2021 Rugby League World Cup


The 2021 Rugby League World Cup 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 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 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 the inaugural PDRL World Cup 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 2021 Rugby League World Cup, 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. Eight to ten cities, featuring a mix of National Football League and soccer-specific stadiums, were planned for the event, offering the 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 2021 Rugby League World Cup.

Nations

A total of 20 Nations are involved across the three major tournaments:
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 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 as well as the York Community Stadium were used for the women's tournament. Three further venues 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 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's official trailer for the tournaments depicted landmarks from some of the host towns and cities. In chronological order these were; the Tyne Bridge, Sports Village, Tower Bridge and its surroundings, the Corn Exchange, the M62 motorway, and Beetham Tower and its surroundings.

Stadium locations

Stadiums are referred to by their official name rather than sponsored name, as is International Rugby League policy.

Team base camp locations

14 base camps were used by the 32 national teams to stay and train before and during the World Cup tournament, as follows:
The World Cups were originally due to be held between 23 October 2021 and 27 November 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent withdrawals of Australia and New Zealand caused the tournament to be postponed.
Despite the initial date for World Cup being over a year and a half away when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, from very early on organisers developed contingency plans to defer the events to 2022 should it become necessary to postpone in 2021. Having originally given themselves a cut off date of May 2021, organisers finally announced in July their decision to go ahead with the planned scheduling for 2021. This was despite reports that the Australian Rugby League Commission had yet to sign the participation agreement and the South Sydney Rabbitohs CEO Blake Solly claiming the preferred option from NRL clubs remained to postpone it to 2022. On a BBC rugby league poscast, RLWC2021 chief executive Jon Dutton that the option to postpone was discussed but was ""significantly unpalatable" with the potential of clashing with the men's football World Cup, the women's football European Championships and the Commonwealth Games in 2022. Dutton also suggested that there would be "a number of nations who would step up if any nation didn't take part for any reason across all three tournaments". Just one week later, Australia and New Zealand officially declared their withdrawal from the competitions citing "player welfare and safety concerns".
In the one week between tournament organisers announcing the tournament would go ahead in 2021 and the announcement that Australia and New Zealand would withdraw, the United Kingdom had repealed its last remaining social contact restrictions on so called "Freedom Day" despite skyrocketing COVID-19 cases. In contrast, during that same period, half of Australia's population were placed back under lockdown and 14 NRL clubs were relocated to Queensland in order for the remainder of 2021 NRL season to be completed.
Australia and New Zealand faced backlash following their announcement to withdraw with RFL chairman Simon Johnson calling the decision "selfish, parochial and cowardly". The Guardian had previously claimed that NRL clubs were not keen on the World Cup's current scheduling because players may not return until two weeks before the start of trial games for the 2022 NRL season. Johnson also suggested that the decision had been made at boardroom-level and without the consultation of players whilst The Guardian further claimed that a survey showed 75% of players consulted by Australia's players union remained happy to travel to England. Johnson had also pointed out the difference compared to other Australian sporting bodies that were still planning to send athletes to the Tokyo Olympics from July 2021. However, former Downing Street Press Secretary and British journalist Alastair Campbell noted the differences between the lower cases and tougher restrictions in Japan compared to the higher cases and no restrictions that existed in the UK – instead blaming Simon Johnson's namesake and then-British PM Boris Johnson for wrecking the World Cup.
On 5 August 2021 tournament organisers announced they would postpone the World Cups to 2022 with just little more than a month away from its start with Dutton admitting that a World Cup without Australia and New Zealand would have lacked credibility.