Men's Internationals: 2026 (Jan-July)

27.02. USA 28-20 Scotland. Location: Las Vegas. USA.
Scotland started strongly and led 12-10 but the USA came back to claim the win. 

02.07. Norway 6-56 Canada. Location: Lillestrøm, Norway.
Canada took an early lead and were ahead 22-6 at the change around. They were too strong for a gallant local side.

05.07. Scotland 22-10 Canada. Location: Hawick, Scotland.
Scotland put the USA loss behind them with a victory back at home. They led 14-6 at half time. 

11.07. Netherlands 6-34 Canada. Location: Dordrecht, Netherlands.
Canada rounded out a successful European tour. They lead 22-0 at the change of ends. 

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. 

Men's International Ranking 2013-2025

I believe these figures are up to November 2025 but there were no matches played in December anyway. Rankings are a guide to where countries are at. Things like how many games are played makes a difference too, not just success. 

The colour coding is based on regions. The Pacific region does best, which is to be expected. It should be even higher but as most matches are played within regions, it creates a slight distortion depending on how strong that region is.  

The recent Men's Asian Championship doesn't seem to have been accepted as official international matches. I think they should but it depends on whether the IRL feels their criteria have been met. The results were not included on their website for international matches played either. Singapore won it and they aren't even on the list!

Wheelchair International Ranking 2022-2025

I believe these figures are up to November 2025 but there were no matches played in December anyway. Rankings are a guide to where countries are at. Things like how many games are played makes a difference too, not just success.

The colour coding is based on regions. Europe is where the strength lies, which is unusual for RL as the Pacific is where the code does best otherwise. They were just slower to get involved and while Australia is trying to remedy that, it isn't easy when the best are playing elsewhere.

Men's Internationals 2025

This list does not include several competitions that were held during the year. It covers friendly matches and a couple of World Cup qualifiers. Northern hemisphere nations are the main ones involved. A friendly match between the USA and Jamaica scheduled for early December was cancelled due to storm damage in Jamaica. 

Photo credit: IRL - Wales v Ireland. Click here to visit the site.

A full match coverage of the France v Jamaica is below. The commentary is in French.

International Test Match Comparison : Kangaroos vs Wallabies

How many international test matches were played by the two of the three oval ball codes in Australia? Rugby Union puts much greater emphasis on internationals so obviously the Wallabies 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 six years so that number is lower.

The increase in international RU matches must surely have reached a peak. Covid did knock it back in 2020. Back in the 1960's, the nearest neighbour NZ didn't want to play the Wallabies because they were of mediocre standard. 

As for the Kangaroo RL side, it's had a constancy. They actually played more tests in the 60's than RU but how that has changed. RL is a sport based around pro clubs with a little time begrudgingly allowed for test matches. 

Winning has been something the Kangaroos always did better than their RU counterparts. It's a more popular sport and has always been professional and that enticed RU players across to the light side. Going pro in the mid 90's encouraged one Wallabies player to proclaim RL would be dead in a short time.

The reality is RL in Australia has strengthened while RU has faltered. The win rate of the Wallabies reflects that from its peak in the 1990's to less than 40% so far this decade. Admittedly, the 2020's is a short period to draw conclusions on but the 2025 win rate was 33%, so yet another poor season for the side in yellow. 

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

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 six years so that number is lower. 

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 with all RU / RL international match comparisons is how RU has pushed them as time has passed but 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, that figure dropped but still the best yet.  

Others in the series are as follows. Simply click on the country name to go there: Australia, France, 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 six 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 over 5 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. 

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. 

Summary: The All Blacks have increased their international calendar with the Kiwis have maintained an even flow until recently. 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 : 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.

Six 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. France struggles to compete against England and other NH nations are some way below France. Public interest is low for one sided test matches. That means there is no business case for international matches for a sport already cash strapped.  

Union is blue, League is red. Remember, the 2020's cover six 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. Also, top RL nations not playing France is also helping their win 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.

Inaugural Asian Championship : 2025

While this is a new championship, there were one off championship games between the Philippines and Thailand in 2012 and 2013. The Philippines won both, 86-0 and 44-10. That was the end of that until 2025 when four nations competed in the Philippines. 

This new competition included Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines and Singapore. The first round winners went into the final, while the two losing teams played the 3rd / 4th place game. The two best sides may not make the final but keeping the tournament to three days meant that compromise was necessary.

In this instance, it was likely the two best sides did qualify for the final, going by the scorelines. As it turned out, Japan narrowly defeated Hong Kong 34-30 and Singapore overwhelmed the hosts Philippines 62-0 after leading 44-0 at the break. 

It is hoped that Malaysia and Thailand will join for the next edition. It's a nice addition to the RL international scene which has over the years been badly neglected. 

Men's Pacific Championship : 2025

The 2025 series was without Australia because they were touring England. Instead, the Cup had NZ, Tonga and Samoa. PNG, Fiji and the Cook Is made up the Bowl competition.

Cup: The first match was a close encounter with the Kiwis scraping home against a fired up Samoa. Then both of those teams had comfortable wins over a disappointing Tonga, their coach saying they played well below their potential. 

The final was expected to be close and in the frist half it was just that. However, the Kiwis took control in the second half and ran away with the match. The highlights are below.

