EUROPEAN RUGBY LEAGUE U19S CHAMPIONSHIP FORMAT AND FIXTURES ANNOUNCED

European Rugby League has confirmed the format and fixtures for the biennial U19s European Championship which will take place at the CREPS Font Romeu high performance facility in the Pyrenees, France in July.

A record ten nations will participate, split into two competitions. The Championship will be contested by England, France, Scotland, Serbia, Ukraine and Wales – the five participants from the 2024 event in Belgrade and Wales who were the next best performing side in the 2022 event having missed the most recent tournament.

Canada together with Greece, Ireland, and Norway, who are all either new or returning after an absence from the tournament, will do battle for the European Shield, with the winner guaranteed promotion to the 2028 event. Subject to the number of nations applying for that, there may be relegation from this season’s Championship.

“Having ten nations competing has been challenging in terms of formatting and logistics, but it has been a great problem to have, and I’m delighted to see the tournament continuing to grow,” commented ERL chair Dean Andrew.

In the Championship, the nations have been drawn into two groups of three based on results from the previous tournament. England, as defending champions, are the first seed and are joined by Scotland (3) and Serbia (5) in Pool A. Hosts France are in Pool B as the second seed, with Ukraine (4) and Wales (6).

Each will play the three nations in the opposite group, with results merged into one league table and the first placed team awarded the Championship title. The Shield will see each nation play the other once, and the side which leads the league table on conclusion will take the trophy.

The matches will be played over three days, five per day, at the state-of-the-art sporting facility which will also see the squads stay on site.

The hosts open their campaign on Sunday 12 July against Scotland in a repeat of 2024’s feisty semi-final, whilst England face Ukraine in another semi-final repeat and Wales take on Serbia. Round two on Wednesday 15 July sees England taking on Wales, Scotland face Ukraine and France do battle with Serbia.

The final round on Saturday 18 July, will see Serbia take on Ukraine and Scotland will be seeking to overturn Wales after losing recent clashes. The final match will see France take on England in what could be a tournament decider, the previous three encounters between them having a margin of less than seven points.

In Pool B, on day one, Greece will make their debut against Ireland, while Norway come up against Canada, before Greece meet Canada in round two as Norway face Ireland. The final day will see Norway and Greece open the proceedings before Canada and Ireland do battle.

Andrew added: “Several of the nations have told me how important the tournament has been to both inspiring its youth players to work hard and achieve selection, but also to their player pathways into their senior teams.

“Thanks to early organisation by the French Rugby League Federation, we’ve been able to work further in advance to give them all greater preparation time than they have experienced in previous years and I’m very much looking forward to seeing the fruits of that on the field.”

2026 EUROPEAN U19 CHAMPIONSHIP FIXTURES

Sunday 12 July

Championship

2pm – England v Ukraine

4pm – France v Scotland

6pm – Serbia v Wales

Shield

10am – Greece v Ireland

12pm – Norway v Canada

Wednesday 15 July

Championship

2pm – Scotland v Ukraine