World Club Challenge - Definition and Overview

The World Club Challenge is a Rugby League competition held annually between the winners of the Australian NRL competition and the Super League (Europe) competition.

Theoretically the venue should rotate between England and Australia but Australia has generally either been unwilling or unable to host the challenge and so is usually held in England shortly before the start of the new season.

The challenge is a normally single game but in 1997 an expanded tournament was played with four Australian teams and four English teams.

The challenge was set up to find the world champion rugby league club. However, many people in Australia argue that the challenge fails to do this as the conditions too often favour the British team.

In response, after winning the 2005 match, Leeds Rhinos coach Tony Smith and chief executive Gary Hetherington indicated that, should they be involved in the 2006 match, they would want it to be held in Australia.