First Lions tour confirmed for 2027

The British & Irish Lions has announced initial details for the first-ever Lions Women’s Tour in September 2027.

The “Howden British & Irish Lions Women’s Series” will take place in New Zealand with Lions team playing three Tests against the Black Ferns alongside pre-Test fixtures.

The Lions will “continue to collaborate with all key stakeholders, including its constituent Unions, World Rugby”, to finalise full Tour details including the Tour schedule, but the intention is that the inaugural Test match Series will take place in September 2027 during the women's global competition window and will not overlap with the men's Rugby World Cup 2027.

What it will overlap with is the place in the calendar occupied by WXV last year and this.

The Lions’ press release makes no mention of WXV at all. However, World Rugby appear to have been aware of the Lion’s plans for some time. Beyond the review of WXV (due after the 2024 competition) and WR’s draft Global Calendar plans already foresaw that there would likely be no WXV in 2027 “to leave space for touring and/or Lions”.

Today’s announcement follows a feasibility study which concluded that New Zealand would be the preferred Tour destination.

In addition – and perhaps crucially – were announcements about commercial sponsorship. Royal London has also been confirmed as “Founding Partner of the Lions Women’s Team”. The partnership will also see investment in player development in the Home Unions through a special “elite players’ Pathways Funding grant”.

The grants will support the elite women’s player and coach pathways in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and England, to help Unions develop more players and coaches capable of being selected for the inaugural Lions Women’s Tour. In addition, Royal London will also be investing in women’s and girls’ grassroots rugby across the UK and Ireland in the run-up to the Tour.

Insurance group Howden was also confirmed as the “Series Title Partner” for what will be called the “Howden British & Irish Lions Women’s Series”.

Our view

We've shared a bunch of thoughts on a women's Lions tour over the years and though the women's game is changing, our thoughts really haven't. On the upside, we don't doubt there will be a good return on visibility and exposure and positive fan engagement - all that is very, very welcome and we have no interest in being naysayers here to something that might genuinely drive growth, but there are some hard facts being ignored in the glitz of the announcement.

The women's game is wildly imbalanced as it is and right now there are a few things that might have a shot at changing that

Number one is WXV, which we understand will look very different by 2027,  but which is vital in reducing that performance gap between top & everyone else. Well that will not happen at all in 2027 to make way for a Lions tour

So we will sacrifice a year of development, right between World Cups, so that players who already play the bulk of international rugby get to play more. If we were guaranteed a massive commercial return maybe this would be swallow-able but rugby is as guilty as many 'mainstream' sports now in embellishing the commercial interest in its women's game. Yes this is growing and improving, but the idea that there are mega deals on the table for women's rugby is just inaccurate. Right now many rights are actually given away for free

The men's Lions tour is an amazing tour for reasons that are in part due to the traditions of men's rugby, but we have a chance to do something that suits women's rugby and this doesn't seem it. One of the major challenges too facing men's rugby, has been the closed shop nature of the sport, and now the women's game is following a path bound to trip it up in the same way.

As we always says, if the Lions concept didn't exist no one would ever feasibly create it for the women's game.

But here we are. We wish it well, but there are so many other things the game could have done to better balance desperately needed development and high profile competitions.