2021 Rugby League World Cup

The 2021 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2021) was a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league, held in England from 15 October to 19 November 2022. England won hosting rights for the competition on 27 October 2016. The bid received £25 million UK government support, partnered with the UK Cabinet Office as part of a commitment to the Northern Powerhouse, with 87 percent of all matches to be held in northern towns and cities. Organisers initially planned for the tournaments to go ahead between 23 October and 27 November 2021 despite the COVID–19 pandemic but withdrawals from Australia and New Zealand over "player welfare and safety concerns" caused the tournaments to be postponed – with the event's chief executive admitting that a World Cup without those teams would have lacked credibility.

For the first time, the men's, women's, and wheelchair tournaments were held concurrently as centrepiece events with all participants being paid the same. 32 teams (16 men, 8 women, and 8 wheelchair) from 20 nations competed across 61 matches. Australia men beat Samoa 30–10 to win a record-extending 12th title, Australia women beat New Zealand 54–4 to win a record-equalling third title, and England wheelchair team beat France 28–24 to win a record-equalling second title. Additional competitions under the Festival of World Cups banner were also planned to take place but were cancelled due to fundraising and squad selection issues caused by the COVID–19 pandemic. Despite its cancellation, an inaugural Physical Disability Rugby League World Cup (PDRL) and a Masters Rugby League event were rescheduled to take place alongside the main competitions. England beat New Zealand 42–10 in the final to become world champions.

All 61 matches in the men's, women's, and wheelchair competitions were broadcast live, with the opening and closing matchdays of the physical disability competition also receiving UK coverage via BBC Sport. Along with official sponsors and partners, organisers announced numerous projects to focus on the long-term impact of the Rugby League World Cup. Named ''"InspirationALL"'', this included a £10 million fund from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to enable sports clubs to develop their facilities.

Host selection

There were initially three bids for the but the United Arab Emirates' bid was cancelled due to the arrest of Sol Mokdad at the behest of UAE rugby union officials.

England, and the United States and Canada were the two remaining bidders of the event. The English RFL received UK government support – £15 million to enhance the tournament and up to a further £10 million into the game's infrastructure – for the event to be staged in the country. The RFL mentioned they wanted the event to be the most attended in history with over 1,000,000 people attending the grounds over the tournament's days. They were also planning to use 12 venues for the event which included non-purpose and rugby league-purpose stadiums.

The United States and Canada bid was initially a sole United States bid from an Australian sports–marketing agency, Moore Sports International (MSI). Eight to ten cities, featuring venues from either the NFL or MLS, were planned for the event, offering Rugby League International Federation the opportunity to stage the tournament outside of Europe and Australasia for the first time. Canada Rugby League later announced they wanted to be a part of the United States bid stating that the cities of Vancouver and Toronto could also potentially host matches.

On 27 October 2016, the RLIF announced that England had won hosting rights for the .

Nations

A total of 20 Nations are involved across the three major tournaments:

* (M, W, WC)
* (W)
* (W)
* Cook Islands (M, W)
* (M, W, WC)
* (M)
* (M, W, WC)
* (M)
* (M, WC)
* (M)

* (M)
* (M)
* (M, W)
* (M, W)
* (M)
* (M, WC)
* (WC)
* (M)
* (WC)
* (M, WC)

Note: M= Men's tournament, W=Women's tournament, WC= Wheelchair tournament

Venues

The full list of 21 venues to be used for the three tournaments (men's, women's and wheelchair) was announced on 29 January 2019. Seventeen venues were used for the men's tournament and in addition Preston and York were announced as a training venue for the tournaments. Four of those same venues (DW Stadium, Headingley Stadium, MKM Stadium, and Old Trafford) as well as the York Community Stadium were used for the women's tournament. Three further venues (Copper Box Arena, English Institute of Sport, and Manchester Central) will host the Wheelchair tournament. Base camps were used by the 32 national squads to stay and train before and during the World Cup tournament. On 10 June 2020, these locations were released. All three tournaments held their final in Manchester, with the Wheelchair tournament concluding on 18 November, and the women's and the men's finals taking place in a double-header the day after at Old Trafford.

Organisers partnered with the UK Cabinet Office as part of a commitment to the Northern Powerhouse. The UK's Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Northern Powerhouse minister welcomed the news that 87 percent of matches (including all three finals) would be held in the North, exceeding a previous 80 percent commitment from organisers in receipt of £25 million government funding. This attracted some criticism from Rugby League expansionists unhappy about the lack of games throughout the country outside of the traditional M62 Corridor.

The use of the as-yet unbuilt Workington Community Stadium was initially a venue for three group matches in the men's tournament but was later cancelled. The venue was first thrown into doubt after the 2019 Allerdale Borough Council election when control of the council changed and the new council showed less enthusiasm for the new stadium project. In early July 2019, Allerdale Council confirmed that they would be unable to host any matches in the tournament. On 28 August 2019, it was announced that Kingston Park in Newcastle upon Tyne would host the three games originally allocated to Workington. Anfield in Liverpool were also due to host matches in both the men's and women's tournaments but became unavailable when the competition was moved from 2021 to 2022. It was replaced by the DW Stadium in Wigan.

The BBC
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