The 2021 Physical Disability Rugby League World Cup, also known as the 2021 PDRL World Cup, was the first world cup for physical disability rugby league. The tournament was held from 23 October to 30 October 2022 in Warrington, England, alongside the main tournaments of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup. The tournament was originally planned as part of the 2021 Festival of World Cups, which was due to take place in the summer of 2021, but was rescheduled following the postponement of the festival.[1] England defeated New Zealand 42–10 in the final to become the first world champions.[2] Third place went to Wales who defeated Australia 32–18 in a play-off.[3]
Teams
Four teams competed in the tournament: Australia, England, New Zealand and Wales.[4] Teams from Ireland and Scotland had also been planning to take part.[5][6]
The tournament took place in Warrington with all of the group stage matches and the third-place play-off at Victoria Park. The final was held at the Halliwell Jones Stadium[4] and played as a double-header with the Samoa v France game in the Men's tournament.[18]
Format
On 29 July 2022 the draw was made for the match schedule during an episode of The Last Leg on which the main presenter, Adam Hills, announced his intention to be part of the Australian squad.[19] The four teams competed in a round-robin group stage with the top two going on to the final and the other teams playing to determine the third and fourth places.[4]
Wales Technical Infringement
During halftime of the 28 October Wales v Australia game, it was announced that during the Wales v New Zealand game (23 October), Wales had committed an unintended technical breach. This breach was in regard to the ability classification level of the players onfield; in PDRL, ability is divided into three categories, and denoted by specific sock colours. There can be only a specific number of players per sock colour on the field at a time. The Welsh coach attributed the infraction of this rule to "miscommunications across the board", and as a result, Wales competed in the third place playoffs rather than the final competition.[10][20][21]