Almanac Rugby League: 2021/22 World Cup Update

All three competitions in the Rugby League World Cup are progressing (at different stages) towards their respective finals series. The men’s version is already up to the semi-finals stage while the women’s competition and the wheelies will also reach that stage by early next week. Here’s an update on the action over the past week.

 

Men’s quarter-finals:

Australia 48 Lebanon 4
England 46 PNG 6
New Zealand 24 Fiji 18
Samoa 20 Tonga 18

While Australia and England continued on their merry ways, Fiji gave the Kiwis a hell of a fright and almost caused the upset of the tournament. A late, contentious penalty call against Fiji provided the opportunity for the men in black and they grabbed it to break clear with just minutes to spare. As expected, the Samoa v Tonga clash provided the best game to date. A ferocious clash of the giants was eventually resolved by the Samoan halves, Milford and Luai, who kept their nerve and used their greater experience to guide the men in blue to a semi-final against England on Sunday morning (Australian time). The Kangaroos and Kiwis clash in the other semi-final on Saturday morning (Australian time).

In terms of individuals, Josh Addo-Carr continued his try-scoring blitz with another five, a feat matched by England’s Tommy Makinson. But it was the fullbacks attracting the most attention with both James Tedesco and Joey Manu starring for their respective teams, both of them eating up huge numbers of metres and providing opposition defences with headaches aplenty with their strong, tackle-busting runs.

I think that you’d be a brave person to pick the winners of the semi-finals with any real confidence. The Aussies and the Poms will start as favourites but this tournament isn’t over by a long shot!

Semi-finals:

Australia v New Zealand
England v Samoa

 

Women’s competition:

Round 2:

England 54 Canada 4
PNG 70 Brazil 0
New Zealand 34 Cook Islands 4
Australia 92 France 0

It’s hard to read too much into these results since it was a case of the top teams versus the minnows. Round three sees England take on PNG while the Jillaroos clash with the Kiwi Ferns, match-ups that will give us a clearer picture of the competition. We’ll know the semi-finals contenders by tomorrow morning and, by this time next week, the finalists.

Round 3:

Canada 22 Brazil 16
England 42 PNG 4
Cook Islands 26 France 18
Australia 10 New Zealand 8

 

Semi-finals:

Australia v PNG
England v New Zealand

Both matches will be played early on Tuesday morning AEDT.

 

Wheelies competition:

Round 1:

Spain 55 Ireland 32
England 38 Australia 8
France 154 Wales 6 (no, that’s not a typo!)
USA 62 Scotland 41

Round 2:

England 104 Spain 12
Australia 76 Ireland 18
France 80 Scotland 15
Wales 50 USA32

Round 3:

Australia 52 Spain 32
England 121 Ireland 0
France 116 USA 6
Wales 70 Scotland 36

Some massive scores there! Here’s the line-up for the Semi-finals to be played 0vernight on Sunday/Monday AEDT. On the results so far you’d have to fancy France and England to progress to the Final.

Semi-Finals:

France v Australia at 10.00pm Sunday AEDT
England v Wales at 12.30am Monday AEDT

 

The finals in all three competitions will be played next Saturday night/Sunday morning. To see the full program of the remaining matches click here.

 

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