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2021 Men's Rugby League World Cup

The 2021 Men's Rugby League World Cup was the 16th Rugby League World Cup, and one of three major tournaments of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup. The tournament was held in England from 15 October 2022 to 19 November 2022.[1] It was originally due to be held between 23 October 2021 and 27 November 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent withdrawals of Australia and New Zealand caused the tournament to be postponed.[2] 16 teams competed in the tournament, an increase of two from the previous two tournaments and the first to feature 16 teams since the 2000 Rugby League World Cup.[3]

For the first time, the Rugby League World Cup was run alongside the women's and wheelchair tournaments with all participants being paid the same, while all 61 matches in the three tournaments were broadcast live.[4][5]

Australia beat Samoa 30–10 in the final to win the tournament for the third successive time, extending their record number of World Cup titles to twelve.[6]

Teams

Qualification

The eight quarter-finalists of the previous tournament in 2017 earned automatic qualification to the 2021 tournament. As such, the allocations were confirmed as 6 teams from Europe (excluding hosts), 6 from Asia-Pacific, 1 from Middle East-Africa, 1 from the Americas, and 1 from an inter-regional play-off.[7] Qualification began on 16 June 2018, and concluded on 16 November 2019.

Notes
  1. ^ a b c d 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.

Draw

The draw was originally scheduled to be finalised on 27 November 2019, exactly two years before the date of the tournament final, however, it was postponed until 16 January 2020.[8] The draw was made at Buckingham Palace on 16 January 2020 and was streamed live on Facebook. Teams from pot 1 were drawn by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, pot 2 by Katherine Grainger, and pot 3 by Jason Robinson.[9]

The draw resulted in the following teams being drawn into the following groups. Each group had to have at least one team from the Pacific region. As such, Lebanon were not eligible to be drawn into Group A from pot 1.[10]

Squads

From September 2022, teams announced wider squads of up to 38 players, which were reduced to 24 before the beginning of the tournament.[11]

Venues

Stadium locations

Seventeen venues were used for the men's tournament.[12]

Team base camp locations

13 base camps were used by the 16 national squads to stay and train before and during the World Cup tournament, as follow:[13]

Officiating

Match officials

The list of match officials who officiated across both the men's and women's tournaments was published on 5 October 2022.[14]

On-field rules and disciplinary measures

Matches were played to the International Rugby League (IRL) rules. Certain differences between the way the rules of Australia and Europe were clarified in September 2022. All drop goals were worth one point and all play the ball infringements resulted in a set restart. Introduced from the Australian National Rugby League (NRL) was the "captain's challenge" where under certain circumstances a team captain was able to ask for the referee's decision to be reviewed. Head injury assessments and subsequent treatment followed the European model.[17]

A new match review panel comprising members from both the RFL and NRL was established for the tournament to deal with disciplinary issues.[17]

Warm-up matches

Pre-tournament practice matches took place on 7 and 8 October, the weekend before the first round of group stage matches of the World Cup.[18]

Group stage

England rugby league fans create an England flag ahead of the opening match at St James' Park

Competing countries were divided into four groups of four teams (groups A to D). Teams in each group played one another in a round-robin, with the top two teams advancing to the knockout stage.[28]

Group A

Source: rlwc2021
(H) Hosts

Group B

Source: rlwc2021

Group C

Source: rlwc2021

Group D

Source: rlwc2021

Knockout stage

The top 2 teams from each pool advanced to the quarter-finals. All quarter-finalists will automatically qualify for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Statistics

Final standings

Updated to match(es) played on 23 November 2022. Source: World Cup 2022
(H) Hosts

Top try scorers

Top goal scorers

Top points scorers

Player discipline

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Smaill is a New Zealander who is currently based in England.[15]
  2. ^ Vella is an Australian who is currently based in England.[16]
  3. ^ Match originally scheduled to be played at Rochdale[20][21]

References

  1. ^ Walter, Brad (26 August 2021). "New dates announced for rescheduled World Cup". nrl.com. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  2. ^ Walter, Brad (5 August 2021). "2021 World Cup officially postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic". nrl.com. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Rugby League World Cup to feature 16 teams in 2021". Sky Sports. 2 February 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  4. ^ Darbyshire, Drew (21 October 2019). "Women and wheelchair players to receive equal pay to men at 2021 World Cup". Love Rugby League. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  5. ^ Ed, Dixon (2 July 2020). "2021 Rugby League World Cup and IRL team up on broadcast production - SportsPro Media". www.sportspromedia.com. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  6. ^ Sutcliffe, Steve (19 November 2022). "Australia 30-10 Samoa: Kangaroos claim third consecutive World Cup with hard-fought victory". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  7. ^ "Statement from the RLIF Board meeting - March 28th 2017". rlif.com. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  8. ^ "Rugby League World Cup 2021". www.rlwc2021.com. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  9. ^ "Rugby League World Cup 2021 draw: England drawn with Samoa, France and Greece". BBC Sport. 16 January 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  10. ^ "Rugby League World Cup 2021: How will Thursday's draw work?". BBC Sport. 15 January 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  11. ^ "Rugby League World Cup Squads: Men's, Women's, Wheelchair". Rugby League International Federation. 9 September 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  12. ^ "2021 Rugby League World Cup: Emirates Stadium among host venues but Wigan misses out". BBC Sport. 29 January 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  13. ^ "Kangaroos to be united in Manchester: World Cup team bases announced". National Rugby League. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  14. ^ "Rugby League World Cup 2021 announces tournament Match Officials". Rugby League World Cup. 5 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  15. ^ "Michael Smaill relishing leading the RFL's "Lead the Game" initiative". rugby-league.com. Archived from the original on 31 January 2021.
  16. ^ "James Vella". rugby-league.com. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  17. ^ a b Bower, Aaron (27 September 2022). "Rugby League World Cup rule changes including captain's call and disciplinary". YorkshireLive. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  18. ^ "Updated list of Rugby League World Cup warm-up games as tournament draws closer". 23 August 2022.
  19. ^ "Rochdale AFC release statement following venue change for England versus Fiji". LoveRugbyLeague. 27 July 2022. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  20. ^ "England to face Fiji in World Cup warm-up at Rochdale". www.rugby-league.com. 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  21. ^ "England versus Fiji postponed until October 2022". www.rugby-league.com. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  22. ^ "Jamaica to have pre-World Cup game against Cumbria". TotalRL.com. 2 September 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  23. ^ McAllister, Josh (23 August 2022). "England Knights name squad as Scotland confirm World Cup warm-up fixture". LoveRugbyLeague. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  24. ^ "World Cup semi-finalists Tonga to meet France in Halifax RLWC2021 warm-up game".
  25. ^ Thomson, Doug (9 August 2022). "Wales confirm World Cup warm-up fixture". TotalRL.com. Total RL. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  26. ^ "Tackle one: Greece is the word". rlwc2021.com. RLWC2021. 23 August 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  27. ^ "Kiwis to face Leeds in World Cup warm-up match". 13 May 2022. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  28. ^ "Groups and Standings". Archived from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2021 Rugby League World Cup.