Australia’s rugby league team: the Kangaroos on the record

Australia’s men’s national rugby league team is the Kangaroos. The women’s team is the Jillaroos. These are Australia’s sides in the thirteen-a-side code—not the Wallabies, who play rugby union. The NRL identifies the Kangaroos and Jillaroos separately and distinguishes the Kangaroos from the Wallabies.

As of 9 October 2026, the Kangaroos have won 12 men’s Rugby League World Cup titles. Their latest came at Old Trafford on 19 November 2022, when they defeated Samoa 30–10 for a third consecutive championship. The official match record supplies the local date, venue and score; the NRL’s match report confirms the title count.

The national side dates to 1908

Australia’s international rugby league record begins in 1908. Rugby League Project lists the first Australia–New Zealand series as three matches beginning on 9 May 1908. Later that year, the first Kangaroos sailed for Britain. Series archive

Those pioneers were not yet the dominant side familiar from later World Cups. The National Museum of Australia records that the first tour struggled both competitively and financially, with the Northern Union paying the players’ return passage. Its account also identifies Dally Messenger as a central figure in the new code’s early success and an Australian representative who played seven Kangaroos Tests. National Museum history

One distinction matters when reading those early records: a Kangaroo tour was not simply a Test series. Rugby League Project separates the full 1908–09 tour schedule from its three-match Ashes series. Matches against clubs and other representative opposition should not be added to a national Test total merely because Australia played in them. Tour and competition listings

For the British rivalry specifically, see our Ashes rugby league Test results by year.

Australia’s 12 World Cup titles

The number counts men’s tournament championships, not final appearances or individual match wins. The winning editions fall into three useful groups:

Part of the record	Winning editions	Titles
First three championships	1957, 1968, 1970	3
Six consecutive championships	1975, 1977, 1988, 1992, 1995, 2000	6
Three consecutive championships after the 2008 defeat	2013, 2017, 2021 edition, played in 2022	3
Total		12

The winning editions are recorded in Britannica’s World Cup history. The table uses the concluding years for the multi-year tournaments of 1985–88 and 1989–92, listed in Rugby League Project’s competition archive. The 2021 edition was delayed until 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic—it is one championship, not two.

Nor does every title imply a final victory. Australia’s first championship, in 1957, was decided by the round-robin standings, with no final played. Australia won all three of its matches. The tournament overview confirms the format, and Rugby League Project’s table records the three wins. That makes “12 World Cup titles” a sound description, but “12 World Cup final wins” an incorrect one.

Our full World Cup winners history puts those titles alongside the changing tournament formats.

World Cup success is not the whole Test record

New Zealand interrupted Australia’s championship sequence with a 34–20 win in the 2008 World Cup final in Brisbane. The Kiwis later beat Australia 30–0 in Hamilton in the 2023 Pacific Championships, their biggest-ever victory over the Kangaroos. Both milestones appear in New Zealand Rugby League’s history. The latter result has its own record and context.

The Jillaroos’ achievements belong in a separate women’s record. They won their third consecutive women’s World Cup with a 54–4 victory over New Zealand at Old Trafford in 2022; those titles are not part of the Kangaroos’ twelve. Official women’s final report

For present-day selection rather than historical totals, see our 2026 Kangaroos World Cup squad guide.