The Rugby League International Federation have confirmed that Australia will host the Nines World Cup and be a part of the Oceania Cup in 2019 and tour Britain in 2020, as agreed upon on the new international calendar.
While the calendar is not yet set in stone, the structure of it have been agreed to in principle.
Electives from over 20 countries held a meeting in York earlier in the week for the RLIF Congress, electing ARLC chairman Peter Beattie as deputy chair and promotingย Graeme Thompson into the chair role.
Thompson, a former Scotland international, replaces John Grant as chair, who stood down at the AGM.
Discussion points from the meeting included the future of rugby league and locking in key dates for the next eight years and the lead in to the 2021 World Cup.
The Nines World Cup will include male and female international representatives in a nine-a-side tournament.
The proposed plan included an Oceania World Cup containing two groups: Australia, New Zealand and Tonga in one group and Samoa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea in the other group.
"The whole international rugby league world has looked to us to complete this important piece of work. The discussions this week have been extremely collaborative and positive," RLIF CEO Nigel Woods told qrl.com.au.
"This is a complex process and if we can put all the pieces of the jig-saw into place we will have a very exciting programme."
"There is some further consultation to be undertaken with leagues and playing groups together with some important commercial evaluations before we could make final announcements, however we are confident that we can complete these discussions before Christmas."
England coach Wayne Bennett was still hoping to see his team play internationals in 2019.
"We'll be playing somewhere," Bennett said.
"We don't play an Origin series, we cannot afford to let Australia continue that advantage because Origin gives them a great advantage. We've got to keep playing in the off-season."
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