The 1973 Kangaroo Tour was the thirteenth Kangaroo Tour, where the Australian national rugby league team travelled to Europe and played 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 and the next was staged in 1978.
Contents
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.
Great Britain
The Ashes series against Great Britain saw an aggregate crowd of 36,567 attending the Test 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.
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, known affectionately as "Wombat", would turn 20 the next day). 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 the Wilderspool Stadium was frozen which suited the Australian's who were used to playing on hard grounds at home.
Second Test
Arthur Beetson became the first aboriginal player to captain Australia in a rugby league Test match.