World Club Challenge

NRL Premiers vs. Super League Champions, played since 1976.

Data last verified: 11 August 2026.

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Competition: World Club Challenge ▾

The World Club Challenge pits the reigning NRL Premiers against the reigning Super League Champions to decide a "world club champion." It has been played 31 times since a first, unofficial staging in 1976 — most recently Hull Kingston Rovers beating Brisbane Broncos 30–24 in February 2026. British clubs have won 15 of the 28 matches played since the fixture's 1987 relaunch.

Sourcing note: sources genuinely differ on which match counts as the first "official" World Club Challenge — 1976, 1987, and 1989 all appear in different histories, because the fixture wasn't played annually or under a settled format until 2000. We show every staged match from 1976 onward, flagged rather than resolved. The 1997 edition was a completely different 22-club "World Club Championship" format that lost money and was abandoned for three years afterward — it's included here because it crowned a champion under the same name, not because it resembles the one-off match format used every other year.

Every result, 1976–2026

YearWinnerRunner-upScore
1976 Eastern Suburbs St Helens 25–2 (First staged match — an unofficial curtain-raiser, not yet an annual fixture.)
1987 Wigan Warriors Manly-Warringah 8–2 (First match played in England. Manly's Ron Gibbs became the first player sent off in the fixture's history.)
1989 Widnes Vikings Canberra Raiders 30–18
1991 Wigan Warriors Penrith Panthers 21–4
1992 Brisbane Broncos Wigan Warriors 22–8
1994 Wigan Warriors Brisbane Broncos 20–14
1997 Brisbane Broncos Hunter Mariners 36–12 (Not a one-off match — the final of a 22-club, two-conference "World Club Championship" restructure that lost an estimated $5m and was abandoned until 2000.)
2000 Melbourne Storm St Helens 44–6 (Relaunched as the two-team, one-off format still used today.)
2001 St Helens Brisbane Broncos 20–18
2002 Bradford Bulls Newcastle Knights 41–26
2003 Sydney Roosters St Helens 38–0
2004 Bradford Bulls Penrith Panthers 22–4
2005 Leeds Rhinos Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 39–32
2006 Bradford Bulls Wests Tigers 30–10
2007 St Helens Brisbane Broncos 18–14
2008 Leeds Rhinos Melbourne Storm 11–4
2009 Manly-Warringah Leeds Rhinos 28–20
2010 Melbourne Storm Leeds Rhinos 18–10
2011 St. George Illawarra Wigan Warriors 21–15
2012 Leeds Rhinos Manly-Warringah 26–12
2013 Melbourne Storm Leeds Rhinos 18–14
2014 Sydney Roosters Wigan Warriors 36–14
2015 South Sydney St Helens 39–0 (Played as the headline fixture of the new multi-match World Club Series (2015-2017), which also paired several other NRL/Super League clubs each year — this remains the largest winning margin in the fixture's history.)
2016 North Queensland Leeds Rhinos 38–4 (World Club Series.)
2017 Wigan Warriors Cronulla-Sutherland 22–6 (World Club Series — reduced back to a single match per club pairing after 2017.)
2018 Melbourne Storm Leeds Rhinos 38–4
2019 Sydney Roosters Wigan Warriors 20–8
2020 Sydney Roosters St Helens 20–12
2021 Not played — cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic (Melbourne Storm were due to face St Helens).
2022 Not played — cancelled for a second consecutive year.
2023 St Helens Penrith Panthers 13–12 (Decided by a Lewis Dodd drop goal in golden-point extra time.)
2024 Wigan Warriors Penrith Panthers 16–12
2025 Not played — NRL premiers Penrith Panthers withdrew, citing player welfare and schedule concerns.
2026 Hull Kingston Rovers Brisbane Broncos 30–24

Most titles

Records

  • Most appearances: 7 — Rob Burrow, Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Jamie Peacock (all Leeds Rhinos).
  • Biggest win: South Sydney 39–0 over St Helens, 2015.
  • Most tries in a match: 3 — Brett Morris, Joe Burgess and Michael Jennings.
  • Most goals in a match: 9 — Craig Fitzgibbon (Sydney Roosters, 2003).
  • Longest gap between stagings: six years, between the abandoned 1997 format and its 2000 relaunch.

Format history

The fixture began as a single unofficial match in 1976 and was repeated only sporadically through the 1980s and early 1990s — it wasn't played at all in 1988, 1990, 1993, or 1995-96, the last of those gaps caused by the Super League War splitting Australian rugby league into two rival competitions. The 1997 attempt to relaunch it as a 22-club, two-conference "World Club Championship" — five Australasian clubs touring Europe and five European clubs touring Australasia simultaneously — reportedly lost more than $5 million and was shelved for three years. It returned in 2000 as the simple one-off match still used today, missing only during the brief 2015-2017 multi-match "World Club Series" expansion (when the marquee fixture above still determined the World Club Challenge title, alongside several other NRL-Super League pairings played the same week) and the 2021-2022 Covid-19 cancellations and the 2025 withdrawal by Penrith Panthers.

Sources

Data last verified: 11 August 2026.

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