France Women Elite 1: 2026

After extensive searching for historical information of the women's game in France, it became obvious that it has virtually zero recognition or interest. Had I been following year by year, I presume I'd have more information but posted, it doesn't remain long on the Internet. 

Cup Final: Lescure Arthes led 14-4 at half time and 20-4 with a quarter of the game remaining. Then St Estève Catalan made a stunning comeback but just fell short 20-18. 

League: To the right is the 2026 season. Only five sides competed, although the Elite 2 has seven teams. Why not six each? Regardless, each team plays the others twice.

The top two are evenly matched but the rest are some way below, the points difference indicating the gap. Limoux is straddles the two each side of it. 

Finals: In the semi finals, Lescure Arthes cruised into the final 60-0, The other game was a draw, with Limoux advancing due to outscoring St Estève Catalan 4-3 in tries. A novel way of deciding.

The Final: The semi final scores probably determined who was likely to win if not the league table. Lescure Arthes won 46-6 after leading 10-6 at the break. Full coverage of the game is below.  You may want to go past some extraneous content.

UK Women's Challenge Cup: 2026

The women's version is different to the men's. There were eleven teams participating and they played in four groups of three with one group with just two sides. Then it went to the quarter finals with only three teams dropping out. For the two team group, they both qualified, which I found odd.

It didn't make any difference as one team is head and shoulders above the rest of the teams. That is confirmed by the results below. In fact, depth is one thing the women's game in the UK is embarrassingly short of. All about a lack of funding for many clubs.

In the quarter finals, only Huddersfield put up any sort of resistance. In the semi finals, Leeds and Saints was a contest but Wign overran York. Saints won the final two years ago, defeating Leeds. Last year, Wigan won the trophy 42-6. The question was could Saints reverse that? 

Only a rabid Saint's apologist would have thought so. Wigan thrashed them 52-6 after leading 28-6 at the break. The highlights video is below. 

Photo: Wigan Warriors.

UK Men's Challenge Cup: 2026

Sixty seven teams over seven rounds. The last eight assembled for round five, all of the survivors being in the top Super League. The four winners I would have tipped to progress. The same could have been said in round six as cup holders Hull KR defended their title against twenty one times winner Wigan Warriors.

When these two sides met just over a week ago, KR put out a full strength side against a Wigan reserve team. KR cruised home 62-4. This time it was the best Wigan side.

Wigan came in at half time up 10-4 but looked in control. A momentum swing was required by Hull but it never came. Wigan ran away with the final 40-10. To see highlights, there is a video below.  

SOO Women: 2026

The 2026 State of Origin series went to NSW 3-0. The scores were low but NSW had the edge and were clearly the better team this year. Historically that hasn't been the case. If you click here, you will see that before it was called SOO, Queensland were very much the better state. 

Then in 2018, it became the SOO series and has been much more closely contested. It has also expanded to become a three match seres since 2024. As the SOO, NSW now has a 5 to 4 advantage or a 56% win rate. NSW also now has a 63% game win rate. 

Is NSW going to enter a period of superiority? It would be foolish to assume so, but for now they clearly are the stronger state. The highlights of game three can be seen on the video.

France Elite 2: 2025-26

The regular season of the second division in France has concluded. The nine competing sides go into the six team knock out competition. Green shows the top six. 

The League: The top sides changed places at the top, Villegailhenc Aragon (VARL) this time the winners. Two sides that missed out on the finals last year, made it through in 2025-26. Of course, that means two that did last year failed this time around. 

Photo: VARL Facebook (some of their fans celebrating).

The Finals: The top two teams had a bye and then took on the winners of the first knock out round, Pamiers and Realmont. They progressed comfortably, VARL by 56-6 and Palau 40-12.

This was VARL's third consecutive grand final, having lost both. Palua was in its second consecutive final, defeating YARL last year by 20-17. It was third time lucky for VARL, winning 30-18 after leading 12-6 at the break.   

