IRL announce Magic Round format for RLWC30 across Pacific-USA

 

• RLWC30 Men’s and Women’s tournaments to be staged in Pacific-USA
• France favourites to host RLWC30 Wheelchair tournament at same time
• ARLC/IRL to run RLWC30 under a Magic Round format
• RLWC26 played over five weeks in five cities (3 pool rounds & finals)
• Number of nations increased to 12 (Men) and 10 (Women)
• Great Grandparent rule introduced in eligibility update
• Tonga & Samoa considered for promotion to Tier 1

IRL Rugby League World Cup 2030 Men’s and Women’s tournaments will adopt a Magic Round format and be staged in cities across the Pacific and United States of America with more teams to be involved.

International Rugby League Chair Troy Grant announced details of the next World Cup at a media conference in Sydney ahead of the RLWC26 Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair finals.

The IRL Board has also approved changes to international eligibility rules to increase the pool of players available to nations and endorsed the elevation of Tonga and Samoa to Men’s Tier 1 status, subject to consultation with both RLWC26 semi-finalists.

RLWC30 is set to again feature Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair World Cups being played concurrently, with the Men’s and Women’s tournaments to be held together and France the favourites to host the Wheelchair tournament.

The 2030 Men’s and Women’s tournaments will be staged by the Australian Rugby League Commission, who have conducted the most successful World Cup since the concept began in 1954.

With RLWC26 attracting record crowds and television ratings for international rugby league, Mr Grant said the IRL Board wanted to maximise the interest of broadcasters, fans and government and corporate partners.

The rise of the Pacific nations has generated unprecedented interest in the United States, which accounted for almost 80 per cent of subscriptions to stream RLWC26 matches via the IRL’s global broadcast partner Premier Sports.

The ARLC also has experience and expertise in staging matches in the United States after taking the opening matches of each NRL season to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas since 2024.

Mr Grant said: “The IRL Board has decided that the next Rugby League World Cup for Men and Women in 2030 will be staged in the Pacific-USA. The next Wheelchair World Cup is going to be run at the same time in France.

“This is a strategy to maximise the interest of broadcasters, government partners and fans in the current World Cup, which has regularly broken records for crowds and the number of television viewers because of the outstanding skill, intensity and passion of the players and teams.

“At the same time we want to take advantage of opportunities that are opening up in new frontiers where the Rugby League World Cup hasn’t previously been played.        

“The ARLC have agreed to be the organisers, with the IRL, of RLWC30. They will be our tournament partners, and I would like to thank ARLC Executive Chairman Peter V’landys for his vision and support to grow international rugby league and ensure the Rugby League World Cup is the pinnacle of our game.

“RLWC26 has been a massive success by every possible metric – both on and off the field – and the ARLC has the capacity and ability to help build the World Cup into a truly global event.  

“The World Cup under its current format runs for five weeks and RLWC30 is going to be run in five locations across the Pacific and USA. We haven’t decided where yet; we are going to market and will look at the strategic placement of which cities we go to.

“The cities will be ones that have the appropriate stadia to run matches over multiple days to get all of the pool matches played in one location.

“This will be similar to a Magic Round, so IRL Rugby League World Cup 2030 will arrive in town, the stadium will be activated and there will be a lot of opportunities to promote the teams and the game. The World Cup will then move to the next city that is identified.

“There are three weeks where every nation is involved and then we have semi-finals and finals.      

“The IRL Board has also decided to increase the number of participating nations from 10 Men’s teams and eight Women’s teams in 2026, to 12 Men’s teams and 10 Women’s teams.

“The format for what that will look like is yet to be decided and nations were asked for feedback during the IRL AGM and Congress in Sydney over the weekend.”

The IRL Board has proposed that the 2034 Rugby League World Cup be played under a similar format in Europe, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the game in France, which was behind the establishment of the World Cup in 1954.

Eligibility update

The IRL Board has also agreed to extend the eligibility criteria for players to be eligible to represent their nation of heritage if either they, a parent, a grand parent or a great grandparent were born there.

The update to the eligibility rules followed a detailed submission from Cook Islands given their small population of less than 20,000 and the movement of Cook Islanders to larger countries for work, study or other purposes.  

IRL Chair Troy Grant said: “We have made a number of other decisions at Board level with the absolute intent of just growing the player pool across Wheelchair and Women’s formats to help the game continue to grow.

“The IRL Board had a lengthy discussion in regards to the application from Cook Islands and the Board has resolved to change eligibility for all three forms of the game for every nation to great grandparent.

“We did a lot of analysis and looked at a lot of data to help inform the Board to be able to make this decision, and every nation has the ability to go to great grandparent as part of the heritage eligibility for their player pools going forward.”

Samoa, Tonga set to become Tier 1 nations

The IRL Board has begun discussions with Samoa and Tonga about promoting the Pacific nations to Tier 1 status, alongside Australia, England and New Zealand.

The elevation of Samoa and Tonga as Tier 1 nations would be in recognition of their performances on and off the field, with both nations reaching the semi-finals of RLWC26.

Samoa became the first Pacific nation to play in a World Cup final in 2022, while Tonga are the only Tier 2 nation to have defeated Australia, England and New Zealand.

IRL Chair Troy Grant said: “The Board voted unanimously to engage with Tonga and Samoa on elevating them from Tier 2 to Tier 1 status. I have been in contact with both nations to advise them of the Board’s decision. We will be working with them over the next couple of months to ensure there is no unintended consequences from that potential elevation to Tier 1.

“This is out of respect and acknowledgement of their achievements on two fronts; obviously their performances on field are without question the equivalent of the current three Tier 1 nations and secondly these two nations have taken gigantic leaps forward regarding their governance and what they are doing domestically.”