After four years, the Rugby League World Cup is almost upon us, a year later than originally scheduled.
Hosts France announced their withdrawal from hosting the competition in 2023, prompting the cancellation of the 2025 Rugby League World Cup, with Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea stepping in as hosts for the delayed 2026 iteration.
With the cancellation of the 2025 World Cup came a new format for 2026, with the tournament reduced from 16 teams to 10.
With that reduction creates a requirement for a new format, with 10 teams not naturally lending itself to the round robin format used in 16-team tournaments.
A round robin will still be used, albeit with one group of four and two groups of three. In Pool A, Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji and New Zealand will all face each other once with the top two teams progressing to the semi-finals.
Where it gets a little more complicated is that Pool B and C will essentially be merged into one table of six teams, and the three teams from each pool will play the three teams from the other pool, to all play the same amount of fixtures as Pool A.
For example, England, Lebanon and Samoa are all in Pool B, but won't play each other. Instead, they'll play the three teams from Pool C: France, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.
The two teams with the best records from Pools B and C will progress to the semi-finals.
The team from Pools B and C with the best record will play the runners-up from Pool A in the first semi-final in Newcastle on 7th November, and the team from Pools B and C with the second-best record will play the winners from Pool A on 8th November in Sydney.
The winners of those two matches will meet in the final on 15th November in Brisbane.
Pool A
Pos. | Team |
1 (Q) | Australia |
2 (Q) | Cook Islands |
3 | Fiji |
4 | New Zealand |
Pool B & C
Pos | Pool | Team |
1 (Q) | B | England |
2 (Q) | C | France |
3 | B | Lebanon |
4 | C | Papua New Guinea |
5 | B | Samoa |
6 | C | Tonga |
