RLWC 2026 Qualification Confirmed

[Dave T]

24 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Looks like they’re on Sky here as well.

Apart from the Aus v NZ women's test on Saturday disappointingly. 

[nadera78]

9 hours ago, Dave T said:

If anyone can blow qualification, it's France! 

I was going to laugh at this, but it's unfortunately true

[WelshpoolMarauder]

Obviously, bias Welshman here, but if I was working for Wales RL, I'd wonder why we were bothering putting out age grade sides if the senior national side are going to be all but frozen out of the next 2 World Cups and there's been no fixtures put in place since the World Cup bar a game with Cumbria. 

Whilst I've often wondered why WRL and the other Celtic nations don't do more to put together their own fixtures when the likes of Holland and Denmark and the like are playing matches, but it hardly seems worth the effort and expense if you're building towards nothing. 

[MidlandsJohn]

20 hours ago, NRLandSL said:

100% I reckon that every time an international team takes the field they should have at least 7-8 players born in the country and at least 4 or 5 born and raised through the country's domestic rugby league system. It sounds hard because of how overused heritage players are but it should be the very minimum when they are playing for a country.

The additional problem is the packing of squads with heritage players makes things that much harder for nations like Jamaica and Serbia to break through - for anyone from the IRL reading this, these are countries that are genuinely trying to develop the sport and building a domestic scene.

Scotland seems to exist on paper as a genuine team but are actually England C when you see them in the flesh and as for Russia...even without their current pariah status, who the hell is actually playing RL in the country for them to compete anyway?

 

Remember Challenge Cup participants Strela Kazan? Want to know how they're getting on?

They're playing in the Russian Premier League...of Rugby Union.

[Mathius Hellwege]

3 hours ago, WelshpoolMarauder said:

Obviously, bias Welshman here, but if I was working for Wales RL, I'd wonder why we were bothering putting out age grade sides if the senior national side are going to be all but frozen out of the next 2 World Cups and there's been no fixtures put in place since the World Cup bar a game with Cumbria. 

Whilst I've often wondered why WRL and the other Celtic nations don't do more to put together their own fixtures when the likes of Holland and Denmark and the like are playing matches, but it hardly seems worth the effort and expense if you're building towards nothing. 

???

You mentioned yourself that Holland and Denmark are playing

they have less chances than Wales

[WelshpoolMarauder]

22 hours ago, Mathius Hellwege said:

???

You mentioned yourself that Holland and Denmark are playing

they have less chances than Wales

That was more in context of wondering why Wales, Scotland and Ireland seem to wait for games and tournaments to come to them rather than organising their own fixtures when the 'smaller' nations are playing internationals without waiting for someone else to put it together for them.

[BristolDevonCharlie]

On 09/10/2023 at 09:29, Dave T said:

Apart from the Aus v NZ women's test on Saturday disappointingly. 

I watched it on Sky. 

[Yakstorm]

On 09/10/2023 at 18:42, Jim from Oz said:

In a rare spot of good news for international RL, all the Pacific Cup and Bowl games, including the women's matches, appear to be on free to air on Channel Nine (on their main channel, no less!) in Sydney this coming weekend … will be interesting to see how they rate. 

Saturday's matches rated alright:

Kangaroos v Samoa

• Channel 9: 437,000
• Fox League / Kayo: 270,000
• Total: 707,000

Jillaroos v Kiwi Ferns

• Channel 9: 195,000
• Fox League / Kayo: 145,000
• Total: 340,000

Not sure how Sunday's went on Channel 9 as they weren't in the top 20.  On Fox League / Kayo, PNG v Cook Islands was over 100,000, whilst Samoa v Fiji in the Women's was around 50,000

[Damien]

24 minutes ago, Yakstorm said:

Saturday's matches rated alright:

Kangaroos v Samoa

• Channel 9: 437,000
• Fox League / Kayo: 270,000
• Total: 707,000

Jillaroos v Kiwi Ferns

• Channel 9: 195,000
• Fox League / Kayo: 145,000
• Total: 340,000

Not sure how Sunday's went on Channel 9 as they weren't in the top 20.  On Fox League / Kayo, PNG v Cook Islands was over 100,000, whilst Samoa v Fiji in the Women's was around 50,000

They seem pretty good ratings to me.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Yakstorm said:

Saturday's matches rated alright:

Kangaroos v Samoa

• Channel 9: 437,000
• Fox League / Kayo: 270,000
• Total: 707,000

Jillaroos v Kiwi Ferns

• Channel 9: 195,000
• Fox League / Kayo: 145,000
• Total: 340,000

Not sure how Sunday's went on Channel 9 as they weren't in the top 20.  On Fox League / Kayo, PNG v Cook Islands was over 100,000, whilst Samoa v Fiji in the Women's was around 50,000

How do they compare to NRL numbers?

[Yakstorm]

On 18/10/2023 at 23:13, Dave T said:

How do they compare to NRL numbers?

Compared to the blockbuster timeslots of Thursday & Friday night, its down around 200K.

Thursday night regular season averaged around 911K (576K Nine / 245K Fox / 188K Kayo) whilst Friday 8pm around 904K.

Compared to Saturday night, its up on the average total audience (Note: 21 of the 27 Saturday's in a season are Fox exclusive)

Saturday night 7:30pm averaged 536K on Fox only and 559K for the 6 games held on Fox & 9. 

Overall, a solidish result, especially as the match had limited build up, was up against the referendum (which drew over 1m combined across ABC, 7 & 9 and were the top shows on Subscription) and saw Australia race off to a big lead in the first 18 minutes. 

[MidlandsJohn]

On 08/10/2023 at 19:43, Whippet13 said:

They are suspended, but even before the war there was very little RL being played, if any at all. They should not still be classed as a full member.

I never fully understood what happened with Russia. Was it Rugby Sevens gaining Olympic status that killed RL in that country or was the sport in gradual decline anyway and the much bigger exposure that Union got (such as Russia qualifying for the World Cup) meant everyone jumped over to playing RU?

[UTK]

36 minutes ago, MidlandsJohn said:

I never fully understood what happened with Russia. Was it Rugby Sevens gaining Olympic status that killed RL in that country or was the sport in gradual decline anyway and the much bigger exposure that Union got (such as Russia qualifying for the World Cup) meant everyone jumped over to playing RU?

Could be wrong but from memory once 7s got Olympic status RL clubs were effectively mandated to switch to Union, some of the biggest union clubs even today were initially league clubs I believe.

[JM2010]

Have France or Wales got any fixtures planned next few weeks?

[Barley Mow]

17 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

Have France or Wales got any fixtures planned next few weeks?

No.

[TheReaper]

On 08/10/2023 at 06:03, nadera78 said:

I saw the Canadian RL tweeting about this yesterday, pleased to at least have some clarity on the issue. Must say I'd be surprised if they can find a way to meet the criteria in the next 6 months, seeing as their season is now over. Same goes for everyone else, I suppose.

I can't find what happened in BC this year, but if it was the same as 2022:

On 07/10/2023 at 16:16, welshmagpie said:

I’ve just had a look at the criteria for ‘full  members’ with the IRL. 

In short:

- Minimum of 3 year business plan. - Would hope CRL has this

- Minimum of 3 years of accounts. -Yes

- Two pitches adaptable for rugby league with proof they’re in use. - Yes

- Minimum of 250 registered players (if population over 500,000 - 150 players otherwise) - hard to say, but 6 teams in BC + 2 in Ontario x~20 each is 160. Add women, masters, you might get close enough?

- Minimum of 4 clubs - Yes

- Each club must have 1 senior and 1 junior side (U15-U19) - No

- Population > 500k: 6-team comp min. 1 round (5 games per team). Population < 500k: 4-team comp min. 2 rounds (6 games per team). -Yes

- U15-U19 comp:
Population > 500k: 4-team comp minimum 2 round (6 games per team). Population < 500k: 4-team comp minimum 1 round (3 games per team) - No

- Minimum of 6 L1 coaches and 8 L1 match officials - Not sure, but shouldn't be hard to get accreditation in time

 

Mostly seems to be the junior criteria that would hold Canada back. The good thing about BC is they play through the winter so they could get something going by next March, might have to be 9s or something. That would probably also get us to the playing numbers minimum.

[gogledd]

On 09/10/2023 at 19:09, WelshpoolMarauder said:

Obviously, bias Welshman here, but if I was working for Wales RL, I'd wonder why we were bothering putting out age grade sides if the senior national side are going to be all but frozen out of the next 2 World Cups and there's been no fixtures put in place since the World Cup bar a game with Cumbria. 

Whilst I've often wondered why WRL and the other Celtic nations don't do more to put together their own fixtures when the likes of Holland and Denmark and the like are playing matches, but it hardly seems worth the effort and expense if you're building towards nothing. 

...the game vs Cumbria was a Presidents X111 and not a full international side. No cap would ahve been awareded to players for that game. It seems like WRL Dragonhearts, U-20s and Students are putting together fixtures and I'd agree there should be competitive international games. Its always been a problem for Wales...for example, we can beat Italy in Monza, but once the World Cup starts the Italian side suddenly have Australian accents! I'm hoping the games we had pencilled in vs Spain and Italy can be resurrected but I doubt very much that they will.

[gogledd]

On 21/10/2023 at 15:13, JM2010 said:

Have France or Wales got any fixtures planned next few weeks?

Not full internationals, some of our age grade sides have games.

[welshmagpie]

On 24/10/2023 at 13:57, gogledd said:

...the game vs Cumbria was a Presidents X111 and not a full international side. No cap would ahve been awareded to players for that game. It seems like WRL Dragonhearts, U-20s and Students are putting together fixtures and I'd agree there should be competitive international games. Its always been a problem for Wales...for example, we can beat Italy in Monza, but once the World Cup starts the Italian side suddenly have Australian accents! I'm hoping the games we had pencilled in vs Spain and Italy can be resurrected but I doubt very much that they will.

I’m pretty sure 2024 will see the return of action proposed in 2023. 

[Midlands hobo]

On 24/10/2023 at 13:59, gogledd said:

Not full internationals, some of our age grade sides have games.

Why can't we just have a regular Wales Scotland Ireland with a rotating 4th like Netherlands etc. It's about regular games and a profile