RLWC 2026 Draw, Venue & Crowds

[Burns]

Hmm. Bit of an omen the intended announcement schedule being thrown out.

 

[undertaker]

Just saw on the Channel 7 post-match telecast that they'll be airing some cricket show on at 1pm AEDT tomorrow and it's during that show where the 2026 RLWC draw announcement will take place.

 

[paulmac]

Draw announcement bumped forward to 1pm tomorrow after the WBBL whatever that is.

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

Rotten luck for Seven (and the NRL too I suppose) in their first attempt to hype the RLWC during the big viewing numbers they`ve been getting for the cricket. I expect they`ll lead with it or close on their evening news anyway.

 

[Jim from Oz]

What is the capacity of the Christchurch Stadium? Cheers

 

[mccarthyj367]

What is the capacity of the Christchurch Stadium? Cheers

30k

 

[Willy2452]

Australia is playing a Group game and the final at Suncorp is confirmed on the rlwc2026 website. So we know 2 out 3 Aus group games, one at SFS and one a Suncorp.

Experiences

Hospitality experiences Platinum Suite Champions Suite Legends Lounge Pitchside Club Outdoor Box Premium hospitality Prime viewing match seating corporate

www.rlwc2026hospitality.com

“Sunset Lounge
A premium lounge location set on the halfway line at Suncorp Stadium. The place to be for an Australian group match or the highly anticipated Final.

 

[undertaker]

Hello, hello...what do we have here? Seems like the draw has been inadvertently leaked via the hospitality packages and the games they correspond with (albeit kick-off time is the only thing not listed):

Events

www.rlwc2026hospitality.com

- Australia playing their other two group matches against Fiji at Suncorp and Cook Islands at Townsville.

- Tonga vs Samoa at CommBank Stadium is very disappointing, let alone hosting it as the 2nd match of a mens double header after Lebanon vs France. Tonga vs Samoa deserved to be a stand-alone fixture at a larger venue

- Yes, there is a match at Christchurch. New Zealand vs Cook Islands.

- Newcastle and Allianz Stadium hosting the semi finals

- compared to the last RLWC down under in 2017, it looks like Darwin, Cairns, Canberra and Melbourne have missed out on hosting matches

 

[undertaker]

If the link in the information above is correct, then for the mens tournament we have:

Group A: Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Cook Islands

Group B or C: England, Samoa, Lebanon

Group B or C: Tonga, Papua New Guinea, France

15 matches in Australia, 2 in Papua New Guinea and 1 in New Zealand

 

[undertaker]

Before I go to bed, I'll type it out the fixtures for the mens tournament. Hopefully this is accurate:

15/10 Australia vs New Zealand (Allianz Stadium)
16/10 Samoa vs France (CommBank Stadium)
17/10 PNG vs Lebanon (Port Moresby)
17/10 England vs Tonga (HBF Park)
18/10 Fiji vs Cook Islands (Newcastle)
23/10 Tonga vs Lebanon (CommBank Stadium)
24/10 PNG vs Samoa (Port Moresby)
24/10 England vs France (HBF Park)
25/10 New Zealand vs Cook Islands (One NZ Stadium)
25/10 Australia vs Fiji (Suncorp)
30/10 England vs PNG (Wollongong)
31/10 New Zealand vs Fiji (Gold Coast)
31/10 Australia vs Cook Islands (Townsville)
1/11 Lebanon vs France, Tonga vs Samoa (CommBank Stadium)
7/11 First semi-final (Newcastle)
8/11 Second semi-final (Allianz Stadium)
15/11 Final (Suncorp)


Will be interested to hear your thoughts on these fixtures and venue allocations (unless there's been an error in the listings of those hospitality packages and the corresponding fixtures they align with)

 

[paulmac]

Well spotted undertaker! This format sill worries me can definitely still see the possibility England, Samoa & Lebanon sweeping their games meaning an undefeated team would miss out on the semi finals

 

[paulmac]

Also despite drawing 44k in Brisbane neither Samoa nor Tonga will play in QLD unless they make the final.

 

[mccarthyj367]

Also despite drawing 44k in Brisbane neither Samoa nor Tonga will play in QLD unless they make the final.

Also why play it in a 30k stadium? This was one game you could have taken to Accor to make push for 60k+

 

[Burns]

Okay, where do we start:

Maybe crowd and vibe reaction. Shout out to undertake for posting the fixture list!

15/10 Australia vs New Zealand (Allianz Stadium)
45,000. Will be rad and should sell out.

16/10 Samoa vs France (CommBank Stadium)
20,000+ and France will get destroyed.

17/10 PNG vs Lebanon (Port Moresby)
15,000. Sell out, depending on who turns out for Lebanon - who knows?

17/10 England vs Tonga (HBF Park)
15.000. Why play Tonga in Perth? Whats the size of the Tonga community over there? I get why England are going to be based out of there, and it helps as a launch for the Bears in 2027 but still - Tonga seems like not the best fit.


18/10 Fiji vs Cook Islands (Newcastle)
Alarm bells. Has under 10,000 potential. Understand the logic that Newy will turn out for footy, but this is probably one of the harder sells.

