2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s

The standard rules of rugby league applied but with the following variations:^[1]

• 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

The competing teams were hand picked, and the selections were announced on 22 April 2019.^[2]

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.^[3][4]

Team	Captain	Coach	IRL rank
Australia	Wade Graham	Mal Meninga	1
Cook Islands	Alex Glenn	Tony Iro	28
England	James Graham	Wayne Bennett	2
Fiji	Kevin Naiqama	Brandon Costin	5
France	Jason Baitieri	Aurélien Cologni	6
Lebanon	Reece Robinson	Rick Stone	9
New Zealand	Shaun Johnson	Michael Maguire	3
Papua New Guinea	Rhyse Martin	Michael Marum	10
Samoa	Joseph Leilua	Matt Parish	7
Tonga Invitational	Jason Taumalolo	David Tangata-Toa	4
United States	Mark Offerdahl	Sean Rutgerson	15
Wales	Elliot Kear	John Kear	11

Team	Captain	Coach	IRL rank
Australia	Ali Brigginshaw	Brad Donald	1
England	Emily Rudge	Craig Richards	3
New Zealand	Honey Hireme	Justin Morgan	2
Papua New Guinea	Janet Johns	Bagelo Solien	6

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

The pools were announced on 22 July 2019.^[5] The draw was announced on 4 August 2019.^[6]

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C
Australia  New Zealand  Papua New Guinea  United States	England  France  Lebanon  Wales	Tonga Invitational  Cook Islands  Fiji  Western Samoa

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	3	3	0	0	92	23	+69	6	Advance to knockout stages
2	New Zealand	3	2	0	1	76	42	+34	4
3	Papua New Guinea	3	1	0	2	44	54	−10	2
4	United States	3	0	0	3	21	114	−93	0

18 October 2019	Australia	25 – 12	New Zealand
18 October 2019	Papua New Guinea	27 – 10	United States
19 October 2019	New Zealand	18 – 17	Papua New Guinea
19 October 2019	Australia	41 – 11	United States
19 October 2019	New Zealand	46 – 0	United States
19 October 2019	Australia	26 – 0	Papua New Guinea

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	3	2	0	1	76	24	+52	4	Advance to knockout stages
2	Lebanon	3	2	0	1	42	46	−4	4
3	France	3	1	0	2	35	56	−21	2
4	Wales	3	1	0	2	35	62	−27	2

Lebanon were stripped of their win over France due to fielding an ineligible player.

18 October 2019	France	8 – 12	Lebanon
18 October 2019	England	25 – 4	Wales
19 October 2019	France	23 – 6	Wales
19 October 2019	England	13 – 16	Lebanon
19 October 2019	Lebanon	14 – 25	Wales
19 October 2019	England	38 – 4	France

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Samoa	3	3	0	0	73	41	+32	6	Advance to knockout stages
2	Cook Islands	3	2	0	1	46	34	+12	4
3	Tonga Invitational	3	1	0	2	48	71	−23	2
4	Fiji	3	0	0	3	44	65	−21	0

18 October 2019	Tonga Invitational	7 – 30	Cook Islands
18 October 2019	Samoa	32 – 17	Fiji
19 October 2019	Samoa	17 – 4	Cook Islands
19 October 2019	Tonga Invitational	21 – 17	Fiji
19 October 2019	Fiji	10 – 12	Cook Islands
19 October 2019	Tonga Invitational	20 – 24	Samoa

	Semi-finals					Final
	A1	Australia	25
	C1	Samoa	8
						Australia		24
						New Zealand		10
	A2	New Zealand	22
	B1	England	6

19 October 2019 18:55 AEST (UTC+10)

New Zealand	22 – 6	England
Tries: Isaako (5', 14') 2 Maumalo (2') 1 Smith (10') 1 Goals: Isaako 3/4 (2', 10', 14)	1st: 10 – 0 2nd: 12 – 6	Tries: 1 (12') McGillvary Goals: 1/1 Austin (12')

Bankwest Stadium, Sydney Referee: Ben Cummins (Australia)

19 October 2019 19:20 AEST (UTC+10)

Australia	25 – 8	Samoa
Tries: Ponga (1') 1 Addo-Carr (7') 1 Brimson (14') 1 Frizell (16') 1 Goals: Moses 2/2 (15', 17') Cherry-Evans 1/2 (1')	1st: 11 – 4 2nd: 14 – 4	Tries: 2 (5', 11') Seve Goals: 0/2 Lafai

Bankwest Stadium, Sydney Referee: Chris Kendall (England)

19 October 2019 21:00 AEST (UTC+10)

Australia	24 – 10	New Zealand
Tries: Moses (5', 7', 17') 3 Feldt (14') 1 Goals: Moses 3/4 (5', 7', 17')	1st: 13 – 10 2nd: 11 – 0	Tries: 1 (2') Smith 1 (6') Isaako Goals: 1/2 Isaako (6')

Bankwest Stadium, Sydney Referee: Chris Kendall (England)

The draw was announced on 4 August 2019.^[6]

Pool A
Australia England New Zealand Papua New Guinea

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	3	3	0	0	94	18	+76	6	Advance to Final
2	New Zealand	3	2	0	1	65	38	+27	4
3	England	3	1	0	2	33	79	−46	2
4	Papua New Guinea	3	0	0	3	22	79	−57	0

18 October 2019	England	25 – 4	Papua New Guinea
18 October 2019	Australia	22 – 8	New Zealand
19 October 2019	New Zealand	24 – 12	Papua New Guinea
19 October 2019	Australia	42 – 4	England
19 October 2019	Australia	30 – 6	Papua New Guinea
19 October 2019	New Zealand	33 – 4	England

19 October 2019 19:45 AEST (UTC+10)

Australia	15 – 17	New Zealand
Tries: Penitani (1') 1 Apps (5') 1 McGregor (11') 1 Goals: Dibb 1/2 (11') Tungai 0/1	1st: 8 – 7 2nd: 7 – 10	Tries: 1 (3') McGregor 1 (10') Newman 1 (13') Maynard Goals: 2/2 McGregor (3', 13') 0/1 Nicholls-Pualau

Bankwest Stadium, Sydney Referee: Henry Perenara (New Zealand)

7

• Jamayne Isaako

5

• Ken Maumalo

4

3

2

1

5

• Tiana Penitani

4

• Honey Hireme
• Corban McGregor

3

• Jules Newman

2

1

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.^[9][10]