Women’s Rugby League World Cup 2026: Groups confirmed in European qualifying process

The European Qualifiers draw for the Women’s Rugby League World Cup 2026 was conducted on Wednesday, which sees Ireland and Wales placed together in a group.

Four nations have already qualified to play in the 2026 Rugby League World Cup – Australia (Winners), New Zealand (Runners-up), England and Papua New Guinea (both semi-finalists), as the four semi-finalists in the previous World Cup in England.

But four places still remain.

The European nations were seeded using the December 2023 IRL World Rankings, and came out as follows:

Group A will feature Wales as the top seed, Ireland, and either Italy/Netherlands - who will meet in a preliminary qualifying match in April.

Group B is made up of France as top seed, Greece, and Serbia.

The group stage fixtures over three dates are TBC.

The winners of each group will qualify for the 2026 Women’s Rugby League World Cup, and the second placed nations will meet in a play-off game in October to determine which team represents Europe in the inaugural 2025’s World Series, where nations will compete for the final World Cup place.

One nation from Asia Pacific Women’s Rugby League will also qualify for a World Cup place, using up the eight available spots.

The draw was made by David Butler, European Rugby League (ERL) general manager and Andrea Dobson, former England women’s international who made 27 appearances for England and Great Britian and has appeared at four consecutive World Cups before her retirement in 2019.

“It’s amazing to see the growth of the international women’s game,” commented Dobson, who was recently added to the Rugby Football League’s Roll of Honour.

“To have so many nations aiming to qualify is very exciting and not something I could have imagined when I started playing. I’d like to wish all good luck for their fixtures and look forward to seeing who progresses.”