2017 Rugby League World Cup


The 2017 Rugby League World Cup was the fifteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup tournament and took place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea between 27 October and 2 December 2017. The tournament featured the national teams of 14 Rugby League International Federation member countries who qualified through either standing in the previous tournament or a series of qualification play-off matches. In the final, defending champions Australia, playing in their 14th consecutive final, defeated England at Brisbane's Lang Park.

Host selection

At the 2010 Rugby League International Federation executive meeting, the New Zealand Rugby League made an early submission to co-host the 2017 tournament with Australia. The Rugby League World Cup was last held in Australia in 2008.
Two formal bids were subsequently received by the RLIF before a November 2012 deadline; the co-host bid from Australia and New Zealand and a bid from South Africa. On 19 February 2014, it was announced that the joint bid from Australia and New Zealand had won hosting rights.
Michael Brown, the CEO of several big name Australian sporting franchises and the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, was originally appointed CEO of the World Cup in 2015, but resigned less than a year later due to 'workload' and 'homesickness'. He was replaced by Andrew Hill.

Qualification

It was announced on 3 August 2014 that 7 of the 8 quarter-finalists from the last World Cup would qualify automatically for the 2017 tournament; hosts Australia and New Zealand, plus England, Fiji, France, Samoa and Scotland. The USA, who were also 2013 quarter-finalists, were denied automatic qualification after a long-running internal governance dispute saw their RLIF membership temporarily suspended in 2014; later, once the matter was resolved, they were accepted into the qualification process. Papua New Guinea were initially set to be involved in the qualifying competition but were later granted automatic qualification, due to becoming co-hosts of the tournament. In addition to the eight automatic qualifiers, the remaining six spots will come from four different qualification zones; three from Europe, one from Asia/Pacific, one from Americas and one from Middle East/Africa.
Tonga were the first team to qualify from the qualification stage after winning the Asian-Pacific play-off. Lebanon were the second team to qualify from the qualification stage, after winning the Middle East-African play-off. The USA were the third team to qualify, winning the Americas qualification group.

Teams

TeamCaptainCoachPrevious appearancesPrevious
Best World Cup Result		Qualification
Cameron Smith Mal Meninga114 Winners Co-hosts
Sean O'Loughlin Wayne Bennett3 Runners-up ; Winners 3 times2013 semi-finalists
Kevin Naiqama Mick Potter7 Semi-finals 2013 semi-finalists
Théo Fages Aurélien Cologni614 Runners-up 2013 quarter-finalists
Liam Finn Mark Aston8 Quarter-finals ; Winners 3 timesEuropean qualifying group 2 winner
Mark Minichiello Cameron Ciraldo12 Group stage European qualifying play-off winner
Robbie Farah Brad Fittler18 Group Stage Middle East-Africa play-off winner
Adam Blair David Kidwell214 Winners Co-hosts
David Mead Michael Marum16 Quarter-finals Co-hosts
Frank Pritchard Matt Parish5 Quarter-finals 2013 quarter-finalists
Danny Brough Steve McCormack4 Quarter-finals ; Winners 3 times2013 quarter-finalists
Sika Manu Kristian Woolf11 Group Stage Asia-Pacific play-off winner
Mark Offerdahl Brian McDermott10 Quarter-finals Americas qualifying group winner
Craig Kopczak John Kear9 Semi-finals ; Winners 3 timesEuropean qualifying group 1 winner

Match officials

The match officials will be headed by Tony Archer and three coaches: Steve Ganson, Russell Smith and Luke Watts.
Before the World Cup it was announced that France would face Jamaica in Perpignan, England would take on the Combined Affiliated States in Perth, Lebanon would take on Niue in Leichhardt, and Australia, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea would compete in a tri-series in Suva, with each game lasting 40 minutes. The Australian Combined Affiliated States team was composed of players from the Northern Territory, South Australian, Victorian and Western Australian state rugby league competitions. Malta faced Italy at Marconi Stadium in Bossley Park, a suburb of Sydney.

