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2026 Rugby League World Cup
The 2026 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2026) is a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league and is a replacement tournament for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.
| 2026 Rugby League World Cup |
|---|
| .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}10 (men)8 (women)8 (wheelchair) |
| Australia New Zealand Papua New Guinea |
| 52 |
| < 2021 2030 > |
The 2026 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2026) is a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league and is a replacement tournament for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.
Like 2021, the 2026 World Cup will see the men's, women's, and wheelchair world cups simultaneously. However unlike 2021, the men's tournament will feature ten teams only, and the planned expansion of the women's and wheelchair tournament will be delayed keeping team numbers at eight in each.
Originally due to be staged in the US and Canada in 2025, the offer was withdrawn due to financial concerns. In 2022, hosting was awarded to France. In May 2023, the French organisers pulled out of hosting the games.
On 3 August 2023, the 2025 tournaments were cancelled by the sport's governing body with the announcement that a new reduced-size tournament would take place in the southern hemisphere in 2026. On 24 July 2024, the IRL announced that Australia would host the 2026 tournament, with a number of games played in Papua New Guinea.
The announcement of the draw and pools on 23 November 2025 included the new stadium, Te Kaha, in Christchurch in the list of venues, adding New Zealand as a host country. Te Kaha is known as One New Zealand Stadium for sponsorship reasons as is due to be opened in April 2026.
The Wollongong Entertainment Centre was selected as the venue for all matches in the Wheelchair World Cup.
14 nations have qualified for the three tournaments:
Note: M=Men's tournament, W=Women's tournament, WC=Wheelchair tournament
As with 2021, the men's, women's, and wheelchair rugby league world cups will be held simultaneously in equal prominence.
| 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 | ||||||
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 | Column 5 | Column 6 | Column 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semi-finals | Final | |||||
| 7 November – Newcastle | ||||||
| B1 | – | |||||
| 15 November – Brisbane | ||||||
| A2 | – | |||||
| SF1 Winner | – | |||||
| 8 November – Sydney | ||||||
| SF2 Winner | – | |||||
| A1 | – | |||||
| B2 | – | |||||
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 | Column 5 | Column 6 | Column 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semi-finals | Final | |||||
| 9 November – Wollongong | ||||||
| B1 | – | |||||
| 13 November – Wollongong | ||||||
| A2 | – | |||||
| SF1 Winner | – | |||||
| 9 November – Wollongong | ||||||
| SF2 Winner | – | |||||
| A1 | – | |||||
| B2 | – | |||||
| Third place | ||||||
| 13 November – Wollongong | ||||||
| SF1 Loser | – | |||||
| SF2 Loser | – |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 | Column 5 | Column 6 | Column 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking semi-finals | 5th/6th play-off | |||||
| 10 November – Wollongong | ||||||
| B3 | – | |||||
| 12 November – Wollongong | ||||||
| A4 | – | |||||
| RSF1 Winner | – | |||||
| 10 November – Wollongong | ||||||
| RSF2 Winner | – | |||||
| A3 | – | |||||
| B4 | – | |||||
| 7th/8th play-off | ||||||
| 12 November – Wollongong | ||||||
| RSF1 Loser | – | |||||
| RSF2 Loser | – |
In Australia, Seven Network won rights to the tournament in a $12 million deal. The deal was confirmed on 22 October 2025.
| Region | Broadcaster | Free-to-Air/Subscription | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | Seven Network | Free-to-Air | All men's, women's, and wheelchair matches. |
| New Zealand | Sky Sport | Subscription | All men's, women's, and wheelchair matches. |
Collectively, matches have been scheduled at eleven venues in nine cities. The Sydney Football Stadium (Allianz Stadium) in Moore Park and Western Sydney Stadium (CommBank Stadium) in Parramatta are the two venues to be used in Greater Sydney.
The other city to supply two venues is Wollongong, where the adjacent venues Wollongong Entertainment Centre (WIN Entertainment Centre) and Wollongong Showground (WIN Stadium) are to be used. The former is to be used for all wheelchair matches. Immediately following on from the opening pair of wheelchair matches, the latter will host a women's match and then a men's match.
The majority of matches have been scheduled in multiple match game day formats. There are just three stand-alone matches. All three involve the Australian men's team.
Eleven venues have been selected.
| Stadium | Location | Games | Game Days | Capacity | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .mw-parser-output .vanchor>:target~.vanchor-text{background-color:#ebf4ff}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .vanchor>:target~.vanchor-text{background-color:#0f4dc9}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .vanchor>:target~.vanchor-text{background-color:#0f4dc9}}1 | PNG Football Stadium | Santos National Football Stadium | Port Moresby | NCD | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 14,800 |
| 2 | Te Kaha | One New Zealand Stadium | Christchurch | Canterbury | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 30,000 |
| 3 | Perth Rectangular Stadium | HBF Park | Perth | WA | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 20,500 |
| 4 | Lang Park | Suncorp Stadium | Brisbane | QLD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 52,500 |
| 5 | North Queensland Stadium | Queensland Country Bank Stadium | Townsville | QLD | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 25,455 |
| 6 | Robina Stadium | Cbus Super Stadium | Robina, Gold Coast | QLD | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 27,690 |
| 7 | Newcastle International Sports Centre | McDonald Jones Stadium | Newcastle | NSW | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 33,000 |
| 8 | Sydney Football Stadium | Allianz Stadium | Sydney | NSW | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 42,500 |
| 9 | Western Sydney Stadium | CommBank Stadium | Parramatta, Sydney | NSW | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 30,000 |
| 10 | Wollongong Showground | WIN Stadium | Wollongong | NSW | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 23,750 |
| 11 | Wollongong Entertainment Centre | WIN Entertainment Centre | Wollongong | NSW | Wheelchair | 20 | 8 | 6,000 |
With the announcement of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup, International Rugby League (IRL) also announced a long awaited international rugby league calendar dating from 2023 to 2030, citing the cancellations of the 2025 tournament as "the perfect opportunity" to refresh the international game. The calendar confirmed the already arranged 2023 Tonga tour of England, and also announced a 2025 Kangaroo tour of England and France (which will include the revival of The Ashes), 2027 Kiwi tour of England, 2028 Kangaroo tour of England, and a 2029 tour between England and an unconfirmed Pacific Nation. The announcement also stated a 2024 Samoa tour of England would be likely (as this was already being discussed by the two nations). This was confirmed in June 2024.
The calendar also announced that the Women's Rugby League World Cup would be a stand alone event starting in 2028. In addition, there would be a renewed focus on regional tournaments to aid in developing lesser rugby league nations. A later announcement confirmed the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup would also be a stand alone event starting in 2029. In 2025, The Guardian credited the success of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup as being key to this change. However following a tendering process, IRL announced that the decision to have three separate tournaments in different years was reversed and the next World Cups would be held concurrently in 2030.
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