IRL make major decision on 2030 World Cup structure as tournaments set for revamp
Australia lift the World Cup in 2022 following their triumph in the final of the delayed 2021 edition against Samoa
The International Rugby League board have confirmed that the 2030 World Cup will now comprise of men’s, women’s and wheelchair events running alongside one another, continuing the trend from recent tournaments.
It had initially been confirmed that next year’s event in Australia would be the final time for the foreseeable future that all three events would take place at the same time. The schedule called for a standalone women’s World Cup in 2028 before a wheelchair edition in 2029, ahead of the men’s tournament in 2030.
But those plans have now been scrapped after IRL chair Troy Grant admitted the ‘unique’ format of all three tournaments taking place together was the right decision, and that they will now remain with the current format long-term.
He said: “Through the ITT process, which attracted significant interest, we did not believe that represented the proper value for each of those genres as standalone competitions.
“The IRL was also overwhelmed with feedback from members, players and administrators, who felt that we have a unique forum where the three genres of our game are played together and that allows us a unique opportunity to bring the rugby league family together by keeping the three World Cups as the one event.
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“The IRL Board has decided that the World Cups for 2030 will be Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair, so there will no longer be a standalone Women’s World Cup in 2028 and standalone Wheelchair World Cup in 2029.
“We look forward to continuing what was started at RLWC21 in England in 2022 as a very unique sporting offering, in that we are the only sport that offers Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair World Cups at the same time.”
Qualification criteria for those tournaments will now begin to be put together – and there will be a new name on the list of IRL full members after Ghana were granted the right to join the rest of the nations currently playing the international game at the highest level.
They are now eligible to go into qualifying for the men’s tournament in 2030. The other full member nations are: Australia, Cook Islands, England, Fiji, France, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Serbia, South Africa, Tonga, Ukraine and Wales.
