2003 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France
tour by the Australia national rugby league team
The 2003 Kangaroo Tour was a six-match tour by the Australia national rugby league team of France, Wales and England, and to date has been the last Kangaroo Tour. The last three matches were all Tests against Great Britain for the Ashes. Coached by Chris Anderson and captained by Darren Lockyer, Australia continued its dominance, winning all of the three tests against Great Britain and retaining The Ashes that they have held since 1973, although the 3-0 series win didn't show how close the series really was as Australia had to come from behind to win every test, and won each match by a margin of no more than one converted try making it arguably the closest Ashes series since 1974.
Touring squad
The Australian team was coached by Chris Anderson who was making his 4th Kangaroo tour after 1978 and 1982 as a player and 2001 as coach. This equalled the record of his 1978 Kangaroos team mate Bob Fulton who had also toured twice as both a player (1973 and 1978), and twice as a coach (1990 and 1994).
As Gorden Tallis had retired from representative football a month before, the team was captained by the newly appointed Darren Lockyer.
Darren Smith was added to the team while the tour was in England
Pre-Ashes matches
France: Julien Gerin, Dimitri Pelo, Sylvain Houles, Teddy Sadaoui, Frédéric Zitter, Frédéric Banquet, Julien Rinaldi, Olivier Pramil, Cederic Gay, Jérôme Guisset (c), Daniel Dumas, Jamal Fakir, John Vaigata. Res - Artie Shead, Pierre Sabatie, Abderazak El Khalouki, Marc Faumuina. Coach - Gilles Dumas
Australia: Anthony Minichiello, Luke Lewis, Shannon Hegarty, Michael De Vere, Matt Sing, Craig Wing, Craig Gower, Petero Civoniceva, Michael Crocker, Robbie Kearns (c), Willie Mason, Trent Waterhouse, Phil Bailey. Res - Joel Clinton, Shane Webcke, Richard Villasanti, Brett Kimmorley
England A: Shaun Briscoe, Mark Calderwood, Martin Gleeson, Martin Aspinwall, Ade Gardner, Chris Thorman, Rob Burrow, Andy Lynch, Matt Diskin, Rob Parker, Danny Tickle, Lee Radford, Sean O'Loughlin (c).
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