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2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup
The 2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup will be the seventeenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup, and will be one of three major tournaments part of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.
| 2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup |
|---|
| 10 |
| Australia Papua New Guinea New Zealand |
| 18 |
| Tournaments < 2021 2030 > |
The 2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup will be the seventeenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup, and will be one of three major tournaments part of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.
The competition was to be held in October and November 2025, but was moved to 2026 following the withdrawal of France as the host nation. The competition will run in parallel with the women's and wheelchair tournaments.
Due to the rescheduling, the competition will feature 10 teams, reduced from 16. This was done partly to aid in the late rescheduling of the tournament, but also to boost commercial appeal of the tournament aimed criticism of blowout scorelines in the early stages of the 2021 World Cup.
The International Rugby League (IRL) originally decided in 2016 to have the tournaments hosted in the United States and Canada. In December 2019 however, the IRL withdrew the hosting rights due to the promoters, Moore Sports International, being unable to guarantee the staging of the tournaments.
After re-opening the bidding to host the tournaments, the IRL awarded the hosting rights to France. On 15 May 2023, the France 2025 organising committee was forced to withdraw from hosting the tournament, due to financial concerns from the new French government elected in May 2022.
On 3 August 2023 it was confirmed that the tournament would be moved to 2026 and held in the Southern Hemisphere. On 24 July 2024, the IRL announced that Australia would host the 2026 tournament, with a number of games played in Papua New Guinea.
| Australia | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lang Park | Sydney Football Stadium | Newcastle International Sports Centre | Western Sydney Stadium | Robina Stadium |
| Capacity: 52,500 | Capacity: 42,500 | Capacity: 33,000 | Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 27,400 |
| 500km311miles1098765443221 Location of the 2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup venues:.mw-parser-output .col-begin{border-collapse:collapse;padding:0;color:inherit;width:100%;border:0;margin:0}.mw-parser-output .col-begin-small{font-size:90%}.mw-parser-output .col-break{vertical-align:top;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .col-break-2{width:50%}.mw-parser-output .col-break-3{width:33.3%}.mw-parser-output .col-break-4{width:25%}.mw-parser-output .col-break-5{width:20%}@media(max-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .col-begin,.mw-parser-output .col-begin>tbody,.mw-parser-output .col-begin>tbody>tr,.mw-parser-output .col-begin>tbody>tr>td{display:block!important;width:100%!important}.mw-parser-output .col-break{padding-left:0!important}} |
5 Robina Stadium, Robina6 Perth Rectangular Stadium, Perth7 North Queensland Stadium, Townsville8 Wollongong Showground, Wollongong
New Zealand9 Te Kaha
Papua New Guinea10 PNG Football Stadium | .mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0}Australia1 Lang Park, Brisbane2 Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park3 Newcastle International Sports Centre, Newcastle4 Western Sydney Stadium, Parramatta | 5 Robina Stadium, Robina6 Perth Rectangular Stadium, Perth7 North Queensland Stadium, Townsville8 Wollongong Showground, Wollongong | New Zealand9 Te Kaha | Papua New Guinea10 PNG Football Stadium | | .mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0}Australia1 Lang Park, Brisbane2 Sydney Football Stadium, Moore Park3 Newcastle International Sports Centre, Newcastle4 Western Sydney Stadium, Parramatta | 5 Robina Stadium, Robina6 Perth Rectangular Stadium, Perth7 North Queensland Stadium, Townsville8 Wollongong Showground, Wollongong | New Zealand9 Te Kaha | Papua New Guinea10 PNG Football Stadium | | | Perth Rectangular Stadium | North Queensland Stadium | Wollongong Showgrounds | Te Kaha | National Stadium | | Capacity: 20,500 | Capacity: 25,455 | Capacity: 23,750 | Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 14,800 | | | | | | |
On 3 August 2023, the date the tournament was announced, the eight quarter-finalists of the 2021 World Cup (who were all previously qualified for the cancelled 2025 World Cup) were confirmed to have qualified for the tournament. The qualification process for the remaining two slots was announced on 7 October 2023, and will run from 2024 to 2025.
| Team | Method ofqualification | Date ofqualification | Totaltimesqualified | Lasttimequalified | Currentconsecutiveappearances | Previous bestperformance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 2021 | 8 | Runners-up (1975, 1995, 2017) |
| Australia | 2021 World Cup Group B winners | 29 October 2022 | 17 | 2021 | 17 | Winners .mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}(12 times) |
| Fiji | 2021 World Cup Group B runners-up | 29 October 2022 | 7 | 2021 | 7 | Semi-finals (2008, 2013, 2017) |
| Lebanon | 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) |
Australia and New Zealand will play in the opening game at the Sydney Football Stadium on 15 October. Samoa and Tonga will also face each other in the group stage to replicate their successful 2025 Pacific Championship match, to be played at the Western Sydney Stadium. The draw was announced on 23 November 2025.
| Pool A | Pool B | Pool C |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | ||
| Cook Islands | ||
| Fiji | ||
| New Zealand | England | |
| Lebanon | ||
| Samoa | France | |
| Papua New Guinea | ||
| Tonga |
In October 2025, it was reported that the tournament would be played with one group of four and two groups of three, with the top two from Group A advancing to the semi-finals, and the top two teams advancing from Group B or C. Group B and C will play three games as Group A, by playing the teams in the opposite groups.
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 | Column 5 | Column 6 | Column 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semi-finals | Final | |||||
| 7 November – Newcastle | ||||||
| Pool A runners-up | ||||||
| 15 November – Brisbane | ||||||
| Pool B & C winner | ||||||
| 8 November – Sydney | ||||||
| Pool A winner | ||||||
| Pool B & C runners-up | ||||||
The reduction of teams for the 2026 World Cup from 16 to 10 gained criticism from players and associations of lower ranked nations for whom it would now be much harder to qualify for the competition and claims that this would stagger growth of rugby league in these countries. On 22 August 2023, it was reported that a letter signed by 16 member associations was sent to International Rugby League protesting against the reduction of teams and ban on affiliate members.
International Rugby League (IRL) claimed the reduction was to increase the competitiveness of games thus showcasing the sport better. The IRL claimed having lower ranked nations at the 2021 tournament came at a "significant cost" and did not bring "commercial benefits".
A ban on affiliate members was not put in place for the women's and wheelchair world cups.
Ahead of the qualification process, Wales then-head coach John Kear criticised the reduction, stating it sent the wrong message about IRL's commitment to grow the international game and skews qualification in favour of Oceanian teams.
- 2026 Women's Rugby League World Cup
- 2026 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup
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