IRL Women's Rugby League World Cup 2026 Qualifiers
In July 2024 IRL announced an 8-team format, comprising four automatic qualifiers – the semi-finalists of the previous tournament. For the first time ever for the women’s event a series of qualification events were required, with the qualifiers commending in 2024 with regional qualification tournaments. The final berth was decided in October 2025 at the IRL Women’s Rugby League World Series held in Canada.
IRL Women’s Rugby League World Cup Qualifiers (Americas)
Three teams contested the Americas region qualifiers which took place over two legs. Second ranked USA were paired with lowest ranked Jamaica for the semi-final, with highest ranked Canada awaiting the winner in the final, with the tournament winner proceeding to the World Series.
IRL Women’s Rugby League World Cup Qualifiers (Asia-Pacific)
The 2024 Women’s Pacific Bowl tournament doubled as qualification for the World Cup with the first placed team qualifying for the World Cup whilst the second placed team qualified for the World Series. The competition saw semi-finals and a final, with highest ranked Cook Islands meeting lowest ranked Fiji and second ranked Tonga facing Samoa.
IRL Women’s Rugby League World Cup Qualifiers (Europe)
Seven teams entered the competition which initially saw the two lowest ranked teams, Italy and Netherlands play each other in a preliminary play-off match. The resulting six teams were split into two groups of three with teams seeded in pairs (highest ranked with second ranked, third with fourth and fifth with sixth) with one team from each pair drawn to each group. The group winners qualified for the World Cup with the second placed teams contesting a play-off spot to determine participation in the World Series, with home advantage awarded to the highest ranked side.
Group A:
Group B:
IRL Women’s Rugby League World Cup Qualifiers (Middle East & Africa)
Kenya hosted Nigeria in a 2-match series. The tournament rules cited the team with the highest aggregate scores advancing to the World Series, but as the aggregate scores were tied, the result had to be decided on countback. With the number of tries scored being equal, the next criteria was the number of goals having been kicked which determined Nigeria as the tournament winner.
IRL Women’s Rugby League World Series
Canada (Americas), Fiji (Asia-Pacific), Ireland (Europe) and Nigeria (Middle East & Africa) contested the first World Series. The tournament was played with semi-finals and a final. A third v fourth match was played for world rankings on finals day. The semi-finals were drawn using world rankings, with first ranked Ireland drawing lowest ranked Nigeria and second placed Canada paired with third ranked Fiji.