European U19 Championship : 2026

Held in France, the 2026 edition fielded ten teams, six in the top tier and four in the lower one. All sides played three games each. Group A members didn't play all the teams in their group. I've listed the sides they did meet on the right of the green chart below.

France won the tournament by going through undefeated. England won the previous two tournaments held but this year were well down on that standard. Or maybe France lifted its game. Perhaps a bit of both. 

In the second group, Canada was an invitation side. Greece and Ireland had heritage imports that gave them a distinct advantage. Greece won comfortably. Norway was a welcome addition and hopefully they will benefit from the experience.  

Photo: England v Ukraine. Source: European RL. 

European U19 Championship : 2024

This should have been covered before, but I missed it. So two years late. 

Six nations took part in this event in Serbia. It started off with the teams ranked third to sixth playing. The losers played off for fifth and sixth.

Ukraine 24-4 Serbia
Scotland 32-10 USA
Losers: USA 40-12 Serbia.

The semi finals were then held. The winners went into the grand final and the losers played off for third fifth. I'm not sure why Serbia lost its two matches and ended up in the third place playoff. 

England 58-4 Ukraine
France 30-18 Scotland
Fifth place playoff: USA 26-22 Ukraine
Third place playoff: Scotland 56-0 Serbia
Grand Final: England 15-8 France.

Photo: Scotland v Serbia. Source: European RL. 

Men's State of Origin : 2026

The 2026 series had momentum swings, both in the games and the series. 

Game 1: In Sydney, the visiting Queensland Maroons took an early 18-0 lead, and at the 57th minute mark were ahead 20-6. A player was sent off, a momentum swing then went the NSW Blues way. They went on to win 22-20, the last try scored with two minutes to go. 

Game 2: Played in Melbourne in front of a record 92,000 fans, the first half was a bit of a slog as NSW came off ahead 12-8. The second half was a Queensland onslaught as they raced away to win 44-24. Criticism about a lack of fight was levelled at the Blues, and the coach was under fire too. 

Game 3: 52,000 crammed into Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane. The Maroons were hot favourites but trailed 18-0 after 30 minutes. They came back to trail 8-18, but the swing was not sustained. NSW ran away with the game 30-12

Summary: Critical momentum swings were evident. The winners of each game had big second half swings in their favour. It's hard to say which side was better. At times, they outplayed each other, but not consistently so. The aggregate scores of 76-76 probably say it all.

History: Queensland has won 62% of the series, won 54% of the games and scored 53% of the points. NSW has won six of the last nine series. 

The game three highlight video is below: