2013 Rugby League World Cup

The 2013 Rugby League World Cup was the fourteenth World Cup for means national rugby league teams. It took place between the 26 October and 30 November and was hosted by England and Wales (although some games were played in France and Ireland). Australia won the tournament, beating New Zealand 34–2 in the final to lift the trophy for the tenth time.

Originally planned to take place in 2012 it was moved back a year to avoid clashing with the London Olympics in 2012.

It was the main event of the year's Festival of World Cups. Fourteen teams contested the tournament: Australia, England, New Zealand, Samoa, Wales, Fiji, France, Papua New Guinea, Ireland, Scotland, Tonga, Cook Islands, Italy and the United States. The latter two were competing in the Rugby League World Cup for the first time.

New Zealand were the defending champions, having defeated Australia in 2008.

In terms of attendance, exposure and revenue, the 2013 tournament is considered the most successful Rugby League World Cup to date.

Background
The Rugby League International Federation confirmed this competition as a part of its international program. The RLIF announced a five-year plan to build up to the 2013 World Cup with Four Nations tournaments held in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The competition was part of the UK's "Golden Decade of Sport". 2013 was chosen as the year of the World Cup to avoid a clash with the London Olympics in 2012. After 2013, the Cup will be held on a quadrennial cycle.

Host selection
In addition to the United Kingdom, Australia announced its intention to bid for the hosting rights, despite hosting the previous World Cup in 2008. The Australian Rugby League had been preparing a rival bid due to the success of the 2008 event but the business plan presented by the Rugby Football League for the UK to be the host was accepted by the RLIF at a meeting in July 2009. The event formed part of what was being dubbed a 'Golden Decade' in British Sport.

The UK last hosted the World Cup in 2000, with the event generally being considered unsuccessful.

The then Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Charles welcomed representatives of all 14 nations and tournament organisers with a reception at Clarence House.

Qualification
There were two qualifying pools for the remaining two World Cup places; a European and an Atlantic pool, with one side from each to qualify.

The European Qualifying group involved Italy, Lebanon, Russia and Serbia while the Atlantic Qualifying group involved Jamaica, South Africa and the USA. In the Atlantic Qualifiers the United States and Jamaica defeated South Africa in the opening rounds leaving the final match between the two to determine who qualified for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup. United States defeated Jamaica to qualify for their first ever Rugby League World Cup.


 * Qualifying Pool One (Europe)


 * Qualifying Pool Two (Atlantic)

Teams
The competition featured fourteen teams, compared to ten in 2008. Originally around twenty teams were to be involved in qualification, but subsequently the total number of teams involved in the tournament was fixed at nineteen. Twelve nations automatically qualified; the ten nations that contested the previous World Cup, Wales as winners of the 2009 European Nations Cup and the Cook Islands as runners up in the 2009 Pacific Cup.

Match officials
Rules and officiating panel: Daniel Anderson, Stuart Cummings and David Waite.


 * Australia: Ben Cummins, Shayne Hayne, Ashley Klein and Grant Atkins.
 * England: Phil Bentham, Richard Silverwood, Ben Thaler; James Child, Joe Cobb, Mark Craven, Robert Hicks, Chris Leatherbarrow, Tony Martin, Tim Roby, Clint Sharrad, George Stokes, Matt Thomason and Warren Turley
 * France: Thierry Alibert and Jose Pereira
 * New Zealand: Henry Perenara and Jamal Thompson.

Pre-tournament matches
Before the World Cup it was announced that USA would face France in Toulouse, Scotland would play Papua New Guinea at Featherstone, England would play Italy at Salford, New Zealand would play the Cook Islands in Doncaster and England Knights would play Samoa at Salford.

Venues
The games were played at various venues in England, Wales, Ireland, and France.

The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was the host stadium for the opening ceremony and a double header featuring hosts England playing Australia and Wales taking on Italy. The decision to play England vs Australia in Cardiff to open the tournament drew criticism from some in the press who believed that the game should have been played in England where a higher attendance could be expected, or at least a full house which would have looked better than the almost half empty Millennium Stadium.

Headingley in Leeds, the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington, the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham and the DW Stadium in Wigan hosted the quarter-finals. Both semi-finals were hosted at Wembley Stadium, with the final held at Old Trafford.

Match schedule
The match schedule was announced on 22 March 2012. The Rugby League International Federation announced the kickoff times of the matches, with the opening kickoff to be held on 26 October in Cardiff, at 14:30 local time. The group stage matches will be played at 14:00, 14:30, 16:00, 16:30, 18:00, and 20:00 local time, with knockout stage matches at 13:00, 15:00, and 20:00 local time. The semi-finals will be played at 13:00 and 15:30 local time and the final, on 30 November 2013 at the Old Trafford stadium, at 14:30 local time.

Opening ceremony


The opening ceremony took place at the Millennium Stadium on 26 October. The ceremony saw 550 dancers perform, 500 amateur and 50 professional, including former players Martin Offiah and Gareth Thomas, both of whom are former Strictly Come Dancing contestants. The ceremony also featured live music and a light show. The ceremony preceded the opening matches of England versus Australia, versus Wales and Italy.

Group stage
The draw, undertaken at the launch of the event in Manchester on 30 November 2010, involved four groups The first two groups were made up of four teams whilst the other two groups feature three teams each. The quarter-final round was made up of the first three teams in the first two groups and the winners of each of the smaller groups. Group play involved a round robin in the larger groups, and a round robin in the smaller groups with an additional inter-group game for each team so all teams played three group games.

