HOW MUCH are you looking forward to next year’s Rugby League World Cup in the southern hemisphere?

After the ARLC’s recent release of the fixture schedule, the reaction from Rugby League supporters around the world seems to have been remarkably low key, if there has been any reaction at all.

That is partly because there will only be ten teams taking part in the tournament, which represents a significant decline from the 2022 tournament and its 16 participating nations.

But it’s not just the fact that the tournament has been reduced by six teams.

It’s that the structure of the tournament, the fixtures themselves and the venues, seem uninspiring in far too many cases.

I get the impression that the organisers of the tournament haven’t put a great deal of thought into how they might produce the most exciting tournament possible, given the ten nations that will be taking part.

Let’s examine the structure of the tournament, which has one group of four and two groups of three.

How were those groups selected?

I haven’t seen any explanation.

But what we do know is that two of the nations in Group A will go through to the semi-finals. Given that the four teams in that group are Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the Cook Islands, I think it’s a fair bet that we already know that the Aussies and Kiwis are the two nations that will go through to the semi-finals. There will be six matches in that group, but apart from the opening clash between Australia and New Zealand, the other five will be relatively meaningless and therefore an anti-climax.

The other six nations are split into two hypothetical groups with the nations in each group not playing each other, but playing the three nations in the other group. And when it comes to deciding which two nations will go forward to the semi-finals from those groups, the two groups are combined together and the top two countries will be the ones going through.

It’s unnecessarily confusing and it doesn’t have the compensating advantage of delivering some exciting matches.

The likely contenders from those two groups are England, Samoa and Tonga, with Papua New Guinea perhaps having a chance because they will play two games in Port Moresby, fired up by their fanatical supporters.

So how many of the nine matches played by these teams in the pool stages will be truly meaningful?

In round one, perhaps England v Tonga and PNG v Lebanon. In round two, maybe Tonga v Lebanon and PNG v Samoa. And in the final round, maybe England v PNG and Tonga v Samoa.

And in picking out those six games I’m making the big assumption that Lebanon will have a competitive team, which is by no means guaranteed.

And what about the venues?

The World Cup will open with a blast, with Australia facing New Zealand in Sydney’s Allianz Stadium on Thursday, 15th October, hopefully in front of a full house.

Then on the following night we have a potentially one-sided game between Samoa and France at Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium, while on the Saturday we have England playing Tonga in Perth and PNG facing Lebanon in Port Moresby, while Fiji and the Cook Islands complete the opening round of fixtures in Newcastle.

The following weekend, we have Australia playing Fiji in Brisbane and the Kiwis against the Cook Islands in the only game that will take place in New Zealand in the new stadium currently being completed in the South Island city of Christchurch. Both those group A games are likely to be one-sided.

The only game likely to be competitive on the second weekend is PNG v Samoa in Port Moresby.

In the third week, the only game that looks competitive is the clash between Tonga and Samoa at CommBank Stadium.

I have four essential concerns about the way the World Cup fixtures have been created.

First of all, there is no guaranteed game between England and Australia. As we saw in the World Cup in 2022, the attention the World Cup attracts is reduced considerably if the two old enemies don’t come up against each other.

Second, there are no games in Canberra, the Australian capital city, or in Melbourne or Auckland, which are two great sporting cities. It seems crazy not to include those venues.

Thirdly, the pool stages seem contrived and hard to understand.

Fourthly, there are too many potentially one-sided games in the pool stages, and not just in group A.

In my next ‘Final Whistle’ column I’ll explain what could have been done to overcome those problems.

Before then, can I wish all our readers a very Happy Christmas and New Year.

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 516 (January 2026)