2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup qualification
| 2026 Rugby League World Cup qualification | |
|---|---|
| Number of teams | 7 (from 4 confederations) |
< 2021 2030 > | |
The 2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup qualification will decide the teams that will join the quarter-finalists from the previous World Cup at the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.[1]
Qualification will begin on 22 October 2024 with European qualification tournament.[1]
Background
The allocation of teams for the 2026 World Cup was announced on 7 August 2023. The 2026 edition of the Rugby League World Cup will only feature ten men's teams, down from 16 in 2021. The eight quarter-finalists from the previous World Cup achieved automatic qualification, leaving two spots remaining for the qualification process.[1][2]
The qualification process for the 9th and 10th places will be a two-stage process. The first stage is to establish the representatives from each of the four International Rugby League (IRL) confederations (Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Middle East-Africa) with those representatives advancing to a second and final round of qualification in 2025.
The process announced in August 2023 would have seen qualifying tournaments in all four confederations but subsequent changes by the IRL have changed this. In October 2023 IRL confirmed that only full members of the IRL can take part in the qualifying competition.[3] This left only Cook Islands (Asia-Pacific), Jamaica (Americas) and South Africa (Middle East-Africa) as the only full-member nations for their respective confederations, and therefore will automatically advance to the second round of qualification.
This leaves the European confederation as the only one to stage a confederation tournament to decide their second-round slot allocation.[1][2]
As originally planned, following the conclusion of the European confederation qualification tournament, the 2025 World Series will take place with winners and runners up qualifying for the finals.[1][2][3] In March 2025 the IRL announced that as no viable bids to host the World Series had been received, the World Series would be replaced by two single knockout matches, one for the northern hemisphere and one for the southern hemisphere.[4]
Qualified teams
| Team | Method of qualification |
Date of qualification |
Total times qualified |
Last time qualified |
Current consecutive appearances |
Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | 2021 World Cup Group C winners | 28 October 2022 | 17 | 2021 | 17 | Winners (2008) |
| England | 2021 World Cup Group A winners | 29 October 2022 | 8[a] | 2021 | 8 | Runners-up (1975, 1995, 2017) |
| Australia | 2021 World Cup Group B winners | 29 October 2022 | 17 | 2021 | 17 | Winners (12 times) |
| Fiji | 2021 World Cup Group B runners-up | 29 October 2022 | 7 | 2021 | 7 | Semi-finals (2008, 2013, 2017) |
| Lebanon[b] | 2021 World Cup Group C runners-up | 30 October 2022 | 4 | 2021 | 3 | Quarter-finals (2017, 2021) |
| Tonga | 2021 World Cup Group D winners | 30 October 2022 | 7 | 2021 | 7 | Semi-finals (2017) |
| Samoa | 2021 World Cup Group A runners-up | 30 October 2022 | 7 | 2021 | 7 | Runners-up (2021) |
| Papua New Guinea | 2021 World Cup Group D runners-up | 31 October 2022 | 9 | 2021 | 9 | Quarter-finals (2000, 2017, 2021) |
| France | Northern Hemisphere play-off winners | 25 October 2025 | 17 | 2021 | 17 | Runners-up (1954, 1968) |
| Cook Islands | Southern Hemisphere play-off winners | 9 November 2025 | 4 | 2021 | 2 | Group Stage (2000, 2013, 2021) |
European qualifying
