Internationals 2024 : Men's Wheelchair

It was led initially by France who were joined by England at the top of the tree. They are still the two leading nations although England may be slightly ahead at this point. It was good to see the USA come over for two tests against Wales and the Celtic Cup should assist those three nation's development. 

New Zealand played its first ever Wheelchair RL game against an experienced Australia. The two matches were one sided but the hopefully it will lead to more competitive games in the future.

While it was a success at the last World Cup, it does become a bit of a sleeper version of the game in the four years between. I assume the cost is a factor. Still, there are domestic competitions that are very competitive.  

Updated 25.11.24.

Is International RL Quality Improving?

When RL held its first World Cup, GB, France, NZ and Australia were the attendees. Perhaps other countries could have been included back then but either due to cost or lack of a competitive standard that didn't happen. So for many years, international RL was about four countries. 

In 1995 the WC went to ten countries and since then some effort went into trying to expand the international game. The problem was the top three countries were lifting their standard and while France fell behind, other aspiring countries were not breaking into the elite circle. To be competitive, players have to participate in one of the three professional leagues, Australia, England and France. So how were the two hemispheres evolving internationally? 

Northern: GB became England and with English players of some ancestry in other UK nations choosing to play for them, there was a reasonable pool of competitive countries. England was above the others but France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales had a decent standard.   

Efforts were made to assist countries. Italy and Lebanon would draw on Australians who qualified when a World Cup came around. North America has tried too. However, apart from England and France, the other nations have not developed strong domestic competitions and in many cases have slipped backwards in recent times. France has also struggled domestically in recent times leaving England the sole strong Northern nation. 

Southern: The game Down Under was dominated by Australia with NZ occasionally causing an upset. PNG is mad about the game but struggled to translate that into becoming top tier nation with a domestic competition not of a high enough standard.  

Pacific Islanders moving to NZ and more recently Australia have taken to the game. However, the best of these players were picked by the top two countries and the Pacific nations couldn't compete. 

Something changed a few years back when players of Pacific heritage started to play for the island nation their parents emigrated from. This slightly weakened Australia and NZ but massively improved the Pacific countries. Now there are several Pacific nations that are competitive.

Summary. There are currently about eleven countries that are of a reasonable international standard, with heritage players supporting most of these. The imbalance is the Northern Hemisphere provides just four of them and two only for World Cups. England looks south for competition as the gap widens with France.

So on the one hand the international game is in better shape than it has ever been but it's basically a Pacific region success story. It seems the game cannot expand on that situation so internationally this is as good as it gets. 

Pacific Championship 2024 (Men's)

The Pacific Cup and Bowl tournaments have six sides competing (with Samoa away in England). We will look at each separately.

Cup: Australia were favourites although the NZ side was expected to give them a run for their money and Tonga competitive and not to be ruled out. As things transpired, the Kangaroos won both the pool matches but had to work hard in the process. 

It came down to the other two as to who would join them in the final. The highlights are above if you want to watch them before knowing the score.

Tonga came out and led 24-0 just before half time. The Kiwis then took over and came back to draw level but in the end Tonga showed more composure in slotting home the winning field goal while the Kiwis kept missing their attempts. 

The final placings has Australia and Tonga going into the final while NZ takes on the winner of the Bowl group. 

Bowl: PNG were the team tipped to win this division and that's what happened. Fiji was a stern test though. Then Fiji overwhelmed the Cook Is team, the latter started well against PNG but couldn't sustain their effort.

The final placings are shown below. PNG earned a crack at the Kiwis which is a challenge against a side smarting from not making the Cup final as was expected. 

The match between NZ and PNG decided who would be in the Cup competition next time. It put the third ranked Cup side (NZ) up against the winners of the Bowl competition (PNG). 

A tight first half where PNG struggled to turn effort into points was punished by the Kiwis who went ahead at the break 22-6 with two late tries. NZ turned it up in the second half and ran away with it.

In the grand final, Australia lived up to their favourites tag by leading 14-4 at the turn around but had to defend well to take the trophy. Tonga showed they deserved to be in the final but breaking down a resolute defence was a tough ask. 

Pacific Championship 2024 (Women's)

There are seven nations involved, three in the Cup and four in the Bowl. Let's look at how they went.

Cup: Two sides have players in a semi pro league and are head and shoulders above the rest. Australia were hot favourites and won both their matches although the Kiwi Ferns gave them a real test without being able to score. Then the NZ side easily overcame the PNG Orchids but lacked the finishing of the Jillaroos so that kept the scoreline more respectable for PNG. 

The final placings as below so the top two go into the final while PNG will take on the winner of the Bowl competition.

Bowl: This was played in a knock out format. Samoa overcame Tonga and Fiji the Cook Is. This pitted the two winners in the final and the match highlights are shown above in the video. Samoa scoring a last gasp try to win the Bowl tournament and meet PNG in the final.

This is the table below, the top two played twice and the bottom two just one match each.

The final matches are listed below. The winners of the Bowl took on the lowest finishing Cup team. Samoa was too polished for PNG and has won promotion to the Cup. PNG drops down to the Bowl despite the efforts of Elsie Albert who scored both of their tries. 

In the grand final, Australia won as expected. Their defence was exceptional, conceding just four points throughout and came at the very end of the final. The Kiwi Ferns tried but lacked the class to really trouble the Jillaroos.