The 2015 European Cup was an international

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

football tournament. The tournament took place between 16 October and 7 November in Wales, France, Scotland and Ireland.

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

were the defending champions. Four teams competed in the 2015 event;

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Wales were crowned 2015 European Cup champions after winning all of their games putting them on top of the table with the maximum points tally of 6. After the tournament's last game there would be no European Cup tournament until the 2018 Championship due to the events occurring such as the 2016 Four Nations, 2017 World Cup qualifying competitions and the 2017 World Cup Finals.

Teams

Squads

France

Head Coach:

Richard Agar Richard Agar (born 20 January 1972) is an English professional rugby league coach who is the former head coach of the Leeds Rhinos in the Super League and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He play ...

*On 1 October, Richard Agar named the following 23 players as part of his squad in preparation for the tournament.

Ireland

Head Coach:

Mark Aston Mark Aston (born 27 September 1967) is the head coach of Sheffield Eagles in the Betfred Championship. He is an English rugby league coach, and former rugby league who spent the majority of his playing career with Sheffield Eagles. He also h ...

*On 2 October, Mark Aston named the following 22 players as part of his squad in preparation for the tournament. *On 6 November, Robbie Mulhern was a late call-up for Mark Aston's team in the lead up to their crucial final match against Wales.

Scotland

Head Coach:

Steve McCormack Steve McCormack is a rugby league coach. He was head coach of Scotland until 2017 and was the longest reigning coach in the nation's history having held the role since 2004. He has also had an extensive club coaching career, having coached Salf ...

*On 30 September, Steve McCormack named the following 29 players as part of his squad in preparation for the tournament. *On 9 October, Steve McCormack brought in two new players to the squad after the withdrawals from seven players: Craig Borthwick, Mitch Stringer, Brett Carter, Jon Molloy,

Callum Phillips Callum Phillips (born 19 February 1992) is a Scotland international rugby league footballer who plays as a or for Whitehaven in Betfred League 1. Background Phillips was born in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England. Club career Born in Whitehaven, ...

and

Brett Phillips Brett Maverick Phillips (born May 30, 1994) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays ...

. Billy McConnachie was also suspended for the first two games. The two new players McCormack brought in are: Louis Senter and Joe McLean. *On 7 November, Sam Brooks was called up to play for Steve McCormack's side in the final game of the tournament against France to fill in for injuries. Gavin Grant was also called up to play in the team, for the game against France, which became the youngest ever international senior Scottish team to play an international match with an average age of 22.

Wales

Head Coach:

John Kear John Kear (born 25 November 1954) is an English professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of the Widnes Vikings in the Betfred Championship and the Wales national rugby league team. He also works as a pundit for BBC Sport and is a f ...

*On 16 September, John's first selection move of 2015 was naming his new captain as Lloyd White. *On 29 September, John Kear named the following 24 players as part of his squad in preparation for the tournament. *On 2 October, Matty Fozard pulled out of the squad due to a broken jaw. He was replaced by Connor Farrer. *On 8 October, James Geurtjens of the

Coventry Bears The Midlands Hurricanes are a semi-professional rugby league club jointly based in Birmingham and Coventry, West Midlands, England. They were founded as the Coventry Bears in 1998 and entered the third tier of the British rugby league system, ...

was called up into John Kear's squad. *On 12 October, captain Lloyd White withdrew from the team due to a knee injury.

Craig Kopczak Craig Kopczak (born 20 December 1986) is a Wales international rugby league footballer who plays as a for Featherstone Rovers in the Betfred Championship. He previously played for the Bradford Bulls in the Super League, and on loan from Brad ...

was therefore announced as the new captain. *On 21 October,

prop Morgan Evans replaced Ben Flower in the team.

Venues

The games will be played at the following venues in Wales, France, Scotland and Ireland.

Standings

Fixtures

Note*France vs Wales Round 2 fixture has been moved to the 30th due to France'
fixture
with England on 24 October before England's

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

against New Zealand.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Matches details

''All times are local'':

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CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast En ...

''in French venues''.

UTC+0 UTC+00:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +00:00. In ISO 8601, an example of the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+00:00. It is also known by the following geographical or historical names: *Greenwich Mean ...

/ WET ''in Irish venues''.

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

in ''Welsh venues''.

''in Scottish venues''.

Wales vs Scotland

* The victory for Wales ended their spree of 12 consecutive defeats with their last victory occurring four years ago.

France vs Ireland

Scotland vs Ireland

Wales vs France

*With the defeat, France still haven’t won a test in South Wales since 1948.

France vs Scotland

Ireland vs Wales

Attendances

Broadcasting

beIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a global network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. It has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef O ...

broadcast both of France's home matches against Ireland and Scotland as well as their away match against Wales.

References

{{2015 in rugby league European Nations Cup

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...