The next Rugby League World Cup has been pushed back 12 months to 2026 and will take place in the southern hemisphere on a reduced scale. It is the main part of a revamped long-term international calendar that will include the return of an Ashes series for the first time in more than 20 years.
The tournament was due to be staged in France in 2025 before the scheduled hosts withdrew in May, saying a failure to secure certain financial guarantees left them unable to assure the International Rugby League they could stage the event. That left the IRL facing a frantic scramble to secure a new host in time, with New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and even Qatar among those expressing an interest.
The host nation is yet to be confirmed, but the IRL said on Thursday it had agreed at a board meeting in Singapore this week to postpone to 2026, as part of a new cycle for the international game. It also announced that the World Cup will take place in the southern hemisphere, though it will not be in Qatar after they withdrew from the reckoning. Australia and New Zealand appear to be the likely frontrunners, with men’s, women’s and wheelchair tournaments running alongside one another as they did last year in England.
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However, the men’s tournament will be reduced from 16 teams to 10, with the eight quarter-finalists from last year’s tournament – Australia, Samoa, England, New Zealand, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Lebanon and Fiji – automatically qualifying. They will be joined by two qualifiers, with the host nation to be revealed this year.
“We will have an expedited bid process and the host will be identified before the year’s end, once the board has completed its due diligence of those bids,” said Troy Grant, the chair of the IRL.
The long-term plans for the England men’s side have also been revealed, with the return of the Ashes for the first time since 2003. England will travel to Australia in 2025 for a series against the world champions before the Kangaroos head north in 2028.
New Zealand will tour England in 2027 with a World Cup pencilled in for 2030, continuing the timetable of the men’s tournament taking place every four years. The same is not true for the women’s World Cup, though, with that event due to take place in 2026 alongside the men’s tournament before becoming a standalone competition in 2028. It will then take place every two years.
Potential Tri and Four Nations competitions are expected to fill the remaining gaps on the calendar for 2024 and 2029, with England probably competing against fellow northern hemisphere sides and the likes of Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa doing the same on the other side of the world.
It had already been confirmed that Tonga would tour England this autumn, with a three-Test series pencilled in for the end of the season.
