England are wheelchair rugby league world champions for the third time. They beat France 50–38 in the final in Wollongong, Australia, on November 13, 2026, with Joe Coyd scoring four tries and taking player of the match.
The win breaks a tie at the top of the sport. Before this week, England and France had two world titles each. Now England stand alone on three, and the two nations have met in each of the last four finals.
How the final unfolded
It was fast from the first whistle. Coyd crossed in the 4th and 7th minutes, France hit back through Jérémy Bourson, Léo Hivernat, Damien Doré and Florian Guttadoro, and the lead swung back and forth before England went into the break ahead 28–22.
Rob Hawkins, the tournament’s top try scorer, added two tries either side of halftime. Jack Brown then finished a hat-trick with scores in the 39th, 62nd and 69th minutes, which gave England room that France could not close. Dany Denuwelaere answered with three tries of his own, the last in the 79th minute, but by then the result was settled. Nathan Collins kicked six goals from seven attempts.
All 20 matches of the tournament were played at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, south of Sydney. The wheelchair event ran alongside the men’s and women’s Rugby League World Cups.
England’s tournament in numbers
England were dominant from the start. They won all three group games, including a 134–0 win over the United States and a 98–18 win over Wales, then beat hosts Australia 86–18 in the semifinal.
Add it up and England scored 436 points in five matches and conceded 106. That works out to an average score of roughly 87–21 per game, a winning margin of about 66 points each time out. The closest anyone came was France in the final, at 12 points, and Ireland in the group stage, who trailed only 22–20 at halftime before losing 68–32.
A short history of the world cup
The tournament is young compared with the running game. This timeline shows how England’s rivalry with France has shaped every edition:
- 2008, Sydney: England beat Australia 44–12 in the first final.
- 2013, Gillingham: France edge England 42–40.
- 2017, France: France win again, 38–34, against England.
- 2022, Manchester: England beat France 28–24 in front of a record crowd of 4,526 (the tournament was the delayed 2021 edition).
- 2026, Wollongong: England beat France 50–38.
England have now reached all five finals. The 2026 edition was originally planned for France in 2025, but French organizers withdrew in 2023 over finances and the event moved to the Southern Hemisphere, with eight teams rather than the expanded field once planned.
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Australia took third place on the same day, beating Ireland 70–24. The next Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup is scheduled for 2030.
Further reading
Image: Fleets, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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