Bowl: There is no final for this tournament, the winner decided over three rounds. Fiji got a good win over the Cook Is and then PNG did likewise despite the Cook Is team performing much better. The third game was effectively a final between the two unbeaten sides. PNG was far too strong, even allowing for Fiji missing a couple of experienced players. 

There won't be a 2026 competition due to the World Cup being held. 

Ashes Tour : 2025

The term 'Ashes' comes from the game of Cricket and was carried over to Rugby League. There has to be at least three matches for the term to be used. In typical RL fashion, the Ashes series has been a bit haphazard. It's been over twenty years since the last series was held. 

The first Ashes Tour was in 1908/09, which England won 2-1. The series had been won 20 to 19 in Australia's favour going into this series. England dominated the earlier part of its being contested, then Australia returned the favour in more recent times. 

On to 2025, where Australia never dominated but was able to do enough to win. The scorelines may suggest otherwise but England fought hard and made the tourists work for their 3-0 series whitewash.

England could have even won the series but for one telling reason. Failing to turn effort and field position into points. Averaging six points per match is never going to win you anything. Huffing and puffing only gets you so far. 

Australia will accept they weren't at their best in the series but they had a stoic defence and enough attacking skill to do the business. The last score on particular of 30-8 was flattering to the winner, yet it summed up the series succinctly. 

I'm not into bagging coaches but I will make an exception here. England's Shaun Wane is full of passion but he is deficient in decision making. Surely his tenure is over and England will be the better for his departure. I don't particularly rate the Australian coach either but the players are good enough to do the business anyway. England were not good enough to do the same. 

Highlights of the third match is below. 

Wheelchair RL Internationals : 2025

It's been a relatively quiet calendar for wheelchair RL this year. Six fixtures that I am aware of. Let me know if I've missed any. The Celtic nations provided four of them and a tour by England to Australia being the other two.

The Celtic Cup was won by Ireland, Wales was second and Scotland third. I expected Wales to take this one but Ireland were clearly the best side. Scotland and Ireland then played a friendly later in the year.

Australia were late to get into the wheelchair version of the game and has been well beaten in the past. A top player from England has been coaching Down Under added to a determination to catch up, the series looked promising.

The video above shows highlights of the first test. England rallied late to run away with it but there was a big improvement shown there by the hosts. The second international looked like being an upset to Australia but a late rally and England just got home. 

I'm surprised there wasn't a game between the two heavyweights of this form of the game, England and France. Hopefully that will be addressed in 2026.

European Championships 2025 – Groups B C D

While Group A doesn't seem to be operating, the three levels below are. I assume the top side moves up a division and the bottom side goes down although I don't know where the winner of Group B would go (explanation later in the article). 

So how have the matches gone? With some heritage players allowed, it can create upset results depending on the quality and quantity available. 

Group B: I had no idea who would win this. Serbia were the hot favourites to win the group and they delivered. The Netherlands are progressing well but Malta may have regressed in recent years. The photo above is of the Netherlands v Malta. Photo Source: https://europeanrugbyleague.com/

Group C: I would have picked Ukraine as coming third, yet they have won it convincingly. My expected winner Greece came in second and Italy third.

Group D: I thought it would be between Norway and Germany and so it proved. Germany won the decider 32-18. Czechia was well off the pace but good to see them competing as best they could.

So what is it with Group A? England is far ahead of the others and therefore doesn't support it. England did have a series with Australia this year but they could send a B team but that it rarely does. 

France would be the next ranked side and they had a World Cup decider to concentrate on. Wales and Ireland would be the other two sides and they have just played a friendly international. Group A needs to be an annual event, with England taking it seriously.

Las Vegas 2025 Development Matches

 As part of the Rugby League festival in Las Vegas 2025 were development games. In 2024, the USA and Canada played an international which ended 16-16. For 2025, that was expanded as was the main event. For 2025, the USA Men were scheduled to play their Greece counterparts in two games and the women from those nations one game.

Game 1: The first men's USA v Greece game had to be canceled due to vandalism at the ground they were to play at.  

Game 2: The USA Women then took on Greece, the USA the more experienced. The USA raced to a 34-0 lead at half time and the score could have been anything. However, the second half was more even and it ended 46-0. The highlights are below.

Game 3: The USA men took on Greece with high hopes. The Greek side included locals from the fledgling Greek competition but was fortified with players from Australia with Greek heritage. 

It started as a tussle as each side tried to gain ascendancy. The USA led 10-6 heading into half time but Greece struck twice late to lead 18-10. The second half it was all Greece as their experience and fitness started to count. 46-10 to Greece at the end. Highlights below.

Internationals 2024 : Men's Northern Hemisphere

Below is a list of men's international for the north of the Equator. That's twenty four fixtures in all, not many. The thing is that most are between countries that would be classed as emerging. The two strongest northern nations (England and France) played just one match together (the highlights are below). At least there is the Samoa tour for England and France have World Cup qualifiers. 

The Netherlands did well to play three while Norway could have done better than one I would have thought. Rugby League and Union were under one administration but the Union side decided to remove the five League clubs. The Norwegian sports federation will not recognise League as there is already one Rugby code so no funding.   

There should be more matches but cost is a factor no doubt and friendlies - as most of these are - will be self funded. That said, a tour by the USA to South Africa was organised and presumably self funded so it can be done. 

While calling this the Northern Hemisphere international article, it is any internationals outside of the Australasia and the Pacific region. 

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.