Cook Islands Moana, the national women’s rugby league, will face Fiji next month in their first step toward qualifying for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.

The women’s qualifying process for IRL Rugby League World Cup 2026 has been finalised with the announcement of the 2024 Pacific Championships draw earlier this month.

Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga will play off over three weeks for the seventh place at RLWC2026, which is being hosted by the ARLC with matches in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Tonga, who were 14^th in the latest IRL World Rankings, will play 24^th ranked Samoa in Fiji on October 19, with Fiji – ranked 26th – to host sixth ranked Cook Islands on October 26.

The sudden death matches pits:

• the highest ranked nation of the four (Cook Islands) against the 4th ranked (Fiji), and;
• the 2nd and 3rd highest ranked nations (Tonga and Samoa) against each other.

The two winners will meet in Auckland on November 3, with the victor joining Australia, England, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Wales as nations to have qualified for RLWC2026.

Cook Islands Rugby League president Charles Carlson said the qualifiers would be a tough challenge for all teams.

“Definitely a big challenge for all teams with this knockout challenge of having the loser of the first game pack their bags and head home with the winner progress to the final between winner of Tonga and Samoa,” Carlson said.

“We are preparing well for this as this has always been our goal to qualify for the World Cup. Obviously, we will be picking the best of the best playing in the NRL women’s including the Queensland and NSW competitions. However, there is always a space for any player with potential to make the squad.”

“This is not a development squad; this is a do or die situation so we want our very best to go all the way to qualify for the World Cup.”

Cook Islands Rugby League will be submitting a squad of 30 with the final 21 to be named next month for the tournament.

According to International Rugby League, with the growth of women’s rugby league across the globe, a World Cup qualifying process has been introduced for the first time, with tournaments in Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.

The IRL Women’s World Cup 2026, which will be played alongside the men’s and wheelchair tournaments before it is staged as a standalone event in 2028, will feature eight teams comprising of:

• Four Pacific nations
• Three European nations
• Winner of inaugural IRL World Series in 2025.

With Australia, New Zealand, England and Papua New Guinea having already qualified as semi-finalists at the last World Cup in 2022, there were 16 nations vying for the remaining four berths.

France and Wales became the fifth and sixth nations to earn World Cup berths after winning their pools in European RLWC2026 qualifiers earlier this year.

Qualifying tournaments are scheduled to take place in Florida in November – featuring USA, Canada and Jamaica – and Nairobi, where Kenya will host Nigeria in a two-match series in September.

The 2025 World Series will be contested by the:

• African winner (Kenya or Nigeria);
• Americas winner (Canada, Jamaica, USA)
• third placed European nation (Greece or Ireland)
• Pacific runner-up (Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga).

The winner of the World Series will secure the eighth and final place at the 2026 World Cup.