We\u2019re into the third and final week of the group stages in the men\u2019s tournament at the 2026 Rugby League World Cup: with plenty left to play for.<\/p>\n
The Cook Islands (Pool A), France and Lebanon (both Pool B\/C) have all already been eliminated. Having lost both of their matches so far, none of the trio can make the top two in their respective groups.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Australia have already booked their semi-final spot: winning both of their matches in Pool A to date.<\/p>\n
Six other sides can still qualify for the knockouts though, and here\u2019s how, broken down by pool\u2026<\/p>\n
Pool A<\/p>\n
Fiji<\/p>\n
Must beat New Zealand to claim second spot.<\/p>\n
New Zealand<\/p>\n
Must avoid defeat against Fiji to claim second spot. In the unlikely event of a draw, the Kiwis will qualify on points difference.<\/p>\n
Pool B\/C<\/p>\n
England<\/p>\n
Must beat Papua New Guinea AND Tonga must beat Samoa, with a 68-point swing needed between those two games in England\u2019s favour to claim second spot.<\/p>\n
England cannot finish above Tonga due to their inferior head-to-head record.<\/p>\n
Papua New Guinea<\/p>\n
Must beat England and Samoa must beat Tonga, with an 88-point swing needed between those two games in Papua New Guinea\u2019s favour to claim second spot.<\/p>\n
Papua New Guinea cannot finish above Samoa due to their inferior head-to-head record.<\/p>\n
Samoa<\/p>\n
Must beat Tonga to claim top spot OR avoid defeat against Tonga to claim second spot<\/p>\n
OR if beaten by Tonga, hope England do not beat Papua New Guinea by a big enough margin for there to be a 68-point swing between those two games to claim second spot.<\/p>\n
Samoa cannot finish below Papua New Guinea due to their superior head-to-head record, but could mathematically finish below Tonga on competition points and England \u2013 who they have not faced \u2013 on points difference.<\/p>\n
Tonga<\/p>\n
Must avoid defeat against Samoa to claim top spot OR if beaten by Samoa, hope Papua New Guinea do not beat England by a big enough margin for there to be an 88-point swing between those two games to claim second spot.<\/p>\n
Tonga cannot finish below England due to their superior head-to-head record, but could mathematically finish below Samoa on competition points and Papua New Guinea \u2013 who they have not faced \u2013 on points difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re into the third and final week of the group stages in the men\u2019s tournament at the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-941802","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\/941802","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=941802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}