2008 RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD CUP

'2008 Rugby League World Cup'

'General Information'
'Host Nation'
'Number of Nations'	10
'Commences'	25 October 2008

The '2008 Rugby League World Cup' will be the 13th World Cup, an international tournament for rugby league, that is scheduled to take place between 25 October and 22 November 2008 in Australia. It will be the fourth time that the tournament has been held in Australia with its first holding there in 1957.
The thirteenth Cup was originally scheduled to be held in Australia in 2004^[1], however, the lack of international success by the Great Britain and New Zealand teams after the 2000 World Cup, and the rise of the Tri-Nations tournament, meant that it was delayed for a further four years.^[2]
The Rugby League International Federation officially announced this tournament on May 6 2006.^[3] With further details on scheduling and dates coming on April 19 2007 through a RLIF press conference^[4].
The Cup will be a part of celebrations for the centenary of the game in the southern hemisphere.

Contents

Teams

Entry requirements

Teams with automatic entry

Qualification tournaments

Other teams

Venues

Tournament matches

Draw

First round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Knockout Stage

Sources

Footnotes

External links

Teams

Entry requirements

The Rugby League International Federation has stipulated that each competing nation must meet the following criteria relating to domestic players:

★ Each squad must contain a minimum of six players who have been registered in the relevant domestic competition for at least one year, or

★ Each squad must contain at least six players who have played in that nation's junior international teams within the 18 months prior to the tournament.

Teams with automatic entry

The following teams have been given automatic entry into the World Cup:

★ Australia

★ New Zealand

★ England

★ France

★ Papua New Guinea

Qualification tournaments

Main articles: 2008 Rugby League World Cup qualifying

The five remaining places in the World Cup will be determined by qualification rounds. Two European rounds and Pacific, Atlantic and Repechage rounds were scheduled. Tonga and Fiji became the first two nations to qualify after Tonga defeated Samoa 18-10 in Leeds on 22 October. Samoa were forced to enter the repechage. Two European teams and one from the Repecharge tournament are yet to qualify.

Other teams

A commemorative match between the Australian Aborigines and New Zealand Māori teams will also be held during the tournament, but will not form part of the competition.[1] New Zealand Maori Rugby League Board chairman Howie Tamati has stated that he hopes the match is played as the curtain-raiser to the grand final.[2]

Venues

So far only Queensland has confirmed which stadium will host World Cup matches, including the final going to Suncorp Stadium after the Queensland state government outbid Sydney^[5] where the final would have been held at Telstra Stadium.

City	Stadium names	Host club(s)	Map[6]	Capacity
Brisbane	Suncorp Stadium	Brisbane Broncos	Map	52,500
Gold Coast	Skilled Park	Gold Coast Titans	Map	25,000
Townsville	Dairy Farmers Stadium	North Queensland Cowboys	Map	25,000
Darwin	TIO Stadium			15,000
Rockhampton	Browne Park	Central Comets	Map	8,000
Sydney	Sydney Football Stadium	Sydney Roosters		45,500
Melbourne	Telstra Dome	N/A		56,347
Newcastle	EnergyAustralia Stadium	Newcastle Knights		26,126

Tournament matches

Draw

The draw, after being confirmed by the RLIF on April 19 2007^[7], is made up of three groups. The first group will be made up of four teams including Australia, England, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea whilst the other two groups will involve three teams each.
The semi finals will be made up of the first three teams in the first group and the winner of a playoff between the winners of the second and third groups.^[8] However, this draw has recently been put into doubt after the Papua New Guinea team claimed that the draw was unfair to them, and threatened to boycott the tournament should it not be changed.^[9]

Match	Date	Teams	Pool	Venue	City	Crowd
1	25 October 2008	Australia v. New Zealand	Pool A	Sydney Football Stadium	Sydney
2	26 October 2008	England v. Papua New Guinea	Pool A	Dairy Farmers Stadium	Townsville
3	26 October 2008	Euro B (1) 1 v. Tonga	Pool C	TBA	TBA
4	26 October 2008	France v. Euro A (2) 1	Pool B	TBA	TBA
5	31 October 2008	Fiji v. France	Pool B	TBA	TBA
6	31 October 2008	Tonga v. Repechage	Pool C	TBA	TBA
7	1 November 2008	New Zealand v. Papua New Guinea	Pool A	Skilled Park	Gold Coast
8	2 November 2008	Australia v. England	Pool A	Telstra Dome	Melbourne
9	5 November 2008	Euro A 2(1) v. Fiji	Pool B	Marrara Oval	Darwin
10	5 November 2008	Euro B 1 (1) v. Repechage	Pool C	Marrara Oval	Darwin
11	8 November 2008	England v. New Zealand	Pool A	EnergyAustralia Stadium	Newcastle
12	9 November 2008	Australia v. Papua New Guinea	Pool A	Dairy Farmers Stadium	Townsville
13	10 November 2008	Pool 2 (1) v. Pool 3 (1)	Qualifying Semi-final	TBA	TBA
14	11 November 2008	Pool 2 (2) v. Pool 3 (2)	Ranking	TBA	TBA
15	14 November 2008	Pool 2 (3) v. Pool 3 (3)	Ranking	TBA	TBA
16	14 November 2008	Pool 1 (4) v. Loser of Qualifying Semi-final	Ranking	TBA	TBA
17	15 November 2008	Pool 1 (2) v. Pool 1 (3)	Semi-final 1	Suncorp Stadium	Brisbane
18	16 November 2008	Pool 1 (1) v. Winner of Qualifying Semi-final	Semi-final 2	Sydney Football Stadium	Sydney
19	22 November 2008	Winner of Semi-final 1 v. Winner of Semi-final 2	Final	Suncorp Stadium	Brisbane

First round

In the following tables:

★ 'Pts' = total points accumulated

★ 'Pld' = total games played

★ 'W' = total games won

★ 'D' = total games drawn (tied)

★ 'L' = total games lost

★ 'PF' = total points scored (points for)

★ 'PA' = total points against (points against)

★ 'PD' = points difference (PF−PA)
All teams from group A (shaded in green) with the exception of the bottom qualifying team will progress to the semi-finals, the other two groups the top finisher will progress to a playoff match, in which the winner will qualify to the semi-finals.

Group A

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD
Australia	'0'	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
England	'0'	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
New Zealand	'0'	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Papua New Guinea	'0'	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Group B

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD
Fiji	'0'	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
France	'0'	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
European Qualifier 1	'0'	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Group C

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD
Tonga	'0'	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
European Qualifier 1	'0'	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Repechage	'0'	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Knockout Stage

Sources

★ "World Cup Moved To End of Season", BBC website, retrieved 4 May, 2006.

★ "RLIF Meeting", Rugby League European Federation website, retrieved May 8, 2006

★ "McDonald defends World Cup", BBC website, retrieved 6 May, 2006.

★ "Lewis backs Australia for World Cup", telegraph.co.uk website, retrieved May 8, 2006

★ "League legend wants Maori and Aboriginal World Cup teams", stuff.co.nz website, retrieved 31 July, 2006.

Footnotes

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/low/rugby_league/world_cup_2000/1034927.stm
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2004/01/01/slwhal01.xml
3. http://www.rlef.eu.com/newsstory.php?id=184
4. http://www.rugbyleagueworldcup.com/
5. http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21576244-23214,00.html
6. Please note that the links to location maps are linked to an external site.
7. http://www.rugbyleagueworldcup.com/draw.php
8. http://www.rlif.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=176
9. http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21639234-23214,00.html

External links

★ Official site of the 2008 Cup

★ RLFootball.com - News, Updates, Fixtures of the 2008 World Cup