{"id":672371,"date":"2026-05-15T10:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/672371\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T10:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:42:12","slug":"nrl-2026-kevin-walters-signs-extension-with-kangaroos-will-coach-australia-in-2026-world-cup-two-year-deal-rugby-league-news-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/672371\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Kevin Walters signs extension with Kangaroos, will coach Australia in 2026 World Cup, two year deal, rugby league news"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s official. Kevin Walters will lead the Kangaroos through the 2026 Rugby League World Cup and beyond.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a><\/p>\n

The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) confirmed on Friday that they had signed Walters to a two-year extension.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The former Broncos coach was heavily tipped to keep the job for the showcase tournament after leading Australia to a 3-0 Ashes win in the UK late last year. <\/p>\n

Prior to that, Walters was essentially was heading to England on a trial basis, but a clean sweep made it near impossible for the ARLC to go another route.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very impressed with the feedback from the Kangaroos players when they were surveyed, giving Kevin enormous praise as a coach and motivator,\u201d chairman Peter V\u2019landys said via an ARLC statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cKevin did an outstanding job and I\u2019m very pleased to announce him as the Kangaroos coach for the most important tournament in many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foz confirms Fogarty return, No Walsh | 02:24<\/p>\n

MORE NRL NEWS<\/p>\n

TALKING POINTS: QLD legend\u2019s verdict on big Billy headache… and bold Blues fix<\/a><\/p>\n

FROM \u2018AWFUL\u2019 TO FIXING \u2018NIGHTMARE\u2019: Secret behind shock transformation<\/a><\/p>\n

ORIGIN DAILY: \u2018Shocked\u2019 – Ciraldo defends Bulldogs skipper over Blues snub claims<\/a><\/p>\n

This development means that Walters won\u2019t be able to coach an NRL team until his Kangaroos contract ends in 2028. <\/p>\n

He said the opportunity to coach the Kangaroos in a World Cup will be a \u201chuge honour\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorld Cups always provide the biggest challenges, and I\u2019m looking forward to assembling a great, experienced staff and playing group to have a successful tournament,\u201d Walters said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very grateful for this opportunity. I never thought in my wildest dreams I\u2019d be Kangaroos coach in a World Cup. It\u2019s very humbling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 World Cup will begin on October 15 and will be held in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

Walters will oversee Australia\u2019s participation in that tournament along with the Pacific Championships in 2027.<\/p>\n

His contract will now run through to June 2028 at the earliest, opening the door for Ivan Cleary to still potentially take over should he see fit after he wraps up as Penrith Panthers coach.<\/p>\n

Cleary revealed earlier in the week that he has ambitions to become a representative coach and while that could also mean taking up the NSW Blues coaching role should it become available, the same goes for the Kangaroos gig.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s official. Kevin Walters will lead the Kangaroos through the 2026 Rugby League World Cup and beyond. Watch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,689,17343,1208,2057,763,653,131347,3194,27296,324357,1736,3583,677,27284,150008,56803,30384,324358,94365,85,52906,56804,30516],"class_list":["post-672371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-daily-telegraph","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-fox-league","tag-fox-sports-news","tag-kangaroos-team","tag-kevin-walters","tag-melanesia","tag-mens-coach","tag-new-zealand","tag-northern-europe","tag-oceania","tag-papua-new-guinea","tag-peter-v","tag-picture-thomas","tag-rugby-league-news","tag-showcase-tournament","tag-signs-extension","tag-sports","tag-team-selection","tag-thomas-lisson","tag-two-year-extension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672371","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=672371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}