By Eleanor Gee.

Rugby League World Cup (RLWC) organizers and International Rugby League (IRL) officials will meet to decide how feasible the tournament would be after Australia and New Zealand withdrew last week. The RLWC is scheduled to start in October in England.

NRL.com [2] reported last Friday, that a decision is expected to be made this week.

The Kangaroo's and the Kiwi's reason for withdrawing from the tournament is due to COVID-19 and the welfare of players.

New Zealand Rugby League CEO Greg Peters explained other issues contributed to their decision to withdraw.

They include the reluctance of players to get vaccinated, and delays in vaccine delivery in Australia and New Zealand.

Both teams have requested the Rugby League World Cup be postponed to 2022.

Meanwhile, Tonga coach Kristian Woolf told NRL.com that he had spoken with his players who wanted more information.

Samoa coach Matt Parish and Cook Islands coach Tony Iro were waiting to hear if the tournament would still proceed.

According to the UK government COVID-19 website [3], the number of people that tested positive for COVID-19 on July 25 was 29,173, with 28 deaths.

In the week July 19 – 25, a total of 267,875 people in the UK tested positive to the virus.