World-class Rugby League World Cup opener flies under the radar

THE 2026 Rugby League World Cup couldn’t have wished for a better opening game. The tournament kicked off on Thursday in Sydney with an exhibition of attacking rugby from Australia and New Zealand, and a sign of what might be to come in November’s final. “It was a high-quality game, said Australia coach Kevin Walters. “It had intensity and everything. “We’re fierce rivals, and that was one of the best games of footy I’ve seen in a long time between two countries.” But despite the world-class quality of this opener, it barely registered back in the UK, where even in one of the heartlands of rugby league the tournament has a very low profile. As England prepare to take on Tonga today, few outside of rugby league circles will know it is taking place. There are several reasons for this. One is because it is taking place on the other side of the world, hosted as it is in Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. The fact that this is the third attempt to host the tournament hasn’t helped either. The original idea to host it in 2025 in the USA and Canada was scrapped due to financial concerns, and plans for France to step in as replacement hosts last year were also shelved for similar reasons. Another reason is that rugby league remains one of the many sports that receive little media coverage relative to the high number of participants and spectators involved in it each week. The sports media landscape is increasingly dominated by soccer, and even within that sport itself, most of the coverage focuses on just a handful of Premier League clubs. Other teams and other sports, even if they are played and watched by hundreds of thousands of people each week, are pushed out. Related to this, another reason the Rugby League World Cup has gone under the radar is that there is no free-to-air coverage of it on TV in the UK this time around. The BBC has regularly broadcast rugby league internationals and World Cup tournaments in the past, but this year chose not to bid for the rights to show live games. Chairman of the International Rugby League Tony Grant told the Sydney Daily Telegraph last week that the BBC had previously had the rights for free as the IRL looked to grow the sport. “The BBC got given the rights [for previous World Cups] for free,” said Grant. The strategy was to get more eyeballs on the game, and it did. It worked, but we can’t run World Cups for free. The BBC were invited to tender, like everyone was. “In Australia, it’s on free-to-air television with Channel Seven, who have paid for the rights.” Once again this hints at a move away from showing a diverse range of live sport across UK mainstream media. It’s something the BBC has historically done well, but now appears to be following the crowd and moving in the same direction as commercial media, something which, as a publicly funded organisation, it shouldn’t need to do. The result of all of this is a Rugby League World Cup hidden away behind a paywall, barely covered by the national media, and limited only to those who can afford an additional Premier Sports subscription on top of the multiple other services sports fans now need to subscribe to. Those who were watching as expected finalists Australia and New Zealand battled it out in the opener witnessed as good an exhibition of rugby as you will see in any code or any format, which makes it even more disappointing it was not more widely covered. It had the free-flowing play of a sevens match coupled with the endurance test of a typical rugby game. This was epitomised when Reece Walsh evaded the New Zealand defence to run half the length of the pitch to score for Australia, but had to pass on the duties of kicking the conversion attempt to someone else as he was too exhausted to take the kick himself. Despite losing the tight contest 24-22, New Zealand are still likely to progress from their group, from which the top two, likely the Aussies and the Kiwis, will go into separate semifinals against the winner and runner-up from England’s group. It means Australia and New Zealand can still meet in the final, and the tournament pathway is set up for them to do so. England are usually considered the third power in international rugby, but many bookmakers fancy Tonga and Samoa ahead of them in this edition. It’s not a given that England will get out of a group containing both of those teams, along with Lebanon, France, and co-hosts Papua New Guinea. Samoa trounced France 78-4 yesterday morning, highlighting rugby league’s continued struggle for strength in depth in the international game. That said, the combination of tight contests as seen in Australia versus New Zealand and attacking dominance from one team such as that shown by Samoa versus France can make for different kinds of entertainment. Samoa were still great to watch as they dismantled their opponents, even if the result itself was decided long before the final whistle. Samoa’s women also put a good showing in their match against Australia yesterday as the women’s tournament, running parallel to the men’s, got underway in Sydney. They still lost 40-0, but started well and were only 12-0 down at halftime against the overwhelming tournament favourites. Wales are represented in the women’s World Cup as well as England, which should attract a little more interest on UK shores, especially as the two meet in their opening game this morning, but again, women’s sport struggles for coverage outside of soccer. The 2026 Rugby League World Cup looks set to be an entertaining spectacle, one deserving of more airtime than it is likely to receive as the variety of sports and sports teams given comprehensive mainstream national coverage dwindles. As the US Open extends by a week, tennis players voice fears over growing length of tournaments, writes BRIAN MAHONEY As we approach the grim anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, SIMON BARROW sounds the alarm over the dangerous and murderous direction our government is heading