Venues

It was announced in October 2014 that negotiations were being held for Papua New Guinea to host matches. The Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League presented to the RLIF in September 2015, requesting to host three matches. In October 2015 it was confirmed that Papua New Guinea would host three matches in the group stage.
Melbourne Rectangular Stadium in Melbourne will host the opening game between Australia and England while Brisbane Stadium in Brisbane will host the World Cup Final.

Australia

New Zealand

Papua New Guinea

Port Moresby
National Football Stadium
Capacity: 14,800

Group stage

Draw

The draw was undertaken at the launch of the event in Auckland on 19 July 2016 and involved the same four group format as the 2013 tournament.
The first two groups are made up of four teams whilst the other two groups feature three teams each. The top three teams in the first two groups and the winners of the two smaller groups will qualify for the quarter-finals. Group play will involve a round robin in the larger groups, and a round robin in the smaller groups with an additional inter-group game for each team so all teams will play three group games.
Group AGroup BGroup CGroup D
























Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Inter-group matches

Knockout stage

Three teams from each of Groups A and B and one team from each of Groups C and D advanced to the quarter-finals. All quarter-finalists automatically qualified for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup. The quarter-final fixture were finalised at the conclusion of the pool stages, to ensure that Australia played in Darwin on 17 November and New Zealand in Wellington on 18 November.
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Quarter-finals

Australia vs Samoa

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Tonga vs Lebanon

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New Zealand vs Fiji

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England vs Papua New Guinea

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Semi-finals

Australia vs Fiji

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Tonga vs England

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Final: Australia vs England

Try scorers

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Criticism and controversy

The lack of games in New South Wales, the heartland of rugby league in Australia, drew some criticism. Only one of the 13 confirmed tournament venues was in New South Wales and it is only hosting two group-stage fixtures, both featuring Lebanon. This was due to the refusal of the New South Wales Government to bid for hosting rights. Despite the so-called 'Sydney Cup snub', the RLWC organisers backed their decision and the venues they were using.
In the buildup to the Samoa vs. Tonga game in Hamilton, controversy occurred after fans from both countries were caught having brawls in South Auckland. At least 6 people were arrested from the brawls resulting in a massive security increase for the game. Both teams, celebrities, and police urged fans to calm down.
Following the results of the controversial incident, a Tongan Advisory Council member lashed out at organisers, saying that this tournament is poorly organised compared to the 2011 Rugby World Cup, mentioning that Rugby World Cup organisers engaged with community groups 18 months beforehand, whereas this tournament was "scrambled around".
After Scotland's 68 point thrashing to New Zealand in Christchurch, captain Danny Brough, Sam Brooks, and Jonathan Walker were sent home for violating code of conduct after being all deemed too 'intoxicated' for their team's flight to Cairns for Scotland's next game against Samoa. Italian players James Tedesco and Shannon Wakeman were under investigation by the World Cup integrity unit for a brawl at a Cairns nightclub.

Media coverage

was the Australian and worldwide host broadcaster, winning the rights for the event in July 2016, beating the likes of Foxtel and Optus.
Country or regionBroadcasterBroadcasting
Seven NetworkAll 28 matches live

ProSieben Maxx
ran.de		6 matches live
All 28 matches live streamed
Sportdeutschland.TVAll 28 matches live streamed
Fiji OneAll 28 matches live
beIN SportsAll 28 matches live
Hong KongPCCWAll 28 matches live
eir SportsAll 28 matches live
DAZNAll 28 matches live
MalaysiaAstroAll 28 matches live
Middle EastOSN SportsAll 28 matches live
Sky SportAll 28 matches live
EM TVAll 28 matches live
BBC SportAll England matches live; Ireland, Wales and Scotland matches delayed; highlights from all 28 matches
Premier Sports27 matches Live
Fox SportsAll USA matches and knockout matches live