Lions tour drives record €43 million surplus for Rugby Australia
The Wallabies may have lost the series 2-1 to the Lions but the tour was a success off the pitch for Australia. Pic: Steve Christo/Sportsfile
Rugby Australia reported a record A$70.6 million (€43 million) surplus in its 2025 financial accounts on Wednesday, driven largely by the lucrative British and Irish Lions tour.
The result turned around a record deficit of A$36.80 (€22.43 million) million on the previous year, allowing the governing body to exit a private loan ahead of schedule and accelerate plans for an investment fund to underpin the game's future.
"We have made great progress in ensuring the proceeds of our major events – including last year's record-breaking British and Irish Lions tour – will set up our game to thrive long-term," RA boss Phil Waugh said in a statement.
RA said it generated total revenue of A$262.2 million (€159.81 million) in large part due to the Lions tour and match-day takings of A$146.8 million (€89.47 million).
A total of 373,168 fans attended the Wallabies' seven home tests in 2025 at an average crowd of 53,308 – an all-time Australian record for a non-home Rugby World Cup season.
RA expects to bank another major windfall from hosting the World Cup in 2027.
Despite the strong year commercially, the Joe Schmidt-coached Wallabies continued to labour on the field.
After losing the Lions series 2-1, the Wallabies finished third in the Rugby Championship with a 2-4 losing record and passed a winless tour of Europe, finishing the season ranked a lowly eighth in the world.
Australia host Ireland, France and Italy in the inaugural Nations Championship tests in July.
Meanwhile, former Australia flyhalf Bernard Foley, who earned the nickname 'Iceman' for nailing crucial kicks, will retire from professional rugby at the end of the Japanese season, his team Kubota Spears said.
The 36-year-old earned the last of his 76 caps for Australia in 2022 before heading to Japan, where he helped the Spears to the League One title in 2023.
Once a rugby sevens specialist who won a Commonwealth Games silver medal at Delhi 2010, Foley booted a 79th minute penalty from 45 metres to seal the New South Wales Waratahs' first Super Rugby title in 2014 with a 33-32 win over the Canterbury Crusaders in the final.
He attained national hero status the following year as Michael Cheika's Wallabies reached the 2015 World Cup final in England, producing a 28-point game to knock out the hosts from the pool phase before booting an 80th minute penalty to eliminate Scotland 35-34 in the quarter-finals.
Foley was also a member of Cheika's squad for the ill-fated 2019 World Cup in Japan, where the Wallabies were knocked out in the quarter-finals.
Although he left Australian rugby for Japan after that World Cup, Foley earned a Wallabies recall under Dave Rennie in 2022 and was never far from the selection conversation in recent years whenever injuries struck Australia's flyhalf stocks.
