How the 2026 Rugby League World Cup works

The men's Rugby League World Cup runs from Thursday 15 October to Sunday 15 November, with ten nations chasing the title. Games are spread across Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Townsville and Perth, plus Christchurch in New Zealand and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.

The format is a little different from past tournaments, so here's how it all fits together.

Pool A: four teams, everyone plays everyone

Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the Cook Islands make up Pool A. It's a straightforward round robin: each team plays the other three once.

The top two in Pool A go through to the semi-finals.

Pools B and C: six teams, one shared ladder

This is the unusual part. The other six nations are split into two pools of three:

Pool B: England, Lebanon and Samoa

Pool C: France, Papua New Guinea and Tonga

Teams never play anyone in their own pool. Instead, every team plays all three nations from the other pool. England, for example, meets Tonga, France and Papua New Guinea, but not Samoa or Lebanon.

All six teams then sit on one combined ladder, and the top two from that ladder go through to the semi-finals.

The semi-finals: a cross-over

The semis pit the top of one ladder against the second-placed team on the other:

Semi-final 1, Saturday 7 November, Newcastle: Pool A 2nd v Pools B and C 1st

Semi-final 2, Sunday 8 November, Sydney: Pool A 1st v Pools B and C 2nd

The Final, Sunday 15 November, Brisbane: the two semi-final winners

That means finishing first in Pool A doesn't guarantee an easy path: the winner meets whichever B and C team finishes second, while the Pool A runner-up takes on the best of the rest.

Round 1

All times AEDT.

Thursday 15 October: Australia v New Zealand, 8:05pm, Allianz Stadium, Sydney

Friday 16 October: Samoa v France, 5:45pm, CommBank Stadium, Sydney

Saturday 17 October: Papua New Guinea v Lebanon, 3:25pm, Santos National Football Stadium, Port Moresby

Saturday 17 October: England v Tonga, 8:05pm, HBF Park, Perth

Sunday 18 October: Fiji v Cook Islands, 4:05pm, McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle

Follow it on Full Set

The World Cup section has every fixture and result, both ladders updated live during games, each nation's squad, and team lists as they're named. You'll find it under World Cup in the menu.