The World Club Series is an annual rugby league football competition played between the champion clubs of the Australasian National Rugby League and the European Super League and two invited clubs from each competition, therefore six teams in total. The competition is an expanded form of the World Club Challenge which, until 2014, was a single match played at the beginning of each year between the two champions of each league. The two champions still compete in a single match for the World Club Championship trophy as in previous years, with the other four teams competing in, what are essentially, exhibition games.

The first such match was played in 1976 but did not become a regular fixture until the late 1980s. It was also punctuated in the 1990s by the Super League war but has been held every year since 2000. The South Sydney Rabbitohs are the current champions, having defeated St Helens 39–0 in 2015.

As the World Club Series championship match is a match between the premiers of the National Rugby League and Super League, it has been possible for teams from New Zealand, France and Wales to win it as well as England and Australia, however, to date only English and Australian sides have competed in and won the World Club Challenge.

History

World Club Challenge

1976-1999: Origin and Development

The competition began so unofficially in 1976 as a match between Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and RFL Premiership winners St Helens. In 1987, another unofficial match took place when Wigan chairman Maurice Lindsay invited Manly-Warringah to Central Park.

The first official World Club Challenge was between Widnes and Canberra in 1989. Three further matches, each involving Wigan, were staged in the early 1990s with the 1994 match being staged in Australia. This would be the last time for 20 years that this would happen.

After the 1994 match logistical issues meant the concept was put on hiatus until it was revived in 1997. With the outbreak of Australia's Super League War in 1995, the World Club Challenge was not staged again until 1997 when the competition was restructured to include twenty-two clubs from the Australian and European Super Leagues. With six rounds in two hemispheres and $1,000,000 prize money, the competition was prohibitively expensive to stage and reportedly lost over $5,000,000. This, coupled with the poor ratings and attendances both in Australia and Europe, led to the competition being postponed for two seasons.

1997 tournament trophy

Returning to a one-off match between the League champions in 1998, a World Club Challenge as a show-piece fixture at Ellis Park in Johannesburg was mooted. However this didn't eventuate.

2000-2014: Regular competition

When it was resurrected in 2000, the World Club Challenge was once more played between the winners of the premierships in Australasia and Europe. During this period it was contested annually in the United Kingdom in late January or early February, before the commencement National Rugby League season and the Super League season. Over this period Super League teams dominated the tournament winning 7 of 9 matches, and this led one Australian commentator to deride the competition, citing the British refusal to play the game outside of the UK, the effects of jet lag on an Australian team who arrived in England only a couple of days before the game, and wintry conditions as reasons for Australian team's poor performance. In addition, the games were being played at the beginning of the new season instead of at the end of the previous season, so the rosters of both sides had normally changed considerably, therefore the teams that took the field were not the ones that won the respective premierships. For these reasons, it was viewed as merely a pre-season warm up game by most Australasian teams and fans.

Since the 2009 tournament, its popularity has increased with stronger crowds and also with Australian teams taking the concept more seriously, Australian teams were arriving earlier to acclimatize the players and often organising warm up games with other super league sides and this created a much stronger showing and improved results. This also led to an increased movement to having the tournament staged in Australia. During this period, the matches were fixtured in late February, still before the commencement National Rugby League season but in the early stages of the new Super League season.

In mid-2012, a working party was established to look into the feasibility of conducting the match in either a neutral or Australian venue and also looking into the possibility of expanding the tournament. In February 2013, the changes to the tournament were gaining momentum with the NRL and Super League agreeing to begin alternating the World Club Challenge tournament between UK and Australia. These changes were finally confirmed in November 2013, with both parties agreeing that the 2014 World Club Challenge would be the first held in Australia since 1994. In addition, commencing in 2015, the tournament will also be expanded to six teams. The World Club Challenge return to Australia in 2014 was a success with a solid crowd numbers of just over 31,000, with the Sydney Roosters defeating the Wigan Warriors 36-14. During the game, Sydney's Michael Jennings became the first player to score a hat trick of tries in a World Club Challenge.

World Club Series

2014-present: Expansion

In September 2014 it was announced that the World Club Challenge name would be changed to the World Club Series with six clubs participating - 3 from each league. It took place between February 20–22, 2015, and featured three matches, the first and second essentially being two exhibition games and the final game being for the Championship trophy between the two respective premiers as in previous years.

List of participants

• excludes pool games in 1997

(a) - World Club Series exhibition games only
(b) - Defunct team

World Club Series Participants
Colors	Club	Established	City	Stadium	Capacity*	Titles (Last)
	Bradford Bulls	1907	Bradford, West Yorkshire	Odsal Stadium	27,491	3 (2006)
	Brisbane Broncos	1987	Brisbane, Queensland	Suncorp Stadium	52,500	2 (1997)
	Canberra Raiders	1981	Canberra, Australian Capital Territory	Canberra Stadium	25,000	0
	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	1934	Canterbury, New South Wales	ANZ Stadium	84,000	0
	Hunter Mariners (b)	1995	Newcastle, New South Wales	Topper Stadium	11,000	0
	Leeds Rhinos	1864	Leeds, West Yorkshire	Headingley Carnegie Stadium	20,500	3 (2012)
	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	1946	Manly, New South Wales	Brookvale Oval	23,000	1 (2009)
	Melbourne Storm	1997	Melbourne, Victoria	AAMI Park	30,050	2 (2013)
	Newcastle Knights	1988	Newcastle, New South Wales	Hunter Stadium	33,000	0
	Penrith Panthers	1966	Penrith, New South Wales	Sporting Bet Stadium	22,500	0
	South Sydney Rabbitohs	1908	Redfern, New South Wales	ANZ Stadium	84,000	1 (2015)
	St George Illawarra Dragons	1998	Sydney, New South Wales	WIN Jubilee Oval	22,000	1 (2011)
	St Helens	1873	St Helens, Merseyside	Langtree Park	18,000	2 (2007)
	Sydney Roosters	1908	Sydney, New South Wales	Allianz Stadium	45,500	3 (2014)
	Warrington Wolves (a)	1876	Warrington, Cheshire	Halliwell Jones Stadium	18,000	0
	Wests Tigers	1999	Sydney, New South Wales	Campbelltown Stadium	22,000	0
	Widnes Vikings	1875	Widnes, Cheshire	Select Security Stadium	13,500	1 (1989)
	Wigan Warriors	1872	Wigan, Greater Manchester	DW Stadium	24,057	3 (1994)

