Lions Women to face France in first-ever game in Cardiff
The British and Irish Lions women's team will play France in its first-ever match.
The venue is Principality Stadium in Cardiff. It is a fitting stage for a new chapter.
The game is scheduled for Friday, 27 August at 19:30 BST, according to BBC Sport. It will act as a send-off before the Lions Women head to New Zealand.
The Lions bring together the best players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. They tour every four years. The women's side will be led by head coach Jo Yapp.
France will be a stern first test. They are ranked fourth in the world. They reached the semi-finals of the 2025 Rugby World Cup and have finished runners-up to England in the last seven Six Nations championships.
Recent form is strong too. France beat Australia and Canada in home fixtures in the WXV Global Series, the women's international competition that sits outside the Six Nations and World Cup.
For newcomers, this matters. France play fast, physical rugby. Their pack — the big forwards who contest scrums and lineouts — rarely takes a backward step.
The Cardiff fixture launches the officially titled Howden British & Irish Lions Women's Tour. A week later the squad faces a Black Ferns XV in Whangarei, effectively a New Zealand selection side rather than a full international.
Then comes the main business. A five-match tour closes with three Tests, which are full internationals, against New Zealand in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The first Test is on 11 September. Tickets for those Test matches in New Zealand are now on sale, according to Lions Rugby.
There is history here. Men's Lions tours date back to 1888. The men beat France in a friendly in Paris in 1989 and drew with Argentina in Cardiff in 2005.
Cardiff already knows what a big women's crowd looks like. A crowd of 21,186 set a record for a Wales women's home game in any sport when Wales played England in the Six Nations at Principality Stadium in 2025.
Lions women's committee chair Carol Isherwood knows the long road. She captained Great Britain back in 1986.
What makes this stand out is the simplicity of it. One game, in a great stadium, against top-class opposition, before the hardest tour in rugby.
