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2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s

The 2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s was the first staging of the Rugby League World Cup 9s tournament and took place on 18 and 19 October 2019 at Sydney's Bankwest Stadium. The tournament featured teams from 12 International Rugby League member countries, 4 of which also fielded teams in the women's tournament. In the men's final, Australia defeated New Zealand, while in the women's final, New Zealand defeated Australia.

Rule variations

The standard rules of rugby league applied but with the following variations:

  • games are nine-a-side with unlimited interchanges in the 13-strong squad
  • each half is nine minutes with a 2-minute half time
  • the tackle count for the team in possession is five rather than six
  • any player sin-binned is off the field for only three minutes
  • the 40/20 rule is supplemented by a 20/40 rule i.e. a kick from behind the player's own 20m line which after bouncing goes into touch past the opponent's 40m line will result in the kicking team retaining possession with a tap-restart
  • Bonus zone tries - tries score four points as normal but the value of the try will be increased to five for a try scored in the area between the goalposts
  • all conversions are drop kicks rather than place kicks and a 25-second shot clock will apply
  • a game which goes to extra time will be decided by golden try extra time

Teams

The competing teams were hand picked, and the selections were announced on 22 April 2019.

On 27 September 2019, the Tonga National Rugby League were suspended by the International Rugby League (IRL), pending an investigation into their board. Tonga were represented at the tournament by a "Tonga Invitatonal" team.

Men's

Women's

Match Officials

The NRL named the following 18 NRL match officials to handle the 28 matches.

Venue

Men's tournament

Pool stage

The pools were announced on 22 July 2019. The draw was announced on 4 August 2019.

Pool A

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Pool B

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Pool C

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Knockout stage

Semi-finals

New Zealand vs England
Australia vs Samoa

Final: Australia v New Zealand

Women's tournament

Pool stage

The draw was announced on 4 August 2019.

Final: Australia v New Zealand

Try scorers

Men's

7
5
4
3
2
1

Women's

5
4
3
2
1

Controversy

On 19 October 2019, Lebanon's Jacob Kiraz and Jordan Samrani and Papua New Guinea women's players Sera Koroi and Joyce Waula were all suspended from the tournament for being under the age of 18.

While the International Rugby League allows players 16 or older to play in Test matches, the National Rugby League (who ran the tournament) rules require that players must be 18 or older.

Kiraz, who would not turn 18 until November 2019, was the only one of the four to play a game, coming off the bench in Lebanon's 12–8 win over France. Lebanon were stripped of the two competition points earned for their win as a result.

Media coverage

References