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.

International Test Match Comparison : France RU vs France RL

Rugby league only arrived in France in 1934 but within a few years, it was considered a top nation internationally. It was shamefully banned by the pro-Nazi Vichy government with all assets confiscated. No recompense was paid but RL in France was again prospering in the 1950's anyway. 

Rugby Union arrived in France around the 1870's. It was supposed to be amateur but in due course, the French RU flouted that which led to there being standoffs between them and other nations, international competition suffering. In the 1950's tensions gradually eased and more matches for the Tricolores eventuated.

In the 1960's both codes were playing a similar number of internationals but the French RL was now suffering through internal strife. That meant that the XIII code was losing ground to RU. As RU pursued more internationals, mainly through a consistent Five Nations Championship, RL largely neglected the international scene apart from World Cups.

Five years into the 2020's the contrast in the number of internationals played has become stark. Northern Hemisphere RL needs to get its international act together. Now that France struggles to compete against England yet other NH nations are some way below France, public interest is low for one sided teat matches. That means there is no business case for international matches for a sport already cash strapped.  

Union is blue, League is red. The 2020's cover five years only.

Win percentages are somewhat closer than the number of matches played. The RU side of things is fairly consistent apart from a good start to the 2020's. 

As for Rugby XIII, the decline of the game as a whole in France (from the 1960's) is mirrored in the decline in success. The arrival of the Catalan Dragons as a club in 2000 and its entry into the Super League in 2006 seem to have helped the success rate. More now needs to be done to lift the game in France further.

Others in the series are as follows. Simply click on the country name to go there: Australia, England, New Zealand.

International Test Match Comparison : All Blacks vs Kiwis

How many international test matches were played by the two oval ball codes in NZ? Rugby Union puts much greater emphasis on internationals so obviously the AB's will have played more. Looking at the data going back to the 1960's in decade blocks is how I did it below. The 2020's are for five years so that number is lower as it is half of the other periods.

In the 1960's there was virtually no difference. From there, the RU side grew quickly while the RL side of things was very even. By the 2010's, it was favouring the AB's by nearly 3 to 1. The data surprised me in the early stages as I didn't think it would be that close. The later years were more of what I expected throughout. I didn't realise how much RU had escalated its test programme. The 2020's Kiwi test matches played figure will surely improve.  

As an aside, I decided to also consider success rates. The AB's have a huge reputation here. They play many tests against the Australian Wallabies and the Kiwis also play the Australian Kangaroos often. NZ's strength is RU and Australia's RL so the black columns below were always going to be ahead of the red ones. The exception is the 2020's but it's too early in the decade to draw too much from that. 

Summary: The All Blacks have increased their international calendar with the Kiwis have maintained an even flow. Not surprising with so much emphasis on club RL, which doesn't easily allow for an expanded international programme in RL. That and indifference toward tests on the part of Australian RL officials. 

Others in the series are as follows. Simply click on the country name to go there: Australia, England, France.

International Test Match Comparison : England RU vs England/GB RL

How many international test matches were played by the two oval ball codes in England? Rugby Union puts much greater emphasis on internationals so obviously the RU team will have played more. Looking at the data going back to the 1960's in decade blocks is how I did it. The 2020's are for five years so that number is lower being half of the others. 

One issue is that there have also been GB sides as well. England still played matches each year despite there being GB Lions tours. In addition, the other nations contributing players have done so in large numbers. So the GB RU team is not very English and therefore not counted below.  

In RL, it is different. GB played instead of England and the GB side was overwhelmingly made up of players from England. More recently, GB has been phased out and England is playing as a nation. For those reasons, GB results are counted with England ones below. 

All games against another nation are counted, even if a few may not have been given test match status. Maybe they all were. The noticeable trend as will all RU / RL international match comparisons is how RU has pushed them as time has passed, RL hasn't. Greater emphasis on club competitions in RL is the reason. GB/England played more international games in the 1960's and 70's but by the 2020's it is massively favouring RU and the gap is still widening.

Union is red, league blue.

When looking at win rates, overall there isn't much in it. RU had a very poor two decades to start with but then little difference between them until the latest period. The RL percentage is based on how often they play Australia and to a lesser extent the Kiwis. That has lifted England's success rate in recent times but with the Kangaroos touring in 2025, we can expect the '20' figure to drop.  

Others in the series are as follows. Simply click on the country name to go there: Australia, France, New Zealand.

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.