Rugby League World Cup

The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament first held in France in 1954 and contested by members of the Rugby League International Federation. Since its inception, the Rugby League World Cup has taken place on 14 occasions and has been structured in a number of different ways.

The World Cup was initially proposed by the French Rugby League but it took nearly 20 years for the other major powers in the world game to agree to take part. When it was first held in 1954, 33 years before the first Rugby Union World Cup, the tournament comprised of just four teams: France, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. It was played in a league format, with the top two teams meeting in the final. Great Britain beat France 16-12 in the first ever final after the two sides had drawn 13-13 in the group stage.

The following tournament was held in 1957, but this time it was decided that the leader at the end of the group stage would be declared the winner, and the hosts, Australia, prevailed. Great Britain were victorious again in 1960 but unrest within the French camp meant that the tournament would not be played again until 1968, at which point the old league structure followed by a final was reintroduced. From then until 1972 the tournament was played every two years but the format was changed again in 1975 to incorporate home and away games, and the inclusion of separate teams for England and Wales.

In 1977 the pre-1975 format was re-introduced but by this time the watching public had grown tired of the constant tinkering and the tournament was not held again until 1985 when the 'home and away' format was brought back. This approach was repeated in 1989.

In 1995, the organisers of the World Cup opted to revert to the group format, this time with 10 teams entering. The tournament expanded to 16 teams in 2000 but the tournament saw a number of one-sided games and was considered to have been a commercial failure. In 2008, the 10-team format was re-instated, and this was expanded to 14 teams for the most recent World Cup held in 2013.

The current World Champions are Australia, who have won the World Cup 10 times in total. Great Britain have won the World Cup on three occasions and New Zealand have won it once, recording a famous victory over Australia in the 2008 final.

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