Background
The allocation of teams for the 2026 World Cup was announced on 7 August 2023. The 2026 edition of the Rugby League World Cup will only feature ten men's teams, down from 16 in 2021. The eight quarter-finalists from the previous World Cup achieved automatic qualification, leaving two spots remaining for the qualification process. [1] [2]
The qualification process for the 9th and 10th places will be a two-stage process. The first stage is to establish the representatives from each of the four International Rugby League (IRL) confederations (Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Middle East-Africa) with those representatives advancing to a second and final round of qualification in 2025.
The process announced in August 2023 would have seen qualifying tournaments in all four confederations but subsequent changes by the IRL have changed this. In October 2023 IRL confirmed that only full members of the IRL can take part in the qualifying competition. [3] This left only Cook Islands (Asia-Pacific), Jamaica (Americas) and South Africa (Middle East-Africa) as the only full-member nations for their respective confederations, and therefore will automatically advance to the second round of qualification.
This leaves the European confederation as the only one to stage a confederation tournament to decide their second-round slot allocation. [1] [2]
As originally planned, following the conclusion of the European confederation qualification tournament, the 2025 World Series will take place with winners and runners up qualifying for the finals. [1] [2] [3] In March 2025 the IRL announced that as no viable bids to host the World Series had been received, the World Series would be replaced by two single knockout matches, one for the northern hemisphere and one for the southern hemisphere. [4]
Inter-confederation play-offs
The 2025 World Series was initially intended be the inter-confederation qualification tournament for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup. [1] The winner and the runners-up were to qualify for the World Cup. [2]
In September 2024, South Africa (who will participate in the tournament) submitted a proposal to host the World Series, in attempt to strengthen their bids to host the 2028 Women's World Cup and 2030 Men's World Cup. [11]
On 18 March 2025, the International Rugby League announced no viable bid to host the World Series had been made and as such two playoff matches would be held in its place. The Northern Hemisphere playoff will see France host Jamaica as a one-off match, and the Southern Hemisphere playoff will see the Cook Islands host South Africa during their off week in the group stage of the 2025 Pacific Bowl. [12]
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New Zealand 
England 
Australia 
Fiji 
Lebanon [b] 
Tonga 
Samoa 
Papua New Guinea 
TBD
