IRL Rugby League World Cup 2030

International Rugby League has announced that the Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair World Cups will continue to be played together, with the three disciplines to again be staged concurrently in 2030.
 
A meeting of the IRL Board on Tuesday decided that the 2030 World Cup should maintain the same format as RLWC26 in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, in which the Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair tournaments are being staged concurrently.
 
The IRL Board had agreed in 2023 to separate the tournaments and initiated an Invitation to Tender (ITT) process for Women’s Rugby League World Cup 2028, Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup 2029 and Men’s Rugby League World Cup 2030.
 
IRL received 13 confirmed tenders for the three events and has been reviewing the bids.
 
IRL Chair Troy Grant 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.
 
“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.”
 
The decision was endorsed at the IRL Annual General Meeting on Thursday and work will now begin on the qualifying process for Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair teams ahead of RLWC30.
 
There were 82 sanctioned international fixtures in 2025, including Men’s World Cup play-offs between France and Jamaica in Albi, and Cook Islands and South Africa in Sydney, and the inaugural Women’s World Series in Canada.
 
Fiji won IRL World Series 2025 to claim the eighth and final Women’s World Cup berth after wins over Nigeria and Canada. Ireland also took part in the tournament.  
 
IRL Chair Troy Grant said: “We got some excellent feedback in the construct of the 2025 Women’s World Series and that went really well for a first effort with a short lead in time in Canada.
 
“We weren’t able to secure a viable host for the Men’s World Series and qualifications, which is why we reverted to the format we did with a short runway this year, but we are very keen to see that a World Series is held for the Men, as well.
 
“As the Wheelchair game continues to grow, there are also opportunities to invest in other competitions to keep boosting the Wheelchair game.”
 
Ghana is now eligible to take part in qualifying for a Men's berth at IRL Rugby League World Cup 2030 after being awarded IRL Full Member status, joining Australia, Cook Islands, England, Fiji, France, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Serbia, South Africa, Tonga, Ukraine and Wales.