{"id":946009,"date":"2026-10-30T05:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T05:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946009\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T05:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T05:36:13","slug":"rugby-league-world-cup-2026-breaking-down-the-permutations-of-final-pool-round-new-zealand-fiji-samoa-tonga-england-png-fighting-for-semi-final-qualification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946009\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby League World Cup 2026: Breaking down the permutations of final pool round | New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, England, PNG fighting for semi-final qualification"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hold on to your hats, rugby league<\/a> fans. The final pool round of the World Cup<\/a> is shaping up to be a wild ride.<\/p>\n

Australia<\/a> is the only team in the men\u2019s competition that at this stage has a spot in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From left: England\u2019s Herbie Farnworth, Samoa\u2019s Jarome Luai and Fiji\u2019s Api Koroisau.\u00a0NRL Imagery, Getty Images<\/p>\n

No less than six of the men\u2019s teams will be fighting for final-four qualification over what promises to be a weekend of pulsating rugby league.<\/p>\n

Those six teams are New Zealand<\/a> and Fiji<\/a> from pool A, and Samoa<\/a>, Tonga<\/a>, England<\/a> and Papua New Guinea<\/a> from pools B and C.<\/p>\n

Heading to the semis will be the two highest-finishing sides from both pool A and the combined table that covers the B and C pools.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

PNG Kumuls five-eighth Gairo Voro.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

Pool A<\/p>\n

This equation is simple.<\/p>\n

If the Kiwis beat Fiji on the Gold Coast on Saturday afternoon, Stacey Jones\u2019 team will be off to the semis. If the Fijians spring an upset, the Bati will be through.<\/p>\n

If New Zealand and Fiji play out a draw, the Kiwis will advance thanks to their superior differential, which is 64 compared to Fiji\u2019s 14.<\/p>\n

The Kiwis, with stars like Jahrome Hughes<\/a>, Casey McLean, James Fisher-Harris and hulking Roosters prop Naufahu Whyte, are heavy favourites.<\/p>\n

But Fiji, led by Kurt Donoghoe, Brandon Wakeham, Api Koroisau<\/a> and some metre-eating forwards, gave the Kangaroos a mighty scare last Sunday night<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A Fiji win would go down as the proud country\u2019s most significant rugby league victory in history.<\/p>\n

Pool B<\/p>\n

This is where the weekend gets complicated.<\/p>\n

If Samoa knocks off Tonga at CommBank Stadium on Sunday night, Ben Gardiner\u2019s team will have a spot in the semis.<\/p>\n

If Tonga takes down Samoa, Kristian Woolf<\/a>\u2019s men will march on.<\/p>\n

In the case of a draw, both Samoa and Tonga will have done enough to go through.<\/p>\n

Likewise, if England and Papua New Guinea have a draw at WIN Stadium on Friday night, Samoa and Tonga will be bound for the semis.<\/p>\n

If England beats PNG and Tonga loses to Samoa, the English will progress thanks to their superior differential, which is 64 compared to Tonga\u2019s 54.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From left: Tonga\u2019s Jason Taumalolo, Addin Fonua-Blake and Isaiya Katoa.\u00a0Janelle St Pierre\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

England could advance even if Tonga overcomes Samoa \u2013 but Herbie Farnworth<\/a> and friends would have to rack up a cricket score.<\/p>\n

If England thrashes PNG by 68 points and Samoa loses to Tonga, the English will have a better differential than Samoa and a spot in the semis.<\/p>\n

Samoa\u2019s differential is a white-hot 132, easily the highest of the 10 teams across the three pools.<\/p>\n

As for PNG\u2019s chances of scraping through to the semis, well, the probability of Sam Walker<\/a>\u2019s management receiving a Christmas card from Nick Politis<\/a> is higher than that.<\/p>\n

But, to spell out the unthinkable, if PNG wallops England by 84 points and Tonga loses to Samoa, the Kumuls will be cartwheeling into the semis.<\/p>\n

Strap in for a rugby league rollercoaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hold on to your hats, rugby league fans. The final pool round of the World Cup is shaping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-946009","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\/946009","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=946009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}