2021 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup
The 2021 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup will be held in England from 15 October to 19 November 2022. It was originally planned to be held in November 2021 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England.[1] It will be the first occasion on which the wheelchair rugby league competition has taken place concurrently with the men's and women's tournaments.[2] The competition will also be the first time that participants in the wheelchair tournament will receive the same participation fees as players in the other competitions and the first time that prize money will be awarded.[3]
| 2021 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup | |
|---|---|
| Number of teams | 8 |
| Host country |  England |
2025 > | |
Qualifying nations
England, as hosts, and France, as holders of the world cup were given automatic entry to the competition. Other nations were invited to submit entries and six were chosen against a range of criteria including current international and domestic infrastructure and plans for growth. The six nations selected to join England and France in the tournament are Australia, Norway, Scotland, Spain, USA and Wales.[2] Norway was replaced by Ireland due to the former being unable to prepare sufficiently for the tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic related issues.[4]
Draw
The teams were drawn into two groups of four. The two seeded teams were England (Group A) and France (Group B). The draw was made at Buckingham Palace on 16 January 2020. Teams from pool 1 were drawn by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, pool 2 was drawn by Katherine Grainger and pool 3 by Jason Robinson.[5]
Group A
Group A comprises England (seeded), Australia (pool 1), Spain (pool 2) and Norway (pool 3).[5]
Venues
The tournament will be played at three venues, the Copper Box Arena in London will be used for the Group A games, the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield will host the Group B games as well as both semi-finals. These venues were confirmed when the revised schedule for the tournament was issued.[6] The final was scheduled for the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool but the postponement of the tournament from 2021 to 2022 resulted in a venue change with the final now to be played in Manchester at Manchester Central.[6] All three tournaments of the World Cup will culminate in the same city on the same date, as the finals of the men's and women's tournaments are also being played in Manchester, at Old Trafford on 19 November.[6]
| Location | Stadium | Image | Capacity | Matches to be hosted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | Copper Box Arena | .jpg.webp) |
7,481 | Group A games |
| Sheffield | English Institute of Sport |  |
— | Group B games, both semi-finals |
| Manchester | Manchester Central |  |
10,900 | Final |
Officials
The match officials for the tournament were announced on 25 May 2021. The managers of the squad are Alana Sargent (Wales) and Steve Abel (England). The eight officials are:[7]
- David Butler (England)
- David Roig (France)
- Kim Abel (Wales)
- Laurent Abrial (France)
- Lucy Redmond (Wales)
- Matthew Ball (England)
- Ollie Cruickshank (Scotland)
- Tim Robinson (Australia)
Fixtures
The fixtures were announced on 21 July 2020.[8] All the games in the tournament will be played as double headers.[9]
Group A
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Australia |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Advance to knockout stages |
| 2 | England |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 |  Ireland |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 4 |  Spain |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Group B
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  France |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Advance to knockout stages |
| 2 |  Scotland |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 |  Wales |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 4 |  USA |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Semi-finals
The semi-finals will be played as a double header at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield on a date not yet announced.
| Winner of Group B | v | Runner Up in Group A |
|---|---|---|
| Winner of Group A | v | Runner Up in Group B |
|---|---|---|
Final
Team base camps
Base camps were used by the national squads to stay and train before and during the World Cup tournament. On 10 June 2020, these locations were released. All the wheelchair teams are based in either London or Sheffield; [10]
- London: Australia, England, Norway and Spain
- Sheffield: France, Scotland, USA and Wales
References
- "Wheelchair Rugby World Cup postponed 12 months later". rlwc.com. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- "Nations Confirmed For Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup 2021". Able Magazine. 19 July 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- Heppenstall, Ross (21 October 2019). "2021 Rugby League World Cup: Female and wheelchair players to receive same fees as male counterparts for first time". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- Pavitt, Michael (7 March 2022). "Ireland replace Norway in Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup line-up". Inside the Games. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
- "Rugby League World Cup 2021 draw: England drawn with Samoa, France and Greece". BBC Sport. 16 January 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- "Manchester to host World Cup finals". BBC Sport. 19 November 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- "International Rugby League Announces Wheelchair Match Officials Squad for RLWC2021". Rugby League International Federation. 25 May 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
- "England start against Samoa at World Cup". BBC Sport. 21 July 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
- "Rugby League World Cup 2021 | Schedule". www.rlwc2021.com. 21 July 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
- "Kangaroos to be united in Manchester: World Cup team bases announced". National Rugby League. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.