Nines World Cup set for 2019
A Nines World Cup is to be held in 2019, the Rugby League International Federation has announced.
It has also been confirmed a British team will tour Australia and New Zealand in the same year.
This could be England, as an RLIF statement has suggested, but Press Association Sport understands a revival of the Great Britain side has not yet been ruled out.
These developments appear to mean the Four Nations tournament concept has been consigned to history.The announcements came following a meeting of the RLIF board
It was also confirmed the 2021 World Cup will be a 16-team tournament and that an Emerging Nations World Champship will also be created.
The meeting was held to start to fill in gaps in the international calendar around the World Cups of 2017, 2021 and 2025.
The Nines World Cup is seen as a vehicle to help expand the game, with smaller-sided and shorter games hopefully appealing to a new audience.
Hosts for the inaugural tournament are being sought.
If the tournament is successful it could be repeated in 2023, or an alternative global event could be held.
The Nines World Cup would complement a tour Down Under from the British Isles.
In recent years England have been the principal flag-bearer for the Home Nations in top-level international competition with the British Lions side having been mothballed since their last tour in 1996.
The final identity of the touring team is yet to be finalised.
These events will take place in 2019 as Australia's leading players, in the year following a World Cup, are likely to be granted a fallow year in 2018.
Instead, in 2018, international focus will switch to the Emerging Nations World Championship.
Canada, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Niue, the Philippines, Thailand and Vanuatu are the first nations to be confirmed as entrants.
Further announcements about the make-up of the international calendar will be made in due course with the next meeting planned for May.
It seems there will be no room for the Four Nations tournament, which has been a regular feature of the calendar - initially as a Tri-Nations - since 1999.
RLIF chairman Nigel Wood said: "Whilst the detail of the matches will not be finalised until the autumn, RLIF is delighted to have identified a full programme for the next four-year cycle to enable the completion of the international calendar."
It was also confirmed that Italy have been granted full RLIF membership.
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