{"id":937078,"date":"2026-10-22T16:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937078\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T16:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:12:09","slug":"mcdermott-blames-rugby-league-world-cup-format-as-england-face-exit-rugby-league-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937078\/","title":{"rendered":"McDermott blames Rugby League World Cup format as England face exit | Rugby League World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian McDermott has conceded England\u2019s hopes of reaching the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals may already be over, the head coach \u00adblaming the tournament\u2019s format and their opening loss to Tonga<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The World Cup has been reduced to 10 teams, down from 16 four years ago. That is largely due to financial reasons when the hosts, Australia, stepped in after France\u2019s withdrawal. That has led to a unique format, with different levels of jeopardy for \u00addifferent countries based on their\u00a0group.<\/p>\n

England are in the three-team Group B with the top two from a combined six-team table of Groups B and C progressing to the semi-finals. Defeat to Tonga last Saturday has made it difficult for England to qualify, with expected victories against France on Saturday and Papua New Guinea next week unlikely to be enough.<\/p>\n

For England to progress, Tonga must beat Samoa on 1 November and England need to win their two group games by a bigger margin than Samoa. McDermott conceded the odds are stacked against his side and was critical of the format.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jeopardy of losing one game in a pool of three is so harsh, it\u2019s almost like we don\u2019t get another chance to straighten things out,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just harsh that we have to take a standing eight count in that first round, but we\u2019re ready to go\u00a0again.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing has gone wrong, it\u2019s just a harsh competition in which you\u2019ve got to hit the ground running, which we didn\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to be diplomatic here. If France held the World Cup, there would have been more teams in it and it would have been more like the usual format. I completely understand that if it has to be reduced to a 10-team competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the easiest thing to do and we end up with situations like this. If you lose one game, you don\u2019t really get a chance to fix it. It\u2019s tough because we now need to rely on other results if we are to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, New Zealand are in the four-team Group A where two teams progress and despite losing to Australia last week <\/a>wins over Fiji and Cook Islands will secure qualification.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand have lost their first game as well, but they\u2019re going to get another go at it,\u201d said \u00adMcDermott. \u201cThe likelihood is that they\u2019ll \u00adquality, their destiny is not lying in other \u00adpeople\u2019s hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

England have to inflict a second heavy defeat on Les Bleus after France\u2019s 78-4 loss to Samoa last Friday.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s 30-12 defeat to Tonga drew criticism, but \u00adMcDermott had promised his side would try to play a more enterprising brand of rugby. Also, England had been in Australia for less than a week, after a 48-hour journey from Manchester via London, Singapore and Sydney to reach their camp in Perth.<\/p>\n

\u2018If you lose one game, you don\u2019t really get a chance to fix it,\u2019 says the England head coach, Brian McDermott. Photograph: Anita Reca\/SWpix.com\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

That is perhaps why \u00adMcDermott has resisted the temptation for wholesale changes, with the \u00adWarrington winger Matty Ashton replacing Zach Eckersley in the sole change to the starting lineup.<\/p>\n

England may be going home in a fortnight barring a minor miracle, but McDermott is upbeat about the national team\u2019s long-term prospects. \u201cI\u2019m really pumped about what we\u2019ve done over a short period of time; it\u2019s been remarkable, really,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve come together and looked pretty good. We\u2019ve laid some \u00adfoundations and we\u2019re pretty excited about where this could go. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a great need for change, just give me another three or four games with this mob. Let\u2019s build some \u00adlayers of preparation with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, for that to happen there is likely to be a post-tournament inquest into the national team\u2019s place on English rugby league\u2019s priority list.<\/p>\n

With no mid-season camps, let alone games, and the schedule for a home three-Test series against New Zealand next autumn not yet confirmed, McDermott and his players need more support from above if England are to prove they are victims of the format and not drifting from the top tier of the international game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian McDermott has conceded England\u2019s hopes of reaching the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals may already be over,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-937078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937078","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=937078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}