Women's UK Championship: 2026

The 2026 Women’s National Championship will feature 12 teams competing across 11 rounds. The clubs are in the north of England, except obviously for London and Cardiff. Cardiff in particular impresses me. There are no men's teams currently doing what they are in representing the south of Wales in the code. 

The top four teams will progress into the play-offs. That means entering the semi finals, the winners progressing to the division final. The winner will then progress to a promotion play off final. They will take on the lowest club from Super League to try and earn a place in the Betfred Women’s Super League. So there is a promotion to be aspiring to. 

Women's UK Super League: 2026

The 2026 competition will feature eight clubs playing in the first division. Each team will play each other once, making that seven games. Then the top and bottom four will divide off into two divisions of four each. The teams in each new division will play each other twice. 

The winner of the top division wins the league shield and goes straight into the grand final, Second and third will play off to see which one joins them.  

The lower four will also play each other twice, the bottom team then having to play the winner of the Championship (or second divsion) to see if they are relegated and replaced by a team below or if the status quo is maintained. 

The clubs to the right are the eight sides that will contest the 2026 Super League. Wigan will be the team to beat. 

France Lord Derby Cup : 2025-26

The competition was first played during the 1934-35 season. The 85th edition has been completed and the results are below. The orange colour represents Elite 2 teams and green Elite 1.

Villegailhenc-Aragon XIII did some giant killing, making it to the semi final. Last year's losing finalist Albi was the reason for the end of Elite 2 hopes and it was joined by favourite Carcassonne.

The final was a decisive victory for the favourite 44-6 and Albi had to settle for second place again. The first half was close (16-6), but the score ballooned out in the second. 

Recent winners are as follows:

2023: AS Carcassonne

2024: AS Carcassonne

2025: St Estève-Catalan

The video is the Luc Nitard U19 final and Lord Derby final. 

Rule Refinements

Rugby league administrators tweak rules to speed up the game and nullify tricks to slow it down. Some are also to ensure a level of protection for players. What are some problems I see and what rule changes would I implement accordingly?

Momentum Problem: Recent refinements such as "six again" have means a team with momentum in its favour are rewarded and more one sided scores are occuring as a result. Do those in charge not realise that people want to see closer encounters?

Possible Solution: The team that just conceded points restarts the game with a tap on the half way line. They retain possession and have a chance to put pressure on the opponent and take the momentum back. Soccer does this for that very reason.

Touchline Problem: A player with possession fearing being forced over the touchline. It reduces the attacking side using the full width of the field.

Possible Solution: If it isn't the last tackle, a player forced into touch is considered tackled and it adds one to the tackle count. The tackled player comes in ten metres and plays the ball. It would encourge touch line running which is exciting to watch.

Dragging Problem: Dragging a tackled player. 

Possible Solution: Pushing or forcing a ball carrying player back over his try line or into touch should be rewarded. Dragging gives too much reward to the attackers, forcing officials to sometimes blow the whistle to stop it. Why not just ban it?

Golden Point Problem: Golden point becomes an exercise in drop goal attempts. 

Possible Solution: Drop the golden point. Make it a set period of time instead (like soccer), thereby making one point less valuable. A second possibility is also to reduce the extra time players to say eleven. This would open up the game and encourage try scoring.

WCC History: 1976-2026 By Matches

This is mainly a 'detail' article. For those who want to see all the matches in detail, please look at the lower chart. Yellow is played in Australia, blue for England. HS means home team score and AS away team score. HW means hemisphere win, A and E is self explanatory. 

Before that is a clarification chart. Many feel that if more matches were played in Australia, then they would have done better. I think that is correct but not to an extreme degree. 

Below we see three rows. The first shows all 30 matches played, with England having a 53% win rate. Then matches played in Australia, five with a 60% success rate. Third, games played in England and Engalnd managing a 56% win rate.

From this we see that while the sample for Australia is low, they have lost two of them. In fact, while England has done better at home as expected, the percentage difference is surprisingly close. 

A larger number of games in Australia would surely have increased the percentage in that country's favour. Yet, it's by no means a given that they would have won an overwhelming number of them.

