World Cup Draws : 2021

The draw was made by Prince Harry, the patron of the Rugby Football League. It took place at Buckingham Palace with the Prince along with alongside Dame Katherine Grainger DBE (former Olympic rowing champion) and Jason Robinson OBE (former Rugby League player). It covers men's, women's and wheelchair competitions.

	Men's World Cup
	Group A	England	Samoa	France	Greece
	Group B	Australia	Fiji	Scotland	Italy
	Group C	NZ	Lebanon	Jamaica	Ireland
	Group D	Tonga	PNG	Wales	Cook Is
	Women's World Cup
	Group A	England	Brazil	PNG	Canada
	Group B	Australia	NZ	France	Cook Is
	Wheelchair World Cup (Men)
	Group A	England	Australia	Spain	Norway
	Group B	France	Wales	Scotland	USA

In the men's draw, Jamaica is a surprise package, qualifying ahead of the USA and Canada. So too is Greece, where the game is severely hampered at home by authorities. Hopefully, qualifying will help the situation there. 

For the women, Brazil is new to the game and the dark horse for that tournament. As for the Wheelchair games, it's nice to see three non traditional sides there in Norway, Spain and USA.

Queensland State Championship : 2019

The season has concluded and the 23 round regular season was followed by an eight team finals series. In all seasons previously the maximum number of finalists had been six.

League: 

The Sunshine Coast side won the competition easily enough with 43 points. That was quite a jump from 10th in 2018. Wynnum went from 12th to second, an equally impressive gain on the previous season. Burleigh was more consistent, dropping from 2nd to 3rd. The Central Capras were also similarly placed from the prior season, slipping from 13th to 14th. They are doing it tough.

	Rk	Team	Pts
	1	Sunshine Coast	43
	2	Wynnum Manly	36
	3	Burleigh Bears	34
	4	Townsville	34
	5	Norths Devils	30
	6	Tweed Heads	28
	7	Redcliffe Dolphins	26
	8	Easts Tigers	21
	9	Ipswich Jets	19
	10	Souths Logan	15
	11	Mackay Cutters	14
	12	Northern Pride	10
	13	PNG Hunters	9
	14	Central Capras	3

Finals:

In the sudden death games, Tweed narrowly fell to Redcliffe 24-25 and Norths bowed out with a 20-24 defeat at the hands of the Easts Tigers. The other games had the Sunshine Coast lose to Townsville 12-20 and Wynnum going down to Burleigh 32-34.

In the next round, Townsville and Burleigh earned byes with their victories. Wynnum ended Recliffe's season with a 20-16 win and the Sunshine Coast did likewise to Easts 22-14. 

In the semi-finals Townsville week off didn't help them when they lost to Wynnum 14-26. Burleigh were happy with their rest when accounting for the Sunshine Coast 24-6. They carried that form into the grand final in taking the crown with a 28-10 triumph over Wynnum. 

Season summary:

The list below has points allocated for the league and finals, combined in the total column. On that basis Burleigh down on the Gold Coast was the most successful, ahead of the Brisbane outfit Wynnum. The team from the Sunshine Coast came in third. 

	Rk	Team	Lge	F	Tot
	1	Burleigh Bears	16	20	36
	2	Wynnum Manly	18	16	34
	3	Sunshine Coast	20	12	32
	4	Townsville	14	12	26
	5	Redcliffe Dolphins	10	8	18
	6	Easts Tigers	9	8	17
	6	Norths Devils	12	4	16
	8	Tweed Heads	11	4	15
	9	Ipswich Jets	8		8
	10	Souths Logan	7		7
	11	Mackay Cutters	6		6
	12	Northern Pride	5		5
	13	PNG Hunters	4		4
	14	Central Capras	3		3

Picture source: Qld RL. 

2013-19 World Rankings - Men

Looking back over these years gives an insight into the growth of the sport numerically. It also shows the challenge of creating depth in quality. Otherwise the list will be of a few successes and the rest stragglers. It's not an issue unique to RL and it takes money plus commitment to have any hope of lifting lower ranked countries to a stronger level.

Recently, quite a few countries have been dropped from the list. I don't see anything said about that as to what is the reason for that, although I'm sure there is a process that is gone through in determining who is eligible either way.

Because the number of games played is important on where a team sits on the ladder, it doesn't always reflect the level a nation is playing at. Looking over several years does give an idea of how a country is progressing or regressing.

		Nation	19	18	17	16	15	14	13
		New Zealand	1	3	2	2	1	2	2
		Australia	2	1	1	1	2	1	1
		England	3	2	3	3	3	3	3
		Tonga	4	4	4	14	16	16	13
		Fiji	5	5	5	7	7	6	5
		PNG	6	10	10	15	14	11	7
		Samoa	7	7	6	5	4	4	8
		France	8	6	8	6	5	5	4
		Scotland	9	8	7	4	9	8	11
		Lebanon	10	9	9	21	20	23	20
		Greece	11	19	23	28	24	22	28
		Ireland	12	12	11	8	6	7	9
		Italy	13	13	13	13	12	12	12
		Wales	14	11	12	9	8	9	6
		Serbia	15	17	16	11	11	13	17
		Malta	16	16	18	20	18	24	22
		Norway	17	20	22	26	26	19	19
		USA	18	15	14	10	10	10	10
		Poland	19	23
		Jamaica	20	14	15	17	27	27	23
		Hungary	21	18	29	38	33	32	32
		Czech Rep	22	25	26	24	30	29	26
		Cook Is	23	43	30	25	22	17	14
		Turkey	24	31
		Netherlands	25	26	27	30	28	25	24
		Spain	26	28	21	19	21	28
		Canada	27	21	17	12	13	14	16
		Nigeria	28
		Solomon Is	29	27	42	37
		Sweden	30	38	31	29	29	30	31
		Germany	31	30	28	23	19	18	18
		Chile	32	32	32	34
		Ghana	33
		Morocco	34		48	40	35	34	33
		Vanuatu	35	33	36	35
		South Africa	36	37	35	31	31	31	25
		Russia	37	29	19	16	15	15	15
		Cameroon	38
		Ukraine	39	35	25	22	23	20	21
		Colombia	40	41	40
		Brazil	41	45	43
		Belgium	42	39	20	18	17	21	29
		Denmark	43	44	34	27	25	26	27
		Bulgaria	44	47	46
		Latvia	45	48	47	36	34	33	30
		Philippines		22	24	33
		Niue		24	33	32	32
		Japan		34	41
		El Salvador		36	37	39
		Hong Kong		40	45
		Argentina		42	39
		Uruguay		46	44
		Thailand			38