The Cook Islands rugby league men’s team at the recent Pacific Championships. NRL/CIRL/24122060
The Cook Islands men’s and women’s rugby league teams are both ranked 10th in the latest International Rugby League world rankings released this week.
Despite facing defeats in the recent Pacific Championships in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, the national teams successfully maintained their top 10 rankings.
Cook Islands Rugby League president Charles Carlson expressed his satisfaction with the men’s team maintaining its position within the top 10.
“The goal for 2025 is to qualify for the World Cup 2026 which will help improve our ranking. Details for the Qualifier is yet to be confirmed and no doubt CIRL will be doing their utmost best to ensure Cook Islands men participate in that World Cup 2026 to be co-hosted by Australia and PNG,” Carlson said.
The women’s team’s ranking dropped after their defeat to Fiji, resulting in their missing the 2026 World Cup.
“Unfortunately for our Vaine Moana is down to 10th placing after losing to Fiji in the Pacific Championship therefore missing out qualifying for the World Cup 2026,” Carlson said.
“However, they will need to regroup next year for the Pacific Championship and set their bearing towards the next World Cup 2030.”
In the latest ranking, Fetu Samoa have skyrocketed up the women’s IRL World Rankings after their successful Pacific Championships campaign, while Tonga have moved back into the top four men’s teams and New Zealand feature for their first time in the wheelchair rankings.
Australia remains first in the men’s and women’s rankings following their Pacific Cup victories.
England are closing in on second-placed New Zealand in the men’s rankings after beating Toa Samoa 2-0 in their historic series and the Kiwis failed to qualify for the final of the Pacific Cup.
Tonga’s epic 25-24 triumph over New Zealand has seen Kristian Woolf’s men leapfrog the Toa into fourth spot, while Papua New Guinea has climbed from seventh into six place – trading positions with Fiji – after winning the Pacific Bowl for a second consecutive year.
In the women’s rankings, there has been significant movement after qualifying tournaments and matches for the 2026 World Cup in Africa, Europe, North America and the Pacific.
Samoa’’ rise from 24th position to 11th is based on the Pacific nation being rewarded for playing regular matches in official IRL competitions and winning against higher ranked opponents.
The Fetu beat Cook Islands and Fiji to claim the seventh berth at RLWC2026 in Australia and Papua New Guinea and then climbed higher by toppling PNG Orchids in a promotion-relegation play-off for a place in next year’s Pacific Cup against Australia and New Zealand.
Before their 2023 Pacific Championships defeat of Fiji, Samoa had not won a women’s international since 2008.
Samoa has also played more matches in the past 12 months than they had in the previous 12 years – winning all four under the coaching of Jamie Soward.
The IRL World Rankings are calculated on each nation’s performance over the current season and the three preceding seasons.
Points are awarded to each team for each match based on:
- The result of the match – win, lose or draw.
- The margin of victory (or defeat) – the larger the winning margin the greater the value to the rankings.
- The relative strength of opposition faced – if you play a higher ranked team that is of greater value than playing a lower ranked team.
- The date of the match – more recent matches are weighted more heavily – a result in the most recent two years is worth double a result three years ago and four times a result that is four years old.
- The importance of the match – World Cup matches are ranked top followed in order by World Cup Qualifiers, Regional Championships and one-off international matches.
- The points are then used to create the Official World Rankings by ordering the teams by virtue of the points gained over the four-year period.
- Only officially sanctioned matches played at senior level between two approved members are considered as part of the rankings.
The 72 sanctioned international matches in 2024 were the most of any year besides 2022, when the men’s, women’s and wheelchair World Cups were staged together for the first time and an increase on last year’s record 64 international fixtures.
IRL chair Troy Grant said: “There has been more international matches played this year than in any other year in the history of rugby league and they have been played across all parts of the world and with more countries playing than ever before.”
“The quality, the standards, the viewership and the interest in international rugby league has never been as high, and that is largely to the credit of the IRL members who have collectively placed us in the most positive position the international game has been in for a number of years.”
