RL World Cup 2026 Wheelchair Groups

This will be the 5th wheelchair WC, going back to 2008. England and France have won two each. It's not like Australia not to be leading in the sport and they are working overtime playing catch up. They will be serious challengers for the trophy this time.

The semi finalists from the last tournament were automatic qualifiers. One each from the hemispheres (NZ and the USA) were then invited. Finally, two were selected from Europe based on matches played since the last tournament (Ireland and Scotland).

This is the only part of international RL that the Northern Hemisphere leads in terms of numbers playing and the standard it's played at.

For the men's coverage,simply click here. 

For the women's coverage,simply click here.

RL World Cup 2026 Women's Groups

This will be the 7th Women's WC to be held, the original going back to 2000. NZ won the fisrt three and Australia the next three. Ten sides competed last time and the hope was to expand that number, but it has been reduced to eight. 

The two groups are to the right. Even with the reduced number, there will be blow out scores. The quickly improving Southern Hemisphere standard will ensure that. 

Four qualifiers came through the previous tournament placings. Two each from qualifying in their respective hemispheres. I recall Brazil and Canada were two women's sides that performed well last time.

For the men's coverage, simply click here.

For the wheelchair coverage, simply click here.

RL World Cup 2026 Men's Groups

This will be the 17th men's tournament, going back to 1954. The 2025 WC was to be held in France, with 16 men's teams, plus women and wheelchair tournaments included. France pulled out of the hosting role so it was moved to the Southern Hemisphere. The date was moved back to 2026 and the number of men's teams was reduced to 10.

There are three groups as seen to the right. So that all teams play three group games, Groups B and C play a side from the other group. 

England-France, Lebanon-PNG and Samoa-Tonga are the swap over matches. Then on to the semi finals and grand final.

The last competition featured 16 teams but it was decided to go with 10 as it will enhance the financial return and reduce blow out scores. The ten were decided by the top two group finishes in the previous WC (eight), with a Northern and Southern Hemisphere qualifier through an elimination process.

For the women's coverage, simply click here.

For the wheelchair coverage, simply click here.

2025 RL World Cup Update

For those not following the game closely you may not realise that France has pulled out of hosting the 2025 event. It could not be held due to doubts about its financial viability. It's a sad affair considering that France has previously hosted the competition in 1954 (the inaugural event), 1972 and 2000 (partial hosting). It was an idea from the French RL federation that started off the concept of World Cups in the first place and the trophy is named after the president of French RL at the time Paul Barrière.

So what are the options now? Cancel it altogether, postpone it a year or allocate it to another location. The first two will depend on the third option so I'll cut straight to that. Already a few expressions of interest have been made. New Zealand is a major one and a reasonably good case for that. 

A left field offer is from Qatar, a nation that pushes to host international tournaments. FIFA held its last WC there and it was a success without much of a controversy. They don't play the game of RL there but that could be sorted no doubt. The financial success of a WC in Qatar would presumably be a given, with a guarantee from the host. 

If that doesn't come off and NZ decides it isn't quite ready and neither is anyone else, one of the other two options would come into play. They are postponement or cancellation. The latter need not happen but who knows in RL? 

PS. It became the 2026 event, co-hosted by Australia, NZ and PNG.