Three Tests against the Black Ferns set for September 2027 Women’s Lions side may tour France and USA in future
One step back, and then another forwards again. On the day Louis Rees-Zammit, one of the brightest young stars of the last British & Irish Lions tour, announced he was quitting rugby to go and play American football, thousands of female players learned they will finally get a shot at the sort of opportunity he has just walked away from. The Lions have announced that they will send their first ever women’s team on tour to New Zealand in 2027, a welcome reminder that even if the men’s game is struggling, there’s still plenty of room left for the sport to grow.
The Lions will play three Tests against the Black Ferns in September 2027 and, they hope, five warmup matches against provincial teams. They have a series sponsor, Howden, and a shirt sponsor, Royal London, who have, impressively, already pledged to invest significant funding in the pathway systems of all four unions to help develop a larger pool of eligible players and coaches. The tour comes at the end of a three-year feasibility study, which found that the project would be commercially viable as long as it had a space of its own in the playing schedule.