{"id":961677,"date":"2026-11-12T10:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T10:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/961677\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T10:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T10:20:14","slug":"rugby-league-world-cup-news-2026-kalyn-ponga-wins-2026-golden-boot-beats-reece-walsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/961677\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby League World Cup News 2026 | Kalyn Ponga wins 2026 Golden boot, beats Reece Walsh"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand\u2019s Kalyn Ponga<\/a> has won the Golden Boot trophy, beating out Australia\u2019s Reece Walsh<\/a> for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup<\/a>\u2019s top honours on Thursday night. <\/p>\n

It was a New Zealand sweep as Kiwi Ferns\u2019 Stacey Waaka was named the women\u2019s Golden Boot\u00a0winner after her incredible debut for the national team, where she scored nine tries over four matches. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga trains with New Zealand on Thursday.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

The timing of the awards night has copped scrutiny as the Golden Boot – a prestigious award that rewards the best player in international rugby league – was handed out before the RLWC grand final on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Many believed Kangaroos<\/a> player Walsh should have been rewarded for his stellar run as Australia\u2019s fullback as Walsh played in three of Australia\u2019s four games. <\/p>\n

In his debut for New Zealand in a World Cup, Ponga was limited in game time due to being injured in the first group stage match, only playing for the Kiwis twice for a total of 150 minutes.<\/p>\n

He returned just three weeks after breaking his arm against Australia in the first game of the event to play in the semi-final against Tonga. <\/p>\n

The shortlist for the trophy featured favourite Walsh<\/a>, Ponga, Tonga\u2019s Robert Toia, Samoa\u2019s Francis Manuleleua and fellow New Zealander Casey McLean. <\/p>\n

The Golden Boot award shifted to focus solely on international performances in 2018, giving players a rather limited window to impress judges, with recent winners including Harry Grant<\/a>, Isaah Yeo<\/a> and Joseph Manu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both winners of the 2026 Golden Boot will be in action for New Zealand\u2019s men\u2019s and women\u2019s sides when they take on Australia in Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium in the RLWC finals. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand\u2019s Kalyn Ponga has won the Golden Boot trophy, beating out Australia\u2019s Reece Walsh for the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":961678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-961677","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\/961677","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=961677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/961678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}