*capacity for Rugby League games may differ from official stadium capacity.

Results

World Club Challenge (1976-2015)

Year	Final Information			Stadium
	Champions	Score	Runners-up
1976	Eastern Suburbs	25–2	St Helens	Sydney Cricket Ground
1987	Wigan Warriors	8–2	Manly Sea Eagles	Central Park
1989	Widnes Vikings	30–18	Canberra Raiders	Old Trafford
1991	Wigan Warriors	21–4	Penrith Panthers	Anfield
1992	Brisbane Broncos	22–8	Wigan Warriors	Central Park
1994	Wigan Warriors	20–14	Brisbane Broncos	ANZ Stadium (Brisbane)
1997*	Brisbane Broncos	36–12	Hunter Mariners	Ericsson Stadium
2000	Melbourne Storm	44–6	St Helens	DW Stadium
2001	St Helens	20–18	Brisbane Broncos	Reebok Stadium
2002	Bradford Bulls	41–26	Newcastle Knights	John Smith's Stadium
2003	Sydney Roosters	38–0	St Helens	Reebok Stadium
2004	Bradford Bulls	22–4	Penrith Panthers	John Smith's Stadium
2005	Leeds Rhinos	39–32	Canterbury Bulldogs	Elland Road
2006	Bradford Bulls	30–10	Wests Tigers	John Smith's Stadium
2007	St Helens	18–14	Brisbane Broncos	Reebok Stadium
2008	Leeds Rhinos	11–4	Melbourne Storm	Elland Road
2009	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	28–20	Leeds Rhinos	Elland Road
2010	Melbourne Storm*	18–10	Leeds Rhinos	Elland Road
2011	St George-Illawarra Dragons	21–15	Wigan Warriors	DW Stadium
2012	Leeds Rhinos	26–12	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Headingley Carnegie Stadium
2013	Melbourne Storm	18–14	Leeds Rhinos	Headingley Carnegie Stadium
2014	Sydney Roosters	36–14	Wigan Warriors	Allianz Stadium
2015	South Sydney Rabbitohs	39–0	St Helens	Langtree Park

• (1997*- Tournament)
• (*- Melbourne Storm stripped of title)

World Club Series (2015-Present)

In 2014 it was announced that the World Club Challenge would be expanded to 6 teams from 2015. Game 1 and Game 2 are exhibition matches that are played the days leading up to the final between the Super League and NRL Champions.

Year	Game	Result			Stadium
		Winners	Score	Runners-up
2015	Game 1	St George Illawarra Dragons	18-12	Warrington Wolves	Halliwell Jones Stadium
	Game 2	Brisbane Broncos	14-12 (golden point)	Wigan Warriors	DW Stadium
	Final	South Sydney	39-0	St Helens	Langtree Park

Statistics and records

NOTE: These statistics do NOT include any matches from the 1997 World Club Championship other than the final.

Statistics Source:

Winners

	Club	Wins	Winning years
1	Sydney Roosters	3	1976, 2003, 2014
2	Leeds Rhinos	3	2005, 2008, 2012
3	Bradford Bulls	3	2002, 2004, 2006
4	Wigan	3	1987, 1991, 1994
5	Melbourne	2	2000, 2013
6	St Helens	2	2001, 2007
7	Brisbane Broncos	2	1992, 1997
8	South Sydney	1	2015
9	St George Illawarra Dragons	1	2011
10	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	1	2009
11	Widnes Vikings	1	1989

Match records

Greatest winning margin

Most points in a game by a winning side

Most points in a game by a losing side

Highest scoring match

Lowest scoring match

Individual records

Scoring

Total Points

Most Points in a Game

Total Tries (2 or more)

Most Tries in a Game

Total Goals

Drop goals

Ground records

Sponsors

• (1976) None
• (1987-1991) Fosters World Club Challenge
• (1992-1993) None
• (1994-1996) MMI World Club Challenge
• (1997-2004) None
• (2005-2009) Carnegie World Club Challenge
• (2010) Gillette World Club Challenge
• (2011) Probiz World Club Challenge
• (2012) Heinz Big Soup World Club Challenge
• (2013) Probiz World Club Challenge
• (2014) None
• (2015) AFEX World Club Series

See also

Rugby league portal

References

• Gallaway, Jack (2001). The Brisbane Broncos: The Team To Beat. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0-7022-3342-0. 
• Rugby Super League website
• telegraph.co.uk website

• RLIF.ORG – Rugby League International Federation
• World Club Challenge Preview
• World Club Challenge Review
• World Club Challenge at 188-rugby-league.co.uk