Broncos boss fires back at Raiders\u2019 claims<\/a><\/p>\nThe Kangaroos will defend their 2022 title.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cRepresenting your country is the ultimate honour and doing so in a World Cup is the ultimate stage. The talent, skill, physicality, passion and raw emotion on display will be something like we have never seen before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be the best and most successful Rugby League World Cup on record.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brailey ready for battle as Raiders 9 | 01:13<\/p>\n
International Rugby League (IRL) Chairman Troy Grant believes the international game has never been more competitive. <\/p>\n
\u201cInternational Rugby League has never been more competitive and there will be genuine superstars across all groups and stages in this tournament.<\/p>\n
The Jillaroos will defend their 2022 title.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cA World Cup is about more than international glory. The biggest stars on the planet will put everything on the line for their country and fans will experience a level of passion and intensity that very few events can rival both on the field and in the stands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the popularity of Rugby League soaring to unprecedented heights, the international game is riding a wave of momentum into what will be the biggest global showcase the game has seen across the Men\u2019s, Women\u2019s and Wheelchair formats next October and November.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tedesco re-signs with Roosters | 00:36<\/p>\n
MEN\u2019S TOURNAMENT<\/p>\n
The 10-team Men\u2019s tournament will include one pool of four and two pools of three nations. <\/p>\n
The pools are:<\/p>\n
Group A<\/p>\n
Australia<\/p>\n
New Zealand<\/p>\n
Fiji<\/p>\n
Cook Islands<\/p>\n
Group B<\/p>\n
England<\/p>\n
Samoa<\/p>\n
Lebanon<\/p>\n
Group C<\/p>\n
Tonga<\/p>\n
PNG<\/p>\n
France<\/p>\n
Group A teams will each play three matches against the other teams in Group A. Group B and C teams will each play three matches against the teams in the adjacent group (ie Group B teams will play Group C teams only).<\/p>\n
The Men\u2019s tournament will kick off at Allianz Stadium on Thursday, October 15, with the heavyweight clash between the top two world-ranked teams, the Kangaroos and the Kiwis. The opening weekend will also feature a clash between England and Tonga at Perth\u2019s HBF Park, on Saturday, October 17.<\/p>\n
The Kangaroos will then face Fiji at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday, October 25, and the Cook Islands at QLD Country Bank Stadium on Saturday, October 31.<\/p>\n
The Group stage culminates with a match between Pacific giants Tonga and Samoa, at CommBank Stadium, on Sunday, November 1.<\/p>\n
The top two teams from Group A will progress to the Semi-Finals, while the top two teams from a combined table of Group B and Pool C will progress to the Semi-Finals.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s matches will be played across Sydney, Port Moresby, Perth, Newcastle, Christchurch, Brisbane, Wollongong, Gold Coast and Townsville.<\/p>\n
Men’s 2026 RL WC draw. Source: NRL.com.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
WOMEN\u2019S TOURNAMENT<\/p>\n
The eight-team Women\u2019s tournament will feature two Groups of four:<\/p>\n
Group A<\/p>\n
Australia<\/p>\n
England<\/p>\n
Samoa<\/p>\n
Wales<\/p>\n
Group B<\/p>\n
New Zealand<\/p>\n
PNG<\/p>\n
France<\/p>\n
Fiji<\/p>\n
The Women\u2019s tournament will kick off on Friday, October 16 with a clash between the all-conquering Australian Jillaroos and Samoa at CommBank Stadium.<\/p>\n
Each team will play three matches against the other teams in their Group. The top two teams from each Group will progress to the Semi-Finals.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s Group matches will be played across Sydney, Port Moresby, Perth, Newcastle, Christchurch, Wollongong and Gold Coast.<\/p>\n
Newcastle\u2019s McDonald Jones Stadium and Sydney\u2019s Allianz Stadium will host double-header Semi-Finals across the Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s tournaments.<\/p>\n
Women’s 2026 RL WC draw. Source: NRL.comSource: Focus On News<\/p>\n
WHEELCHAIR TOURNAMENT<\/p>\n
The eight-team Wheelchair tournament, played in its entirety at Wollongong\u2019s WIN Entertainment Centre, features two groups of four:<\/p>\n
Group A<\/p>\n
England<\/p>\n
Ireland<\/p>\n
Wales<\/p>\n
USA<\/p>\n
Group B<\/p>\n
France<\/p>\n
Australia<\/p>\n
Scotland<\/p>\n
New Zealand<\/p>\n
The opening match will coincide with a Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s double header at WIN Stadium on October 30.<\/p>\n
Wheelchair 2026 RL WC draw. Source: NRL.comSource: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL have announced the draw for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup with the pools confirmed for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[172855,172854,2095,1724,64,63,689,172761,17057,172863,19307,1208,2057,763,2485,172858,172857,28537,172861,23417,26779,172853,4415,55319,27296,761,762,673,1736,2041,2067,3583,158,677,27284,49652,701,38762,5994,85,670,149420,3586,2614,12000,172862,172859,172856,172864,172860],"class_list":["post-302811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-a-group","tag-adjacent-group","tag-america","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-boss-fires","tag-city-of-manchester","tag-competition-structure","tag-cook-islands","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-fox-league","tag-gold-coast","tag-group-matches","tag-heavyweight-clash","tag-host-cities","tag-ie-group-plc","tag-international-game","tag-ireland","tag-irl","tag-james-tedesco","tag-lebanon","tag-melanesia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-south-wales","tag-new-zealand","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-northern-europe","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-papua-new-guinea","tag-port-moresby","tag-queensland","tag-raw-emotion","tag-scotland","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-troy-grant","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-western-asia","tag-wheelchair-competitions","tag-wheelchair-fixtures","tag-wheelchair-tournament","tag-wheelchair-tournaments","tag-will-progress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}