RLWC 2021 Fixtures - Some Good RL News

Let’s have some good news in rugby league, shall we? Toronto Wolfpack’s withdrawal from Super League for 2020 which was announced on Monday (July 20) wasn’t so much a car crash as a motorway pile-up. We needed something to raise the spirits.

Apparently it is complete coincidence that the fixtures for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup were due to be released the very next day. It was always the plan, whereas Toronto’s announcement...well...wasn’t. The Wolfpack situation is now beyond farce and so defies further comment for now. We are 11 days away from the restart of the 2020 Super League season. What we should be talking about is what will be happening on the field. So that is what we will do for the time it takes you to read this guide to the who, what, where and when of Rugby League World Cup 2021.

There overall event sees three tournaments taking place in England in the autumn of 2021. The Men’s World Cup will run alongside the Women’s World Cup and the Wheelchair World Cup. Just a small gripe before we start. You can’t name your tournaments ‘Men’s’, ‘Women’s’ and ‘Wheelchair’. I don’t think it is overly ‘woke’ of me to point out that we are not a third gender. It is likely that the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup is open to both men and women which may go some way to explaining the reference only to ‘wheelchair’, but for me ‘Men’s & Women’s Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup’ might have been a better phrase. There ends your diversity lesson for today.

Purely because this is a column about men’s rugby league and owing to my shameful lack of knowledge of the other two categories I am going to focus on the men’s event. We know that England open the tournament against Samoa at Newcastle United’s St James Park on October 23. Beyond that how will it work? Who will play where, and when? Who has a genuine chance to win? And will it, when all is said and done, be any good?

There are 16 teams involved in the tournament. This might seem like an ambitiously high number for those who worry about what might happen to Italy when they take on Australia at St Helens on November 6, for example. No sport fears lopsided score lines quite like rugby league does. Yet it is generally the nature of World Cups in all sports that relative minnows might take a hiding from an established power. Rugby Union doesn’t worry about blowout scores. It distracts you from the All Blacks’ latest 70-point mauling of Georgia with nationalistic songs and flag-waving. Besides, you only need to kick two drop-goals to score 70 points in rugby union. Or something like that anyway. Cricket and basketball are two other examples of globally successful sports which don’t lose sleep worrying whether Holland will be all out for 12 against the Aussies or whether the Dream Team beat New Zealand by 50 points. We shouldn’t worry either.

Sixteen is a good number because it enables a more simple format. In previous World Cups the group stages have been lopsided and contrived to avoid those big scores. While we all want to see more competitive matches it doesn’t serve the game well if you have a tournament format that is hard to follow. In the 2021 format the teams will be very simply split into four groups of four, with each playing the others in their group once and the top two in each group progressing to the quarter-finals. As well as Samoa, England will face France and Greece in that initial group phase.

If that doesn’t sound all that tough it is because the draw is seeded. It is one thing to include lesser teams, it would be quite another to lump all the top teams in together in the early stages. Seedings should ensure that the best teams progress to the latter stages and that those knockout fixtures should be among the most competitive and high quality of the tournament. There is an established ‘big 4’ in international rugby league right now following Tonga’s performances in the 2017 World Cup and their astonishing victory over the Kangaroos in November. It makes sense to keep those four apart initially.

Heading up Group A England follow that Samoan opener with a meeting with France at Bolton on October 30 before taking on Greece at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane on November 6. France will meet Greece at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium on October 25, and Samoa at the Halliwell Jones in Warrington on November 7. Samoa face Greece at Doncaster on October 31. All things being equal Shaun Wane’s England side should make it through as group winners to a last eight match with the runner-up in Group D at Anfield. That could be Wales if they can get out of a group expected to be won by Tonga but which also features Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands. Welsh coach John Kear was recently reportedly trying to convince Newcastle Knights teenage centre sensation Bradman Best to take advantage of some Welsh heritage which would certainly help looking at some of Best’s performances in the NRL this year.

Group D features matches at St Helens, which might be useful for you to know if you’re planning to get along to any matches without having to travel very far. Two of Tonga’s matches will take place in these parts as Kear’s Wales outfit and Papua New Guinea also roll into town on October 26 and November 1 respectively. The other local offering is over in Group B where the world champions Australia will take on that Italian challenge I mentioned earlier. Italian hopes of seeing James Tedesco wearing blue rather than green and gold that day seem slim, but if you can get along there on November 6 you have a realistic shot of seeing him in the flesh irrespective of what colour he is wearing.

Joining the Australians and Italy in Group B are Fiji and Scotland. The Scots take on Italy and Fiji at Newcastle Falcons’ Kingston Park on October 24 and November 1 respectively but in between those two they must flit down to Coventry’s Ricoh Arena to take on Australia on October 29. Fiji will be the likely favourites to join Australia in the last eight. They get their toughest group game out of the way early when they take on the green and gold at the KCom Stadium in Hull on October 23. They then move over to Newcastle to take on Italy on October 30 and Scotland on November 6.

Whoever qualifies from that group will meet a team from Group C in the quarter-finals. The strong favourite and the team everyone expects to top this group is still New Zealand. This is despite the fact that Kiwis were humbled 4-2 by Fiji in the last eight of the 2017 World Cup, with Penrith Panthers hooker Api Koroisau kicking a crucial penalty goal for the Bati on that day. Maybe we have a ‘Big 5’. Yet with the Fijians safely out of harm’s way for now in Australia’s group Michael Maguire’s side should have few problems squeezing past Lebanon, Jamaica and Ireland. I read recently that Ireland were going to ditch their policy of selecting Super League stars with Irish heritage and would instead include more Irish-born players. That could be grim news for Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Kyle Amor, both of whom were born in England but featured for Ireland in the 2017 tournament.

If you fancy seeing a Kiwi game there will be one on October 24 not too far down the road at Warrington. Lebanon are the opponents on that occasion before New Zealand play both Jamaica (October 30) and Ireland (November 5) at Headingley in Leeds. If you have more of a feeling for the Irish - and let’s face it who on Merseyside doesn’t have some kind of Irish connection? - you can also see the Wolfhounds take on Jamaica at Headingley on October 24 and Lebanon at Leigh Sports Village on October 31. Jamaica have never qualified for a Rugby League World Cup before so their presence will automatically be a triumph both for them and for the sport. It would be a major surprise if they and not Lebanon or Ireland joined New Zealand in the knockout phase. Lebanon lost by just two points to Tonga in their 2017 quarter-final on the way to which they beat France. If Tonga are ‘Big 4’ or ‘Big 5’ then perhaps that suggests Lebanon aren’t that far away either. Their final group game, against Jamaica on November 7, is also at Leigh Sports Village.

Lebanon would be likely to face Australia at Huddersfield on November 12 if they win through, while the prospect of a reunion between New Zealand and Fiji in a quarter-final at the KCom on November 13 is enticing. England’s Anfield quarter-final will be on November 13 provided they win their group, while the smart money says Tonga will face Samoa in Bolton on November 14.

The semi finals take place at Elland Road, Leeds on November 19 and at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium on November 20. With perhaps a slight nod to Super League the final will take place at Old Trafford, Manchester on Saturday November 27.

It should be absolutely fabulous. Provided nobody pulls out two weeks before it starts.