Please note: Any series or matches involving more than the top two from each country are not included here.

WCC History: 1976-2026 By Club

The World Club Challenge is the top club from Australia and England start the new season with a match to determine the world champion. It is taken much more seriously in the UK whereas some in the Antipodes feel they are the best, so why bother?

Well, there have been 30 years that games have been played. A few seasons had more than one match, which clashes with the objective of finding the best team in the world so they are not counted. Neither is the 1997 year when it wasn't a one off top v top clash. This summary covers the top two from each region played. 

So how have individual clubs fared in the competition? I'm glad you asked, as I have prepared a chart to show exactly that. Look to the right. It is colour coded according to hemisphere.

Wigan have played nine matches over the years and have won five for a 56% win rate. St Helens and Leeds are next with eight appearances each but with a poorer 38% success rate. I obviously haven't been paying attention because I though they had been better than that. 

The Bradford Bulls have the best UK win rate for a side appearing more than once, three from three.

Three Aussie sides have been involved five times each. The Sydney Roosters are the masters at it, winning all that they have been involved with. Melbourne had one victory struck off for salary breaches, but I ignored that. 

The  Penrith Panthers have failed at all four attempts. Five Australian clubs have failed on a single attempt. 

WCC : 2026

Each year, the top sides from Australia and the UK play the World Club Challenge. It is usually played in the UK, so a little bit of advantage there, although UK sides have gone Down Under and won. 

This year it was Hull KR from the UK hosting the Brisbane Broncos from Australia. It was Hull KR's first appearance and Brisbane's 8th. 

It is acknowledged that the game in Australia is stronger due to a larger player pool and financially better off. RL in the UK struggles to put money into player development.  

So how did the 2026 edition go? See the highlights below to find out.

UK Men's Super League : 2026

The 2026 season is to get underway on the 12th of February. The number of teams has been increased from 12 to 14, a move long overdue. It will eliminate loop fixtures where some teams in the league play more often than twice, home and away.

Twelve of the sides are based in the north of England and two are based in the south of France. Hopefully, the geographical spread will widen in due time beyond two regions. London is an obvious expansion location. 

The three new clubs are highlighted in the gold colour. Bradford has a long SL history and a striong following. Toulouse had a brief encounter and hopefully a longer stay this time. York is a first timer, so a new chapter for the code in that picturesque cathedral city.  

One club was relegated and that was Salford. They have formed a new club and that will play in the second division (Championship).

The first game will be between newly promoted York Knights and reigning champions Hull KR. There should be a sell out crowd although York don't do attendance figures so we may never know how many were actually there. We will if it's a sell out. 

To keep up with the scores, go to the BBC website. Then click on 'Scores & Fixtures' and for the league ladder, click on 'Table'. Game highlights can be seen by clicking here. Buckle up. 

 

UK Men's Championship : 2026

The UK second division has just commenced this weekend, the 16th of February. There are 21 sides taking part despite the list showing 22. 

The eagle eyed among you will have noticed that Featherstone is a different colour. That's because they went into administration, an ownership bid to revive the club was rejected by the RFL (governing body). 

Therefore, the club is in a state of hiatus for the time being. I hope the Featherstine fans get their club back soon.

The other team highlighted is Salford, which was demoted from Super League (first division). They too had financial difficulties but the new owners were approved and they will take their place in the competition.

This season's Championship is an amalgamation of it and the lower division, League 1. League 1 was small and not financially strong. It is hoped that this combination will provide more games, more revenue and more variety. The negative could be some blow out scorelines. 

The Championship will have an extended and amended playoff structure, played over four weekends and featuring ten teams. Last year, the Championship playoffs were over three weeks and featured six teams.  

One way to keep in touch with the season is go to the BBC website (click here). Then the 'Scores & Fixtures' tab will show results under the 'Betfred Championship' title. The tab next to it is 'Tables'. Click on that and type 'Championship' in the search box. There you will find the league table, updated as the season progresses.