierce Gregory Stuart Pierce (4 March 1950 – 24 June 2016) was an Australian rugby league player, coach and administrator. He played as a for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the National Rugby League competition and for Australia. He captained hi ...

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Terry Randall Terry William "Igor" Randall (born 5 February 1951 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played for the Manly-Warringah club in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership. He is regularly n ...

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Tom Raudonikis Thomas Walter Raudonikis (13 April 1950 – 7 April 2021) was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. He played 40 International games and World Cup games as Australia representative and captained his country in two matches of the 1 ...

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Western Suburbs Magpies The Western Suburbs Magpies (legal name: Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Ltd) are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly r ...

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Paul Sait Paul Joseph Sait (born 4 September 1947) is a former Australian rugby league footballer and coach. A versatile or running forward who played in the 1960s and 1970s for South Sydney. He made 7 Test appearances for the Australian national repr ...

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Geoff Starling Geoff Starling (14 December 1952) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s. An Australia international and New South Wales interstate representative three-quarter back, he played club football in the ...

Balmain Tigers The Balmain Tigers (also known as the Sydney Tigers from 1995–96) are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful in t ...

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David Waite David Waite (born 30 May 1951) is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He has also coached Great Britain in the Rugby League Tri-Nations. Background Waite was born in New South Wales, Australia. Waite holds a British passpo ...

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Elwyn Walters Elwyn Aubrey Walters (born 25 June 1943) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played for South Sydney Rabbitohs, South Sydney and Sydney Roosters, Eastern Suburbs clubs and for the Australia national rugby league team, Australian ...

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Western Suburbs Rosellas The Western Suburbs Rosellas, Western Suburbs, Wests, The Rosellas, 2/10 - J Baker are a Rugby league club based in the Newcastle, NSW region of Australia. It was a foundation member of the Newcastle Rugby League in 1909 and has been one of th ...

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Lionel Williamson Lionel Williamson (born 8 April 1944) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s. A talented , he played in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership with the Newtown club and also represented ...

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Manly-Warringah The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

provided a record 6 players to the Kangaroos.

Great Britain

The Ashes series against Great Britain saw an aggregate crowd of 36,567 attending the Test series

Test Venues

The three Ashes series tests took place at the following venues.

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

The Ashes series

First Test

In the first rugby league international played at Wembley since 1963, the Lions shocked the then unbeaten Australian's 21-12 in front of just 9,874 fans. The match had been moved to Wembley from the

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

ground in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

at the request of the Australian team management. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Second Test

The second test at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingle ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

saw the Australian's tie the series at one game all with a 14-6 win in front of the tours largest attendance of 16,674. Kangaroos captain-coach Graeme Langlands was ruled out of the second test with a broken hand. To replace him at fullback, Langlands selected

's 19 year old dual premiership winning fullback Graham Eadie to make his test debut (Eadie, known affectionately as "Wombat", would turn 20 the next day). Eadie was also handed the goal kicking duties on the day and despite a very strong wind making conditions tricky for kickers, kicked 5 goals which proved vital in the Kangaroos 14-6 win over the Lions to keep The Ashes series alive. After conceding 4 tries in the first test loss at Wembley, the Kangaroos kept their line intact with the Lions only scores coming from 3 goals by prop forward Terry Clawson.

Third Test

The Kangaroos won back The Ashes with a hard fought 15-5 win in trying conditions at

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

. The pitch at

Wilderspool Wilderspool is a district of Warrington, Cheshire, near the town centre. It consists of Wilderspool Causeway and the streets coming off it, the limits being the River Mersey into Stockton Heath (where it turns into London Road), Bridgefoot (nea ...

was frozen which suited the Australians who were used to playing on hard grounds at home. With coach Graeme Langlands still out with a broken hand and looking on from the sidelines, the Kangaroos wrapped up the Ashes with a 15-5 win on the frozen ground at Wilderspool. Man of the match

Ken Maddison Ken Maddison is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s.Ken M ...

crossed for two tries while Warrington born

, centre

and hooker

also crossed for tries. For the Lions, their only score came from a try and goal from

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challeng ...

halfback

Roger Millward Roger Millward (16 September 1947 – 2 May 2016) was an English rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s, and coached in the 1980s and 1990s. A goal-kicking , he gained a high level of prominence in the sport in England by p ...

France

, - bgcolor="#CCCCFF" , Date , Opponent , Score , Ground , Referee , Crowd , Report , - bgcolor=pink , 9 December ,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, 9 – 21 ,

Stade Gilbert Brutus Stade Gilbert Brutus is a rugby league stadium in Perpignan, France, which is the home ground of the Catalans Dragons. History In the 1970s and 1980s, the ground was used by both rugby league and rugby union clubs in Northern Catalonia. It was ...

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

, G. Jameau (FRA) , 5,109 , , - , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 12 December , France XIII , 12 – 24 ,

Stade Chaban-Delmas Stade Chaban-Delmas is a sporting stadium located in the city of Bordeaux, France. It was the home ground of FC Girondins de Bordeaux. Since 2011, it has also hosted matches of Top 14 rugby team Union Bordeaux Bègles. Until 2001, the stadium' ...

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, , 2,523 , , - , - bgcolor=pink , 16 December ,

, 3 – 14 ,

Stade des Minimes Stade des Minimes is a rugby league stadium in Toulouse, France. It is the home ground of Toulouse Olympique Broncos. History Stade des Minimes or as it is also known Stade Arnauné has been the home of Toulouse Olympique since their foundin ...

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, M. Caillol (FRA) , 7,060 , , -

French Tests

First test

Second Test

Arthur Beetson became the first aboriginal player to captain Australia in a rugby league Test match.

References

External links

1973 Kangaroo Tour at Rugby League Project
{{Rugby League Ashes series Australia national rugby league team tours Rugby league tours of Great Britain Rugby league tours of France Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France