2026 Rugby League World Cup

Last updated
2026 (2026) Rugby League World Cup  ()
Number of teams
Host countriesFlag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia
Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg  Papua New Guinea
 < 2025

The 2026 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2026) is a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league and is a replacement tournament for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.

Contents

Like 2021, the 2026 World Cup will see the men's, women's, and wheelchair world cups simultaneously. However unlike 2021, the men's tournament will feature ten teams only, and the planned expansion of the women's and wheelchair tournament will be delayed keeping team numbers at eight in each. [1] [2]

Host selection

Originally due to be staged in the US and Canada in 2025, [3] [4] the offer was withdrawn due to financial concerns. [5] In 2022 hosting was awarded to France. [6] [7] [8] In May 2023 the French organisers pulled out of hosting the games. [9] [10]

On 3 August 2023 the 2025 tournaments were cancelled by the sport's governing body with the announcement that a new reduced-size tournament would take place in the southern hemisphere in 2026. [1] [2] On 24 July 2024, the IRL announced that Australia would host the 2026 tournament, with a number of games played in Papua New Guinea. [11] [12]

Nations

10 nations have already qualified for the tournaments:

Note: M=Men's tournament, W=Women's tournament, WC=Wheelchair tournament

Competitions

As with 2021, the men's, women's, and wheelchair rugby league world cups will be held simultaneously in equal prominence.

Men

Women

Wheelchair

Legacy

With the announcement of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup, International Rugby League also announced a long awaited international rugby league calendar dating from 2023 to 2030, citing the cancellations of the 2025 tournament as "the perfect opportunity" to refresh the international game. The calendar confirmed the already arranged 2023 Tonga tour of England, and also announced a 2025 Lions and Lionesses tour of Australia (which will include the revival of The Ashes), 2027 Kiwi tour of England, 2028 Kangaroo tour of England, and a 2029 tour between England and an unconfirmed Pacific Nation. [1] The announcement also stated a 2024 Samoa tour of England would be likely (as this was already being discussed by the two nations). This was confirmed in June 2024. [13] [14] The calendar also announced that the Women's Rugby League World Cup would be a stand alone event starting in 2028. In addition, there would be a renewed focus on regional tournaments to aid in developing lesser rugby league nations. [1] A later announcement confirmed the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup would also be a stand alone event starting in 2029. [15]

Related Research Articles

The Women's Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament, contested by the women's national teams of the International Rugby League (IRL). The competition has been held since 2000 and was incorporated into the Festival of World Cups in 2008 until 2017 when it became a centrepiece event along with the men's competition. Under the current format, eight teams are separated into two groups of four with the top two in each group qualifying for the semi-finals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia women's national rugby union team</span> Womens rugby team

The Australia women's national rugby union team, also known as the Wallaroos, has competed at all Women's Rugby World Cups since 1998, with their best result finishing in third place in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rugby League World Cup</span> International rugby league football tournament

The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament contested by the top national men's representative teams. The tournament is administered by the International Rugby League and was first held in France in 1954, which was the first World Cup held for any form of rugby football.

The Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup is an international wheelchair rugby league tournament contested by the top national teams. The tournament was first held in Australia as part of the 2008 Festival of World Cups and was upgraded to a centrepiece event in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Men's Rugby League World Cup</span>

The 2021 Men's Rugby League World Cup was the 16th Rugby League World Cup, and one of three major tournaments of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup. The tournament was held in England from 15 October 2022 to 19 November 2022. It was originally due to be held between 23 October 2021 and 27 November 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent withdrawals of Australia and New Zealand caused the tournament to be postponed. 16 teams competed in the tournament, an increase of two from the previous two tournaments and the first to feature 16 teams since the 2000 Rugby League World Cup.

Seven countries have hosted and/or co-hosted the Rugby League World Cup. England, France, Australia and New Zealand have hosted the World Cup on multiple occasions and the tournament has never been played outside its traditional 'heartlands' in these areas. The International Rugby League is responsible for picking hosts.

