The draws for the 2026 Rugby League World Cups have been made, with Wales set to open their campaigns against England in both the Women’s and Wheelchair events.
In their other group matches, Wales Women will be breaking new ground by taking on both the World Champions, Australia, plus Samoa for the first time, whilst Wales Wheelchair will be facing familiar foes in Ireland and USA.
Wales Women’s tournament starts on Saturday, 17th October, when we face England at HBF Stadium in Perth (7.35am BST, 2.35pm local). Following that, it’s two games in Commbank Stadium in Parramatta, against Samoa on Friday, 23rd October (7.50am BST, 5.50pm local), then Australia on Sunday, 1st November (4.45am GMT, 3.45pm local).
Should we get to the semi-finals of the eight-team tournament, the match will be on the weekend of 7th/8th November with the final in Brisbane on Sunday 15th November.
The eight-team Wheelchair tournament will be played in its entirety at Wollongong’s WIN Entertainment Centre where we’ll open our campaign against World Champions England on Friday, 30th October (4.30am GMT, 3.30pm local). The encounter with Ireland follows on Tuesday, 3rd November (5am GMT, 4pm local) then the USA on Friday, 6th November (2.30am GMT, 1.30pm local)
All teams then compete in semi-finals or ranking matches on 9th/10th November. The play-offs for seventh and fifth place will be on Thursday, 12th November, with the third-place play-off and final on Friday, 13th November.
Wales Women’s head coach Tom Brindle said: “We are incredibly excited for the World Cup, and now that the schedule has been confirmed, it all feels a bit more real, another step closer. As a nation, when we started this journey, we faced and overcame a number of significant challenges to reach this point, and that’s something we’re extremely proud of.
“Our group presents even more challenges, with three of the top four teams in the world who play in leagues that are professionalising at a rapid pace.
“We fully understand the scale of what lies ahead, but this is exactly what we’ve been expecting and preparing for. For us, this World Cup is about more than just the games or the results on the pitch; it’s about overcoming adversity, and building and developing a lasting, growing legacy for rugby league in Wales and doing our families proud.”
Wales Wheelchair head coach Alan Caron said: “These are exciting times. Now that the fixtures are out, it feels real and we can’t wait for the tournament to start.
“It’ll be a tough opener against the world champions England, but we have to face the best at some stage, and we’ll be ready. We play Ireland annually of course, so we know what they’re capable of, and we’ll look forward to taking on USA again after our fantastic encounters at the last World Cup and on our tour to South Carolina last year.
“We had a good win against the UK Armed Forces yesterday, so we’ve already started our preparations well. We’ll have the Celtic Cup in Scotland in May and then it’s all systems go for Wollongong.”
The draw for each tournament was based on seeds from current world rankings, with seeds 1, 3, 5 and 7 taking on each other in one group, and 2, 4, 6 and 8 in the other.
The full fixture lists are available here.
Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster.