23/10 Tonga vs Lebanon (CommBank Stadium)
Sell out. Now this one will be cool. Will be noisy and colourful.

24/10 PNG vs Samoa (Port Moresby)
Sell out. Samoa should do it easy, but good having PNG play a big opponent at home.

24/10 England vs France (HBF Park)
This got just shy of 15,000 in 2017 RLWC. Ditto again.

25/10 New Zealand vs Cook Islands (One NZ Stadium)
NZ get a home game! Test for the NZRL to promote and get a crowd here. That's a big stadium for a game they'll win by 50.

25/10 Australia vs Fiji (Suncorp)
Alarm bells. The only standalone game with no Women's fixture attached. 20,000+ if lucky. This one should have been in Newy.

30/10 England vs PNG (Wollongong)
Weird venue. Not sure why the Gong? Better suited up in QLD. Maybe 15,000.

31/10 New Zealand vs Fiji (Gold Coast)
Don't mind this and makes sense due to size of communities in SE Qld. 15,000.

31/10 Australia vs Cook Islands (Townsville)
Ditto the above.

1/11 Lebanon vs France, Tonga vs Samoa (CommBank Stadium)
This one perhaps shows the conservative nature of this 2026 RLWC tournament. Organisers not confident enough in Lebanon essentially bringing a crowd to a standalone against France; and putting it with the one fixture we know will have the largest 'hype'. A sell out.

7/11 First semi-final (Newcastle)
Cool, who knows. NZ and ENG? 20,000.

8/11 Second semi-final (Allianz Stadium)
This would have Australia and Samoa? 30,000+

15/11 Final (Suncorp)
If Samoa/Tonga make it - a sell out. Maybe if NZ do. Otherwise the crowd will be smaller than the recent Samoa v Tonga match.

 

[Jim from Oz]

An okayish draw but what the hell were they thinking having Tonga versus Samoa at a 30,000-seat stadium?! Lebanon versus France at Parramatta would’ve got a reasonable 15,000 type crowd on its own!

 

[adamkungl]

Australia v Cook Islands standalone while Samoa v Tonga is double headered is just bizarre. Insane choice of true.

Samoa v Tonga should be at Suncorp, Australia v Fiji at Newcastle, Australia v Cook Islands as part of the double header with Lebanon.

Also thinking Christchurch should host the NZ semi final rather than a nothing game against Cook Islands that they won by 90 last time round. That's another double header fodder game.

I was hoping Lebanon would be in Pool A so each group has one non-Pacific nation but it's not a huge deal on the grand scheme of things. Could have made it look a bit more varied than it is.

France not in the worst pool but not exactly given any favours. I was hoping they'd cross pool against Cook Islands and PNG

 

[yakstorm]

England v PNG should be in Port Moresby. PNG is a co-host of the tournament, why send them to Wollongong to play in front of 10K when they instead they could play in front of 20K+ at Sir Hubert Murray Stadium.

Agree with the sentiment that Lebanon v France could have been a standalone game, it definitely an easier match to market than what Newcastle got in Fiji v Cook Islands.

 

[Last Week]

Well spotted undertaker! This format sill worries me can definitely still see the possibility England, Samoa & Lebanon sweeping their games meaning an undefeated team would miss out on the semi finals

No, that's not how it works.

The top 2 teams from pools B and C will qualify.

Essentially the teams across those 2 pools with the best records.

Really, England vs Tonga, Samoa vs Tonga will decide the two semi finalists.

 

[adamkungl]

Also of note that the pools seem to be confirmed as of before the recent Pacific matches, with Tonga retaining 4th seed over Samoa.

That certainly makes things harder for Tonga.
Instead of playing PNG they'll play England.

 

[stratocaster]

Sell outs - W1 AUS vs NZ (45k), W1 PNG vs lebanese (15k+), W2 TON vs lebanese (29k), W2 PNG vs SAM (15k+), W3 lebanese vs FRA/TON vs SAM (29k), SF1 (29k), FINAL (52k)

High - W1 SAM vs FRA (20k+), W2 NZ vs CIS (20k+ only because its the only game in NZ), W2 AUS vs FIJ (30-40k), SF2 (35-45k),

Mid - W1 ENG vs TON (15k+), W2 ENG vs FRA (15k+), W3 NZ vs FIJ (15-25k - will surprise people), W3 AUS vs CIS (15-20k)

Low - W1 FIJ vs CIS (10-15k), W3 ENG vs PNG (10-15k)


Change-

Week 1 - FIJ vs CIS & SAM vs FRA to a Suncorp Double Header - sell out

Week 2 - NZ vs CIS - they're going to need to promote the hell out of this one

Week 3 - ENG vs PNG in the Gong - I don't get the logic there

- LEBANON vs FRA, TON vs SAM - move it to Home Bush. You can get 50-60k for the double header

Total attendance - 400k to 430k - which is around what 14-16 team tournaments bring in - could be bigger with stadium/double header tweaks

Average attendance - 20-25k - which will be highest in the last 55 years, back when it was only 4 teams involved