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2008 Rugby League World Cup

General Information
Host Nation	Australia
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.

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 article: 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. 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.

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, where the final would have been held at Telstra Stadium.

City	Stadium names	Host club(s)	Map[5]	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
Penrith	CUA Stadium	Penrith Panthers		21,000
Parramatta	Parramatta Stadium	Parramatta Eels		20,000
Rockhampton	Browne Park	Central Comets	Map	8,000
Sydney	Sydney Football Stadium	Sydney Roosters		45,500
Melbourne	Telstra Dome	Melbourne Storm		56,347
Newcastle	EnergyAustralia Stadium	Newcastle Knights		26,126
Canberra	Canberra Stadium	Canberra Raiders		25,011
Wollongong	WIN Stadium	St George Illawarra Dragons		18,484
Central Coast	Bluetongue Stadium			20,119

Tournament matches

Draw

The draw, after being confirmed by the RLIF on April 19 2007, 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. 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. The final draw was finalised on October 4, 2007.^[6]

Match	Date	Teams	Pool	Venue	City
1	25 October 2008	England v. Papua New Guinea	Pool A	Dairy Farmers Stadium	Townsville
2	26 October 2008	France v. Euro A (2) 1	Pool B	Canberra Stadium	Canberra
3	26 October 2008	Australia v. New Zealand	Pool A	Sydney Football Stadium	Sydney
4	27 October 2008	Euro B (1) 1 v. Tonga	Pool C	Parramatta Stadium	Sydney
5	31 October 2008	Tonga v. Repechage	Pool C	CUA Stadium	Sydney
6	1 November 2008	Fiji v. France	Pool B	WIN Stadium	Wollongong
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	Bluetongue Stadium	Central Coast
10	5 November 2008	Euro B 1 (1) v. Repechage	Pool C	Parramatta Stadium	Sydney
11	8 November 2008	Pool 2 (2) v. Pool 3 (2)	Ranking	Browne Park	Rockhampton
12	8 November 2008	England v. New Zealand	Pool A	EnergyAustralia Stadium	Newcastle
13	9 November 2008	Pool 2 (3) v. Pool 3 (3)	Ranking	CUA Stadium	Sydney
14	9 November 2008	Australia v. Papua New Guinea	Pool A	Dairy Farmers Stadium	Townsville
15	10 November 2008	Pool 2 (1) v. Pool 3 (1)	Qualifying Semi-final	Skilled Park	Gold Coast
16	15 November 2008	Pool 1 (2) v. Pool 1 (3)	Semi-final 1	Suncorp Stadium	Brisbane
17	16 November 2008	Pool 1 (1) v. Winner of 15 (Quali. SF)	Semi-final 2	Sydney Football Stadium	Sydney
18	22 November 2008	Winner of 16 v. Winner of 17	Final	Suncorp Stadium	Brisbane

First round

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	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

October 25, 2008
	England		Papua New Guinea	Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville

---

October 26, 2008
	Australia		New Zealand	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney

---

November 1, 2008
	New Zealand		Papua New Guinea	Skilled Park, Gold Coast

---

November 2, 2008
	Australia		England	Telstra Dome, Melbourne

---

November 8, 2008
	England		New Zealand	EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle

---

November 9, 2008
	Australia		Papua New Guinea	Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville

---

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
Repechage Winner	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
European Qualifier 1	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tonga	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Knockout Stage

Qualifying Final

Semi-Final

Final

2nd Group A

3rd Group A

1st Group A

Winner Qualifying Final

1st Group B

1st Group C

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

External links

• Official site of the 2008 Cup
• RLFootball.com - News, Updates, Fixtures of the 2008 World Cup

•  • [ e] Rugby League World Cups
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