The 2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup qualification was announced on 7 August 2023. It will feature four confederation qualification tournaments for each of the four International Rugby League confederations (Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Middle East-Africa), with the four winners of each tournament facing each other in the 2025 World Series for the final two spots in the 2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup.[1][2][3]

Details of these tournament are yet to be announced, but will be open to all full member nations as of 31 March 2024 who did not qualify via the 2021 World Cup.

Qualified teams

Team Method of
qualification		 Date of
qualification		 Total
times
qualified		 Last
time
qualified		 Current
consecutive
appearances		 Previous best
performance
 New Zealand 2021 Group C winners 28 October 2022 17 2021 17 Winners (2008)
 England 2021 Group A winners 29 October 2022 8[lower-alpha 1] 2021 8 Runners-up (1975, 1995, 2017)
 Australia 2021 Group B winners 29 October 2022 17 2021 17 Winners (12 times)
 Fiji 2021 Group B runners-up 29 October 2022 7 2021 7 Semi-finals (2008, 2013, 2017)
 Lebanon 2021 Group C runners-up 30 October 2022 4 2021 3 Quarter-finals (2017, 2021)
 Tonga 2021 Group D winners 30 October 2022 7 2021 7 Semi-finals (2017)
 Samoa 2021 Group A runners-up 30 October 2022 7 2021 7 Runners-up (2021)
 Papua New Guinea 2021 Group D runners-up 31 October 2022 9 2021 9 Quarter-finals (2000, 2017, 2021)
TBC 2025 World Series winners 2025
TBC 2025 World Series runners-up 2025

Confederation tournaments

As of the date of the announcement of the qualification process; Europe is the only confederation with more than one full member nation who has not already qualified, therefore Europe will be the only confederation to have a confederation qualification tournament. Cook Islands (Asia-Pacific), Jamaica (Americas) and South Africa (Middle East-Africa) are the only full-member nations for their respective confederations, and therefore will automatically advance to the World Series.

Europe

Teams which are eligible to participate in the European qualification process are:

The winner of the tournament will advance to the World Series.

World Series

The 2025 World Series will be played by:

The winner and the runners-up will qualify for the World Cup.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Competed as part of Great Britain in nine previous tournaments, finishing as champions on three occasions (1954, 1960, 1972). The squads largely consisted of English players, but also featured Welsh players in every tournament. Scotland (1954, 1968, 1977, 1989–92) and Ireland (1957) were represented by native-born players in some tournaments.

References

  1. ↑ "International Rugby League Board confirms details for World Series, World Cups". Rugby League International Federation.
  2. ↑ "Rugby League World Cup qualification and World Series format revealed amid eligibility shakeup – The Roar". October 7, 2023.
  3. ↑ https://www.sportingnews.com/au/rugby-league/news/rugby-league-world-cup-qualification-process-world-series/
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