The European confederation qualification tournament took place in October 2024 and was open to all full member nations as of 15 March 2024. The winner of the tournament advanced to the World Series in 2025.[1]
Teams played semi-finals and a final. The semi-finals were based on IRL Rank with highest-ranked playing lowest-ranked and second-highest playing second-lowest. The losing semi-finalists contested a third place playoff; this had no bearing on World Cup qualification, but counted for world ranking points.[7]
Bracket
| Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
| 8 | France | 74 | |||||||
| 20 | Ukraine | 8 | |||||||
| 8 | France | 48 | |||||||
| 17 | Wales | 6 | |||||||
| 11 | Serbia | 0 | |||||||
| 17 | Wales | 48 | |||||||
Semi-finals
| Serbia | 0–48 | Wales |
|---|---|---|
| 1st: 0–30 2nd: 0–18 Report |
Tries: Fozard, Kear, Walker, Evans, Connor Davies, Butt, Worthington, Coope-Franklin Goals: Fozard (7/7), Kear (1/1) |
| Serbia | Position | Wales | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Number | Number | Name | |
| Nikola Cotic | 1 | 1 | Billy Walkley | |
| Rajko Trifunovic | 2 | 2 | Joe Coope-Franklin | |
| Nick O'Meley | 3 | 3 | Mike Butt | |
| David Nofoaluma | 4 | 4 | Will Evans | |
| Andrej Mora | 5 | 5 | Rhys Williams | |
| Jesse Soric | 6 | 6 | Elliot Kear | |
| Vojislav Dedic | 7 | 7 | Josh Ralph | |
| Jake O'Meley | 8 | 8 | Huw Worthington | |
| Sasha Popovic | 9 | 9 | Matty Fozard | |
| Milos Calic | 10 | 10 | Ben Evans | |
| Stefan Arsic | 11 | 11 | Connor Davies | |
| Nikola Djuric | 12 | 12 | Max Clarke | |
| Enis Bibic | 13 | 13 | Sam Bowring | |
| Dzavid Jasari | 14 | 14 | Curtis Davies | |
| Ilija Cotric | 15 | 15 | Matt Ross | |
| Djordje Krnjeta | 16 | 16 | Anthony Walker | |
| Marko Jankovic | 17 | 17 | Ashton Robinson | |
| Aleksandar Pavlovic | 18 | 18 | Fin Yates | |
| Darren Fisher | Coach |
Mark Moxon | ||
| France | 74–8 | Ukraine |
|---|---|---|
| Tries: Vailhe, Budde, Pedrero (3), Vailhen, Pelissier (2), Zenon, Goffin, Jouffret, Aispuro Bichett (2), Martin Goals: Albert (6/10), Aispuro Bichett (3/4) |
1st: 48–0 2nd: 26–8 Report |
Tries: Skorbach, Polata |
| France | Position | Ukraine | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Number | Number | Name | |
| Louis Jouffret | 1 | 1 | Yevhhen Davydov | |
| Nittim Pedrero | 2 | 2 | Tigris Polata | |
| Guilerno Aispuro Bichett | 3 | 3 | Mykhailo Troian | |
| Tanguy Zenon | 4 | 4 | Jonah Ngaronoa | |
| Clement Martin | 5 | 5 | Danylo Vedler | |
| Lucas Albert | 6 | 6 | Oleksandr Skorbach | |
| Thomas Lacans | 7 | 7 | Daniel Janissen | |
| Clement Boyer | 8 | 8 | Oleksandr Syvokoz | |
| Nolan Lopez-Buttignol | 9 | 9 | Dmytro Semerenko | |
| Florien Vailhen | 10 | 10 | Volodymyr Karpenko | |
| Jayson Goffin | 11 | 11 | Yevhenii Trusov | |
| Hnaloan Budden | 12 | 12 | Tom Mencinksy | |
| Mickael Goudemand | 13 | 13 | Victor Tereszko | |
| Eloi Pelissier | 14 | 14 | Yaroslav Davydov | |
| Tiaki Chan | 15 | 15 | Vitalii Puchkov | |
| Hugo Salabio | 16 | 16 | Yevhen Checheta | |
| Justin Sangare | 17 | 17 | Valentyn Korchak | |
| Laurent Frayssinous | Coach |
Dan Beardshaw | ||
Final
| Wales | 6–48 | France |
|---|---|---|
| Tries: Williams Goals: Fozard (1/1) |
1st: 6–20 2nd: 0–28 Report |
Tries: Romano, Rouge (2), Franco, Pelissier, Sangare, Fages, Belmas, Chan Goals: Rouge (6/9) |
| Wales | Position | France | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Number | Number | Name | |
| Billy Walkley | 1 | 1 | Cesar Rouge | |
| Joe Coope-Franklin | 2 | 2 | Hakim Miloudi | |
| Mike Butt | 3 | 3 | Arthur Romano | |
| Will Evans | 4 | 4 | Mathieu Laguerre | |
| Rhys Williams | 5 | 5 | Romain Franco | |
| Elliot Kear | 6 | 6 | Ugo Tison | |
| Josh Ralph | 7 | 7 | Theo Fages | |
| Huw Worthington | 8 | 8 | Lambert Belmas | |