Knockout stage


The quarter-finals followed the group stage, with three teams from each of Groups A and B and one team from each of Groups C and D qualifying.

All times listed below are in Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0) for English and Welsh venues.

Try scorers

 * 9 tries
 * 🇦🇺 Brett Morris
 * 🇦🇺 Jarryd Hayne


 * 8 tries
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ryan Hall
 * 🇳🇿 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck


 * 5 tries
 * 🇦🇺 Cooper Cronk
 * Antonio Winterstein


 * 4 tries


 * 🇦🇺 Darius Boyd
 * 🇦🇺 Billy Slater
 * 🇳🇿 Bryson Goodwin
 * 🇳🇿 Shaun Johnson
 * 🇳🇿 Manu Vatuvei
 * Matty Russell
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Christiaan Roets


 * 3 tries


 * Chris Taripo
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Josh Charnley
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Brett Ferres
 * Akuila Uate
 * 🇳🇿 Sonny Bill Williams


 * 2 tries


 * 🇦🇺 Greg Bird
 * 🇦🇺 Daly Cherry-Evans
 * 🇦🇺 Andrew Fifita
 * 🇦🇺 Greg Inglis
 * 🇦🇺 Josh Papalii
 * 🇦🇺 Jonathan Thurston
 * Dominique Peyroux
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tom Briscoe
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sam Burgess
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sean O'Loughlin
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kallum Watkins
 * 🇮🇹 Chris Centrone
 * 🇮🇹 Aidan Guerra
 * 🇮🇹 Ray Nasso
 * 🇳🇿 Simon Mannering
 * 🇳🇿 Frank-Paul Nu'uausala
 * 🇳🇿 Dean Whare
 * Suaia Matagi
 * Ben Roberts
 * Pita Godinet
 * Alex Hurst
 * Ben Hellewell
 * 🇹🇴 Glen Fisiiahi
 * 🇹🇴 Sika Manu
 * 🇹🇴 Willie Manu
 * 🇺🇸 Clint Newton
 * 🇺🇸 Joseph Paulo
 * 🇺🇸 Matt Petersen
 * 🇺🇸 Tui Samoa
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Rhodri Lloyd


 * 1 try


 * 🇦🇺 Michael Jennings
 * 🇦🇺 Luke Lewis
 * 🇦🇺 Josh Morris
 * 🇦🇺 Cameron Smith
 * Daniel Fepuleai
 * Jonathan Ford
 * Isaac John
 * Drury Low
 * Keith Lulia
 * Lulia Lulia
 * Brad Takairangi
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 George Burgess
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rob Burrow
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rangi Chase
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Leroy Cudjoe
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ben Westwood
 * 🇫🇷 Thomas Bosc
 * 🇫🇷 Vincent Duport
 * 🇫🇷 Morgan Escare
 * Aaron Groom
 * Kevin Naiqama
 * Wes Naiqama
 * Semi Radradra
 * Vitale Junior Roqica
 * Korbin Sims
 * Tariq Sims
 * Eloni Vunakece
 * Damien Blanch
 * James Hasson
 * Tyrone McCarthy
 * 🇮🇹 Cameron Ciraldo
 * 🇮🇹 Josh Mantellato
 * 🇮🇹 Anthony Minichiello
 * 🇮🇹 Mark Minichiello
 * 🇮🇹 James Tedesco
 * 🇳🇿 Jesse Bromwich
 * 🇳🇿 Greg Eastwood
 * 🇳🇿 Josh Hoffman
 * 🇳🇿 Krisnan Inu
 * 🇳🇿 Isaac Luke
 * 🇳🇿 Frank Pritchard
 * 🇳🇿 Elijah Taylor
 * 🇵🇬 Josiah Abavu
 * 🇵🇬 Dion Aiye
 * 🇵🇬 Wellington Albert
 * 🇵🇬 Nene MacDonald
 * 🇵🇬 Jessie Joe Parker
 * Joseph Leilua
 * Penani Manumeasili
 * Anthony Milford
 * Junior Moors
 * Sauaso Sue
 * Daniel Vidot
 * Danny Addy
 * Brett Carter
 * Luke Douglas
 * Ben Fisher
 * Kane Linnett
 * Brett Phillips
 * 🇹🇴 Daniel Foster
 * 🇹🇴 Konrad Hurrell
 * 🇹🇴 Nafe Seluini
 * 🇹🇴 Jorge Taufua
 * 🇹🇴 Jason Taumalolo
 * 🇹🇴 Peni Terepo
 * 🇺🇸 Bureta Faraimo
 * 🇺🇸 Kristian Freed
 * 🇺🇸 Mark Offerdahl
 * 🇺🇸 Craig Priestley
 * 🇺🇸 Taylor Welch
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Ben Evans
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Elliot Kear
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Lloyd White
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Rob Massam
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Anthony Walker

Attendances
Seven grounds achieved sell-out crowds, with four setting stadium records. Games held in both Wales and Ireland were watched by the biggest crowds ever for rugby league internationals in those countries. The final was played in front of the largest crowd ever to attend an international rugby league fixture.

Broadcasting
* The BBC and Premier Sports jointly televised seven live matches with the remaining 21 live matches exclusive to Premier Sports. The jointly live matches were England's Group A matches (BBC One),  an inter-group match between Wales and Italy and a quarter-final (both on BBC Two), a semi-final and the final (both on BBC One). The jointly televised quarter-final and semi-final involved England.