{"id":821783,"date":"2026-07-24T22:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T22:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821783\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T22:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T22:48:20","slug":"nrl2026-rlwc2026-wales-eyeing-nrlw-stars-for-rugby-league-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821783\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL2026: RLWC2026; Wales eyeing NRLW stars for Rugby League World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wales coach Tom Brindle has confirmed that he is eyeing off a number of NRLW players to bolster his squad for Rugby League World Cup 2026.<\/p>\n

In their last game before heading to Perth and Sydney, where they are pooled with Australia, Samoa and England, Wales were beaten 14-0 by Canada, who missed out on a World Cup berth to Fiji.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not in the World Cup, we\u2019re a World Cup team and they\u2019ve got a win,” Brindle said, summing up the result as well as anyone could.<\/p>\n

Brindle has his eyes on a couple of NRLW players – whom he would not name – to bolster his squad, but said the result just underlined the mammoth task ahead.<\/p>\n


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\n \"Wales
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\n Wales are looking to bolster their World Cup squad with NRLW talent.
\n \u00a9SWPix
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\n <\/p>\n

\u201cLook, we knew when we started this journey just under five years ago what the challenge was going to be,\u201d Brindle, also the RFL\u2019s head of growth, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew when we qualified what the task was going to be. Now we know the groups, we know what the bigger challenge is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are likely to play against two teams that are getting close to fulltime, that are drawn from NRLW players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said before that the Jillaroos squad, in particular, is some of the best players to play the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us it\u2019s how do we set our own standards and how do we look to compete and how do we look to build on our values around inspiring the next generation and make our families proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brindle said he hoped to add \u201cthree or four\u201d players to the squad beaten by Canada at Neath’s historic The Knoll.<\/p>\n


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\n \"Wales
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\n Wales celebrate after qualifying for RLWC26 by beating Ireland and Netherlands in European qualifiers.
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\n <\/p>\n

On the possibility of recruiting from the NRLW, he commented: \u201cWe\u2019re in a conversation with a couple of players. We\u2019ll see how that goes in the next couple of weeks or so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not that many eligible. Those that are, we\u2019ve been in conversations with and we\u2019ll continue. There were probably only five that were eligible and of those a number aren\u2019t even playing this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ravens captain and lock Megan Pakulis, who now plays for York after a stint in the NRLW with Gold Coast, scored two tries in a bruising encounter in which the visitors produced some hugely impressive goal-line defence.<\/p>\n


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\n \"Canada's
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\n Canada’s Megan Pakulis after her NRLW debut for the Titans.
\n \u00a9Chloe Davis\/NRL Photos
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\n <\/p>\n

After some spirited back and forth in a game played under NRLW rules, which will be adapted for the World Cup, Ravens five-eighth Dani Frinada found a gap around the ruck against retreating defence and sliced through to score.<\/p>\n

Pukulis’ first try was from close range with the defence again in somewhat disarray.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the resumption of play in the second half, the veteran of two World Cups with Canada, latched onto a movement on the left and bustled her way across the tryline.<\/p>\n

Ravens coach Matty Barron, who played nine Tests for Wales, was not worried about his compatriots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got some fantastic players,\u201d he said. \u201cMore time together, they\u2019re gonna be OK.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got that tough Welsh spirit – I know. They\u2019re gonna find a level that\u2019s going to test them for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Canada will be looking to claim their third consecutive Celtic scalp when they take on Scotland at Hawick on July 25, having also beaten Ireland to third place in last year’s IRL Women\u2019s Rugby League World Series in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing off a strong test against Wales, we\u2019re excited for another opportunity to challenge ourselves in Scotland,” Barron said. “Every match is a chance to build towards the 2030 Rugby League World Cup for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also proud to play our part in supporting the continued growth of Scotland\u2019s women\u2019s programme. These fixtures help strengthen the global game and create valuable opportunities for both nations to continue to raise the overall standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will be Scotland\u2019s fourth competitive game – and their first at home – after away encounters in Las Vegas earlier this year, when they beat USA, and Jamaica and Wales in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales coach Tom Brindle has confirmed that he is eyeing off a number of NRLW players to bolster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-821783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821783","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=821783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}