The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league football tournament contested by national teams of members of the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF). It has been held nearly once every 4 years on average since its inaugural tournament in France in 1954. This was the first World Cup of either rugby code and the first competition to be officially known as the "Rugby World Cup".
The most recent tournament was contested in Australia in 2008 and was won by New Zealand for the first time. In the thirteen tournaments held to date, three nations have won the competition (Australia nine times, Great Britain three times and New Zealand once) out of the seventeen total teams who haven taken part. Australia, France and New Zealand are the only teams to have played in all tournaments, with Great Britain being split into England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland since 1995. The next competition in 2013 will be in England, France, Ireland and Wales and will form part of the UK's 'Golden Decade of Sport'
Since 2000, the RLIF has also organised World Cups for Women, Students and other categories.
Read more about Rugby League World Cup: History, Format, Awards
Famous quotes containing the words league, world and/or cup:
“We’re the victims of a disease called social prejudice, my child. These dear ladies of the law and order league are scouring out the dregs of the town. C’mon be a glorified wreck like me.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“All still lifes are actually paintings of the world on the sixth day of creation, when God and the world were alone together, without man!”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)
“Sisters define their rivalry in terms of competition for the gold cup of parental love. It is never perceived as a cup which runneth over, rather a finite vessel from which the more one sister drinks, the less is left for the others.”
—Elizabeth Fishel (20th century)