The 2018 Rugby League Commonwealth Championship was a rugby league nines tournament organised by the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) and played in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia in February 2018. The event, featured eight men's teams, six women's teams and three physical disability teams, was one of the exhibition sports for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was in support of the bid for rugby league nines to be a full medal event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The tournament was dominated by Australia, who won all three competitions.
Competing nations and pools The 2014 tournament limited the men's competition to under-18 players. For this competition the upper age was increased to make the tournament an under-23 competition.
+ Men's U23 Team Coach Pool A Australia Adrian Lam Fiji Scotland Nathan Graham Wales Shane Eccles Pool B England Alan Coleman Papua New Guinea Colin Geno Samoa Tony Puletua & Lino Salafai Tonga Willie Manu
+ Women's Team Coach Pool A Australia Brad Donald Fiji Samoa Frank Fuimaono Pool B Canada Mike Castle Cook Islands Teivao Tamariki Tonga Andrew Emelio
+ Physical disability Team Coach Australia Shaun Spence New Zealand Raymond Greaves Commonwealth All Stars Luke Muttdon
Fixtures All the games were played at Dolphin Stadium, home of Queensland rugby league side, Redcliffe Dolphins, on 23 and 24 February. All the pool games in the men's and women's teams were played on 23 February with the play-offs and medal matches played on 24 February. In the physical disability tournament four match were played on the first day with two more and the gold medal match played on the second day.
All times are Queensland local time, UTC+10:00.
Women's tournament Pool A TeamPldWDLPFPA+/−Pts Australia 2 2 0 0 50 4 +46 4 Samoa 2 1 0 1 28 32 −4 2 Fiji 2 0 0 2 6 48 −42 0
Pool B TeamPldWDLPFPA+/−Pts Tonga 2 2 0 0 20 8 +12 4 Cook Islands 2 1 0 1 24 24 0 2 Canada 2 0 0 2 16 28 −12 0
Semi-finals and play-offs
Men's U23 tournament Pool A TeamPldWDLPFPA+/−Pts Australia 3 3 0 0 92 4 +88 6 Fiji 3 2 0 1 30 38 −8 4 Scotland 3 1 0 2 34 50 −16 2 Wales 3 0 0 3 4 68 −64 0
Pool B TeamPldWDLPFPA+/−Pts Tonga 3 3 0 0 54 26 +28 6 Samoa 3 2 0 1 52 46 +6 4 England 3 1 0 2 28 44 −16 2 Papua New Guinea 3 0 0 3 30 48 −18 0
Semi-finals and play-offs
Physical disabilities tournament Pool stage TeamPldWDLPFPA+/−Pts Australia 4 3 1 0 18 0 +18 7 New Zealand 4 1 2 1 4 6 −2 4 Commonwealth All Stars 4 0 1 3 0 16 −16 1
Play-off
Australia were declared the gold medalists due to having a better pool result.
Leading try-scorers Men's U23: Addison Demetriou (7) Women's: Nakia Davis-Welsh, Kiritapu Demant, Shontelle Stowers (4) Physical disability: Mitchell Gleeson (2)
References