Countdown begins to 2026 World Cup
Brad WalterSenior NRL Reporter
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Mon 20 Oct, 2025
The countdown to IRL Rugby League World Cup 2026 has begun with the most anticipated tournament in international rugby league history set to kick off in October next year.
The 2026 World Cup will feature 26 Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair teams from up to 16 nations playing 51 matches over five weeks in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The streamlined format for RLWC2026 will ensure the 17th edition of the Rugby League World Cup since 1954 is the most competitive and meaningful yet, with more teams than ever capable of winning.
Global qualifying tournaments are continuing to determine the remaining Men’s and Women’s berths at the 2026 World Cup.
The teams already confirmed are:
Men (RLWC2021 quarter-finalists)
- Australia
- Samoa
- New Zealand
- England
- Lebanon
- Tonga
- Fiji
- Papua New Guinea
Women
- Australia (Winner)
- New Zealand (Final)
- Papua New Guinea (Semi-final)
- England (Semi-final)
- France (European Qualifier 1)
- Wales (European Qualifier 2)
- Samoa (Pacific Qualifier)
Wheelchair
- England (RLWC2021 Winner)
- France (Final)
- Wales (Semi-final)
- Australia (Semi-final)
- Ireland (Europe)
- Scotland (Europe)
- New Zealand (Pacific)
- United States (Americas)
The remaining two Men’s berths will be determined in Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere play-offs:
- France v Jamaica in Albi on October 25
- Cook Islands v South Africa in Sydney on November 9.
The final Women’s berth will be decided at the inaugural IRL World Series 2025 in Canada, with nations from each of the four regions qualifying for the tournament. They are:
- Canada (Americas)
- Fiji (Pacific)
- Ireland (Europe)
- Nigeria (Africa)
Canada will meet Fiji and Ireland face Nigeria in sudden-death semi-finals on October 21 at Terry Fox Stadium, Brampton.
The two winners will then play off on October 26 for the eighth RLWC2026 Women’s spot.
The 2026 World Cup will include matches in Papua New Guinea, and will showcase the cultures of the Pacific, where the majority of men’s and women’s teams come from.
The schedule is set to include double-headers and triple-headers to give fans added value for ticket prices.
First held in France in 1954, the Rugby League World Cup is the second oldest sporting world cup after the FIFA World Cup.
The Rugby League World Cup has followed a variety of formats, with the number of teams ranging from four to 10 in 2008, 14 in 2013 and 16 in 2017 and 2022.
With Tonga’s emergence as a Pacific powerhouse in 2017, Samoa creating history by qualifying for the final of RLWC2021 at Old Trafford, Fiji having been semi-finalists in 2008, 2013 and 2017 and only losing narrowly to New Zealand in the quarter-final of the last World Cup, and PNG being on the rise, the international game has never been more competitive.
Men
With the IRL Board making the decision to reduce the number of men’s teams from 16 to 10, the 17th iteration of the Rugby League World Cup promises to be the most keenly contested yet.
In the past three years:
- Toa Samoa beat England in extra time to qualify for the final of the last World Cup in England in 2022
- New Zealand inflicted a record defeat of Australia in the final of the 2023 Pacific Cup
- Tonga beat New Zealand in extra time to reach the final of the 2024 Pacific Cup.
Since the last World Cup, England have beaten Tonga and Samoa and are now preparing to take on the Kangaroos in the first Ashes series for 22 years and the first meeting of the traditional rivals since the final of RLWC2017 at Suncorp Stadium.
At the same time, the Kiwis, Samoa and Tonga are set to play in a highly anticipated Pacific Cup tournament in Australia and New Zealand, while Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Cook Islands will meet in the Pacific Bowl.
Women
For the first time, there has been a qualifying process for Women’s teams to earn their place at the World Cup.
France and Wales won European qualifying tournaments in 2024, while Fetu Samoa triumphed in the Pacific qualifiers against Fiji, Tonga and Cook Islands to gain their place.
The World Series will act as a repechage, with the four nations qualifying by:
- Nigeria winning a two-match series against Kenya for the Middle East Africa berth
- Canada winning the Americas RLWCQ tournament featuring Jamaica and USA
- Ireland beating Greece in a play-off between the runners-up of the European qualifying pools
- Fiji being runner-up in the 2024 Pacific Bowl, which doubled as an RLWC2026 qualifying tournament
The winner of World Series 2025 in Canada will secure the eighth and final women’s RLWC2026 berth.
Wheelchair
New Zealand is set to contest the IRL Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup for the first time.
The Wheel Kiwis join Australia, England, France and Wales, who automatically qualified as the semi-finalists at the last World Cup in 2022, along with the United States.
After making their international Wheelchair debut last October against the Wheelaroos, the New Zealand Wheel Kiwis qualify for RLWC2026 as the Asia Pacific representative.
The Wheel Hawks will be the Americas representative at RLWC2026.
Ireland, the back-to-back Celtic Cup winners, and Scotland are the other two nations awarded entry into the Wheelchair World Cup, which will played alongside the Men's and Women's tournaments as it was in England during RLWC2021.