| Matthew Fozard | 9 | 9 | Alrix Da Costa | |
| Ben Evans | 10 | 10 | Tiaki Chan | |
| Connor Davies | 11 | 11 | Maxime Stefani | |
| Matt Ross | 12 | 12 | Mathieu Cozza | |
| Sam Bowring | 13 | 13 | Mickael Goudemand | |
| Curtis Davies | 14 | 14 | Eloi Pelissier | |
| Anthony Walker | 15 | 15 | Justin Sangare | |
| Ashton Robinson | 16 | 16 | Clement Boyer | |
| Sam Grice | 17 | 17 | Anthony Marion | |
| Mark Moxon | Coach |
Laurent Frayssinous | ||
Inter-confederation play-offs
The 2025 World Series was initially intended be the inter-confederation qualification tournament for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.[1] The winner and the runners-up were to qualify for the World Cup.[2]
In September 2024, South Africa (who will participate in the tournament) submitted a proposal to host the World Series, in attempt to strengthen their bids to host the 2028 Women's World Cup and 2030 Men's World Cup.[11]
On 18 March 2025, the International Rugby League announced no viable bid to host the World Series had been made and as such two playoff matches would be held in its place. The Northern Hemisphere playoff will see France host Jamaica as a one-off match, and the Southern Hemisphere playoff will see the Cook Islands host South Africa as a curtain raiser to the men's and women's 2025 Pacific Cup final double header.[12]
France had planned a warm up fixture against Australia ahead of their qualifier (which Australia also wanted as a warm up fixture ahead of the 2025 Ashes series).[13] However, this was vetoed by Australia's Rugby League Players Association and was replaced by two joint training sessions in London.[14]
The Cook Islands participated in the 2025 Pacific Bowl ahead of their playoff,[15][16] whereas South Africa played a warm-up fixture against Niue on 4 November.[17]
Matches
| France | 36–0 | Jamaica |
|---|---|---|
| Tries: 7 Griffier 8', 78' Yaha 28', 54' Séguier 15' Bousquet 46' Darrélatour 72' Goals: 4 Mourgue (4/7) |
1st: 16–0 2nd: 20–0 Report |
| France | Position | Jamaica | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Number | Number | Name | |
| Arthur Mourgue | 1 | 1 | Ben Jones-Bishop | |
| Léo Darrélatour | 2 | 2 | Jack Rampton | |
| Arthur Romano | 3 | 3 | Jimmy Morgan | |
| Enzo Griffier | 4 | 4 | Christopher Ball | |
| Fouad Yaha | 5 | 5 | Jamin Williams | |
| César Rougé | 6 | 6 | James Woodburn-Hall | |
| Théo Fages | 7 | 7 | Kieran Rush | |
| Jordan Dezaria | 8 | 8 | Delaine Gittens-Bedward | |
| Alrix Da Costa | 9 | 9 | Ashton Golding (c) | |
| Romain Navarette | 10 | 10 | Dec Tomlinson | |
| Louis Grossemy | 11 | 11 | AJ Wallace | |
| Paul Séguier | 12 | 12 | Keenen Tomlinson | |
| Benjamin Garcia (c) | 13 | 13 | Keenan Ramsden | |
| Anthony Marion | 14 | 15 | Jordan Andrade | |
| Julian Bousquet | 15 | 16 | Leo Evans | |
| Justin Sangaré | 16 | 17 | Isaac Coleman | |
| Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet | 17 | 19 | Harlen Smith | |
| Ugo Tison (not used) | 18 | 18 | Joshua Hudson-Lett (not used) | |
| Laurent Frayssinous | Coach |
Jy-mel Coleman | ||
| Cook Islands | 58–6 | South Africa |
|---|---|---|
| Tries: 11 Niukore 39', 66' Cowley 57', 77' Ulberg 9' Moale 23' Marsters 36' Iro 51' Piakura 56' Teague 74' Ngatikaura 80' Goals: 7 Marsters 24', 40', 55' (3/6) Ioka 63', 76', 78' (3/4) Iro 80' (1/1) |
1st: 20–6 2nd: 38–0 Report |
Tries: 1 De Vlieg 18' Goals: 1 Beukes 19' (1/1) Sin bin: Perry 30' to 40' |
| Cook Islands | Position | South Africa | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Number | Number | Name | |
| Esom Ioka | 1 | 1 | Luke De Vlieg | |
| Paul Ulberg | 2 | 2 | Niel Beukes | |
| KL Iro (c) | 3 | 3 | Callum McMenemy | |
| Reubenn Rennie | 4 | 4 | Brynn Du Rand | |
