Great Britain dominated in the early years, and Australia did not win a Test against the Lions until 11 November 1911 under captain Chris McKivat.

The team, which was made of players from the NSWRFL with a few Queensland rugby rebels added, first played against the "professional All Blacks" on the return leg of their tour of Australia and Great Britain.

In 1909, when the new "Northern Union" code was still in its infancy in Australia, a match between the Kangaroos and the Wallabies was played before a crowd of around 20,000, with the Rugby League side winning 29–26.

[2] The first British tour of the Southern Hemisphere began on 4 June 1910, when the Northern Union played New South Wales in front of 33,000 spectators in Sydney, losing 28–14.

The Australian national team first wore green and gold in a hooped design on Saturday, 23 June 1928, when they met Great Britain in the first Test at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground.

The first test of the 1932 Ashes series between Australia and Great Britain drew a world record international rugby league attendance of 70,204 to the Sydney Cricket Ground.

[5] An exhibition match between Australia and Great Britain at Paris' Stade Pershing in December 1933 inspired the beginnings of rugby league in France.

The 1970 Lions contained a galaxy of stars including captain Frank Myler, Roger Millward, Cliff Watson and Mal Reilly.

Australian captain Graeme Langlands was denied what seemed a fair try by being ruled offside by the French referee after catching a kick put up by halfback Dennis Ward.

Players such as Peter Sterling, Mal Meninga, Wayne Pearce, Brett Kenny, Eric Grothe and Wally Lewis came to prominence on the 1982 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France.

After the extremely poor showing during their 1979 Australasian tour, the Kangaroos rammed home just how far behind British football had fallen at Boothferry Park.

The score was only 10–4 at half time, but after the break Australia's superior fitness showed and ran in six unanswered tries to leave the crowd and British football stunned.

Former Kangaroo Don Furner became Australian coach in 1986 and immediately formed a good working relationship with Wally Lewis and the players.

During the 1986 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France a then record northern hemisphere crowd of 50,383 attended the first test of the Ashes series at Old Trafford with the Walle Lewis led Australians winning 38–16.

They defeated France 34–2 on a cold night in Parkes with Mal Meninga taking over the captaincy from Wally Lewis who was unavailable with a broken arm.

The Ashes got off to a bad start for the Kangaroos when Great Britain shocked Australia to win the first test 19–12 at Wembley Stadium in front of a new record home crowd of 54,567.

The Bob Fulton coached, Mal Meninga captained Australians defeat Great Britain 10–6 to win their 7th Rugby League World Cup title.

The Kangaroos then won the second test 16–8 at the very wet Palmerston North Showgrounds before wrapping up the series with a 16–4 win at Lang Park in Brisbane.

Despite having what many described as a second string side without players such as Laurie Daley, Allan Langer, Andrew Ettingshausen, Brett Mullins, Glenn Lazarus, Bradley Clyde, Ian Roberts, Ricky Stuart and Steve Walters, Bob Fulton's Kangaroos won their 8th World Cup (and 5th in a row) when they defeated England 16–8 in the World Cup final in front of 66,540 fans at Wembley.

As a result, that season there were also two Australian sides:[21] Australian Rugby League Australia v Rest Of The World(Only Establishment League Test) 11 July 1997 Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Fullback: Tim Brasher Wingers: Mark Coyne, Robbie O'Davis Centres: Paul McGregor, Terry Hill Five-eighth: Brad Fittler (c) Halfback: Geoff Toovey Props: Paul Harragon, Mark Carroll Hooker: Andrew Johns Second-rowers: Steve Menzies, Gary Larson Lock: Billy Moore Reserves: Matt Sing, John Simon, Nik Kosef, Dean Pay Coach: Bob Fulton Super League Australia v Great Britain(1st Super League Test) 1 November 1997 Wembley Stadium, London Fullback: Darren Lockyer Wingers: Brett Mullins, Wendell Sailor Centres: Andrew Ettingshausen, Ryan Girdler Five-eighth: Laurie Daley (c) Halfback: Craig Gower Props: Jason Stevens, Brad Thorn Hooker: Steve Walters Second-rowers: Matt Adamson, Gorden Tallis Lock: Darren Smith Reserves: Robbie Kearns, Craig Greenhill, Ken Nagas, Brett Kimmorley Coach: John Lang Great Britain played a home three-Test series against the Australian Super League Test team in 1997 and lost 2–1.

Later in that year Australia played a test-match against New Zealand, 12 days before the 2011 Four Nations kicked off, at the newly reconstructed Ausgrid Stadium in Newcastle.

They then went on to beat England at Wembley and were surprised in their final round-robin fixture after Wales were leading 8–0 after 13 minutes and were behind Australia by only 10 points at the break.

[36][37] After the match Sheens was facing scrutiny from the media after many believed it was time for the old players he fielded to move on since the much younger Kiwis side had beaten them on the past three occasions.

He took up an advisory role with English domestic club Salford Red Devils and therefore resigned as coach of the Australian national team.

Radradra, who represented Fiji at the 2013 World Cup, still had a Fijian passport at that time and this brought up the question of changing eligibility rules in International rugby league.

But despite the result Australia suffered criticism with commentator Phil Gould saying the Australian team is 'too old' and are 'kidding themselves if they think they'll win the World Cup next year'.

[48] Throughout 2022, several NRL players with international heritage opting to play for their home nation during the World Cup, including Jarome Luai, Brian To'o and Joseph Sua’ali’i for Samoa, Felise Kafusi for Tonga, and Viliame Kikau, Apisai Koroisau, and Maika Sivo for Fiji.

[citation needed] Burton, Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Campbell Graham all scored tries on debut, with Addo-Carr also receiving man of the match.

[60] Statistics in this table are compiled from the website, Rugby League Project and are up to 11 November 2024, including the Week 4 cup final match against Tonga.

[64] The war cry was performed for the first time in over 40 years before the Rugby League World Cup exhibition game between the Indigenous Dreamtime Team and the New Zealand Māori in 2008.