500 Days until RLWC 2021

RLWC2021 ANNOUNCE NATION TRAINING BASES TO CELEBRATE 500 DAY COUNTDOWN

·         The announcement celebrates 500 days until the kick-off of RLWC2021

Bases for men’s, women’s and wheelchair nations unveiled

Hosts England will be based in Manchester, Leeds and London across men’s, women’s and wheelchair squads respect

Tournament launches new brand identity 

With 500 days to go until the opening fixture of the Rugby League World Cup 2021 (RLWC2021) at St James’ Park in Newcastle, the organisers have today revealed the locations of the training bases for all competing nations across the men’s, women’s, and wheelchair tournaments. 

The squads from the 21 unique nations and 32 teams will be based in different locations across the country. The hosts, England will be based in three locations, with the men’s team in Manchester, the women’s team in Leeds and the wheelchair team in the country’s capital, London. The men’s holders Australia will join England in Manchester, while the women’s champions, also Australia, will be based in York. France, the wheelchair RLWC holders, will be based in Sheffield.

The full list of host towns and cities, and the corresponding nations is as follows:

·         Bolton – France (Men’s)

·         Doncaster – Samoa (Men’s)

·         Hull – Fiji (Men’s)

·         Leeds – Jamaica, Ireland (Men’s) | England, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Canada (Women’s)

·         Liverpool and St Helen’s – Tonga, Italy (Men’s teams)

·         London – England, Australia, Norway, Spain (Wheelchair)

·         Manchester and Trafford – England, Australia (Men’s)

·         Newcastle – Scotland (Men’s)

·         Preston – Wales (Men’s)

·         Sheffield – Greece (Men’s) | France, Wales, Scotland, USA (Wheelchair)

·         Tees Valley – Cook Islands (Men’s)

·         Warrington – Papua New Guinea (Men’s)

·         Wigan/Leigh – Lebanon (Men’s)

·         York – New Zealand (Men’s) | Australia, New Zealand, France, Cook Islands (Women’s)

The Ricoh Arena Coventry will host a fixture during the tournament.

All the host cities and towns, including those who won’t be a dedicated team base (Coventry and Kirklees), will form a huge part of making the tournament a success, welcoming players from around the world and adopting them as their own, as they get behind them and cheer them on in 500 days’ time. Following this announcement, the fixtures for all three tournaments will be announced in the coming months.

RLWC2021 has today also revealed new branding for the tournament, celebrating the power of together, focusing on human interest stories and emotional connections, with the goal of connecting with a universal audience.

The new branding will also include bespoke elements from each host, drawing on recognisable icons and displaying the sense of civic pride each host has for its town or city. RLWC2021 will be asking people from each town and city to vote on the icons that make up their custom patterns in the coming months and will be doing something similar for the nations towards the end of the year.

Jon Dutton, RLWC2021 Chief Executive, said: “Today marks another hugely exciting milestone on the road to Rugby League World Cup 2021 as we celebrate 500 days until the opening fixture at St James' Park in October next year.

“It’s great to finally be able to reveal the team training bases to the nations and their supporters as well as the residents of our host towns and cities. We know that all our hosts and the people who live there are immensely proud of their area, so there is no doubting that all the nations are guaranteed to get an extremely warm welcome when they arrive. We’re calling on them all to adopt their incoming nations and treat them as one of their own, cheering them on and showing them the very best of what these great places, up and down England, have to offer.”

“Our refreshed tournament identity and today’s team base announcement can serve as an exciting reminder of what’s to come in 2021 as we continue to build momentum towards what promises to be the biggest and best ever Rugby League World Cup.”

Please visit www.RLWC2021.com for more information and for details on how to sign up to the receive ticket alerts and all the latest news first.