| Teapo Stoltman | 5 | 5 | Brady McMillan | |
| Cassius Cowley | 6 | 6 | Coby Thomas | |
| Esan Marsters | 7 | 7 | Kamren Cryer (c) | |
| Makahesi Makatoa | 8 | 8 | Shane Mackenzie | |
| Mason Teague | 9 | 9 | Kobe Martin | |
| Davvy Moale | 10 | 10 | Jason Smith | |
| Brendan Piakura | 11 | 11 | Ethan Sweet | |
| Marata Niukore (c) | 12 | 12 | Keegan Turner | |
| Pride Petterson-Robati | 13 | 13 | Aden Perry | |
| Rua Ngatikaura | 14 | 14 | Reilly Canning | |
| Reuben Porter | 15 | 15 | Joshua Hill | |
| Justin Makirere | 16 | 16 | Ashley Bull | |
| Rhys Dakin | 17 | 17 | Marcelle Corneelsen | |
| Amare Milford (not used) | 20 | 18 | Kalum Gulliver-Brown (not used) | |
| Karmichael Hunt | Coach |
Darryl Fisher | ||
Notes
- ^ Competed as part of Great Britain in nine previous tournaments, finishing as champions on three occasions (1954, 1960, 1972).
- ^ On 14 March 2024, Lebanon had their membership downgraded from full to affiliate member, however as Lebanon had already qualified for the World Cup, their tournament status is unaffected.[5][6]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "Rugby League World Cup qualification and World Series format revealed amid eligibility shakeup – The Roar". October 7, 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Rugby League World Cup qualification: Revamped tournament settles on new process". Sporting News. 8 October 2023. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ a b "International Rugby League Board confirms details for World Series, World Cups". Rugby League International Federation. 7 October 2023. Archived from the original on 8 October 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ "France, Jamaica and South Africa Final RLWC Qualifying Schedule Confirmed". europeanrugbyleague.com. ERL. 18 March 2025. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
- ^ "International Rugby League Membership: Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Scotland reclassified". Rugby League International Federation. 14 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
- ^ "Scotland & Ireland see 2026 Rugby League World Cup qualification hopes ended". Love Rugby League. March 15, 2024.
- ^ "Men's European World Cup qualifying details confirmed". europeanrugbyleague.com. ERLF. 25 July 2024. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
- ^ "Senior International Matches 2024 - Game 1 - Serbia 0 lost to Wales 48".
- ^ "Senior International Matches 2024 - Game 1 - France 74 def. Ukraine 8".
- ^ "Senior International Matches 2024 - Game 1 - France 48 def. Wales 6".
- ^ "'Eager to seize this chance': South Africa begins road to RLWC2026". RLIF. 18 September 2024. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- ^ "RLWC2026 men's qualifying play-offs announced". RLIF. 18 March 2025. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
- ^ "Ashes dates 'revealed' as Australia warm-up game in France on agenda". Love Rugby League. 18 March 2025.
- ^ "Ashes countdown—Kangaroos to clash with France for first time since 2017 | Sporting News Australia". www.sportingnews.com. 11 October 2025. Retrieved 20 October 2025.
- ^ "Pacific Championships draw announced". International Rugby League. 6 Aug 2025. Retrieved 6 Aug 2025.
- ^ "2025 Pacific Championships draw announced". NRL. 6 Aug 2025. Retrieved 6 Aug 2025.
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GMCPGrYCq/
- ^ Bower, Aaron (26 October 2025). "International rugby league sets HUGE all-time attendance record". Love Rugby League. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
- ^ Ousty, Raphaël (18 October 2025). "Les arbitres pour France – Jamaïque désignés". Treize Mondial (in French). Retrieved 19 October 2025.