The 2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup will be the seventeenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup, and will be one of three major tournaments part of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.

The 2021 Women's Rugby League World Cup was the sixth staging of the Women's Rugby League World Cup, and was one of three major tournaments part of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup. The tournament was held in England from 1 November to 19 November 2022. Originally planned for 2021, it was delayed a year along with the men's and wheelchair tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament featured eight teams, an increase of two from the previous tournament.

The 2021 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup was the fourth staging of the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup, and was one of three major tournaments part of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup. The tournament was held in England from 3 November to 18 November 2022. It was originally planned to be held in November 2021 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England. It was the first occasion on which the wheelchair rugby league competition took place concurrently with the men's and women's tournaments. The competition was also the first time that participants in the wheelchair tournament received the same participation fees as players in the other competitions and the first time that prize money was awarded.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Rugby League World Cup</span>

The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament currently played every four years. The first tournament was held in 1954, hosted by France who had pushed for such a tournament to be approved. Since the first edition, 14 others have been held at sporadic intervals.

The 2026 Women's Rugby League World Cup will be the seventh staging of the Women's Rugby League World Cup, and will be one of three major tournaments part of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Rugby League World Cup</span> International rugby league tournaments

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The 2025 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2025) was a planned collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league which was replaced by the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.

The 2026 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup will be the fifth staging of the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup, and will be one of three major tournaments part of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.

The 2024 Samoa rugby league tour of England was a two-match tour by the Samoa national rugby league team to England in October and November 2024.

The 2029 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup will be the sixth staging of the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup, and will be the first stand alone Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup since the wheelchair tournament was made a primary event and moved out of the Festival of World Cups in 2021.

The 2030 Men's Rugby League World Cup will be the eighteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup, and will revert to a stand-alone tournament with the women's and wheelchair tournaments being played in 2028 and 2029 respectively.

The 2024 Rugby League Pacific Championships are the third edition of the Rugby League Pacific Championships and the second under their current name. The championships consist of several international rugby league tournaments being played from October to November 2024 between nations of the Pacific region.

The 2025 England Lions and Lionesses tour of Australia was originally scheduled be a joint tour of Australia by the England men's and England women's national rugby league teams.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Southern hemisphere to host 2026 World Cup". BBC Sport. August 3, 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Reduced Rugby League World Cup to take place in 2026". The Guardian. 3 August 2023.
  3. ↑ "Rugby League World Cup moves to North America in 2025". stuff sport. 20 November 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  4. ↑ "North America to Host 2025 Rugby league World Cup". Canada Rugby League Association. 2016-12-01. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  5. ↑ Adrian Proszenko (4 December 2018). "US World Cup hosting plans torpedoed by money trouble". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  6. ↑ "France to host 2025 World Cup". National Rugby League. 8 January 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  7. ↑ Shaw, Matthew (2022-01-11). "French Prime Minister Jean Castex's pride after securing Rugby League World Cup". YorkshireLive. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  8. ↑ "France set to host the 2025 Rugby League World Cups". Asia Pacific Rugby League. 2022-01-11. Archived from the original on 2022-01-27. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  9. ↑ "France pulls out of hosting Rugby League World Cup". BBC Sport. 15 May 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  10. ↑ Bower, Aaron (15 May 2023). "2025 Rugby League World Cup in doubt after France pull out of staging event". The Guardian . Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  11. ↑ "Australia to host 2026 World Cup". BBC Sport. 2024-07-24. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  12. ↑ "ARLC welcomes Rugby League World Cup 2026 hosting rights". National Rugby League. July 24, 2024.
  13. ↑ "England to play Samoa in autumn Test Series". www.rugby-league.com.
  14. ↑ "England's men to host Samoa in two-Test series in October and November". BBC Sport. June 13, 2024.
  15. ↑ "International Rugby League Board confirms details for World Series, World Cups". Rugby League International Federation. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
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