1973 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France
The 1973 Kangaroo Tour was the thirteenth Kangaroo Tour, and saw the Australian national rugby league team travel to Europe and play nineteen matches against British and French club and representative rugby league teams, in addition to three Test matches against Great Britain and two Tests against the French. It followed the tour of [1967-68 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain Lions|Great Britain and France|1967-68] and the next was staged in 1978.
Due to the advent of the Jet Age which had made international travel times much shorter, and with a slimed down tour itinerary, this was the first Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain and France to be held inside of a single calendar year.
The squad's leadership
The team was captain-coached by Graeme Langlands 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.1973 NSWRFL Premiers Manly-Warringah provided a record 6 players to the Kangaroos while the team they defeated in the Grand Final Cronulla-Sutherland, provided 3 players. Surprisingly, no players were selected from either of the 1973 Brisbane Rugby League Grand Finalists, winners Fortitude Valley or runners up Redcliffe.
Of the 26 player squad, 21 were from New South Wales and 5 from Queensland, with 3 of the Queenslanders picked Sydney teams. Brisbane Easts hooker John Lang and Brisbane Wests winger Warren Orr were the only players picked from Queensland based clubs.
Great Britain
The Ashes series against Great Britain saw an aggregate crowd of 36,567 attending the Test seriesTest Venues
The three Ashes series tests took place at the following venues.| London | Leeds | Warrington |
| Wembley | Headingley | Wilderspool |
| Capacity: 100,000 | Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 15,000 |
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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 ground in Wigan at the request of the Australian team management.----
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Second Test
The second test at Headingley in Leeds 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 Manly-Warringah's 19 year old dual premiership winning fullback Graham Eadie to make his test debut. 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. The pitch at Wilderspool 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 crossed for two tries while Warrington born Bob Fulton, centre Geoff Starling and hooker Elwyn Walters also crossed for tries. For the Lions, their only score came from a try and goal from Hull Kingston Rovers halfback Roger Millward.