2026 Women's Rugby League World Cup

The 2026 Women's Rugby League World Cup will be the seventh staging of the Women's Rugby League World Cup, and will be one of three major tournaments part of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.

The competition was to be held in during October and November 2025, but was moved to 2026 following the withdrawal of France as hosts nation. The competition will run in parallel with the men's and wheelchair tournaments.

Due to the rescheduling, the competition will feature 8 teams only. An expansion was planned to double the number of teams for the original 2025 tournament.

Host selection
The International Rugby League (IRL) originally decided in 2016 to have the tournaments hosted in the United States and Canada. In December 2019 however, the IRL withdrew the hosting rights due to the promoters, Moore Sports International, being unable to guarantee the staging of the tournaments.

After re-opening the bidding to host the tournaments, the IRL awarded the hosting rights to France. On 15 May 2023, the France 2025 organising committee was forced to withdraw from hosting the tournament, due to financial concerns from the new French government elected in May 2022.

On 3 August it was confirmed that the tournament would be moved to 2026 and held in the Southern Hemisphere.

Qualification
As of 3 August 2023, the date the tournament was announced, the only qualified teams for the 2026 tournament were the semi-finalists of the 2021 World Cup.



The qualification process for the remaining teams was announced 15 December 2023.

Follow the conclusion of the European qualifications group stages on 22 June 2024, two further teams qualified: