Aussie coach reignites stand-alone World Cup talk

Sebastian Tan | October 9, 2026

Jillaroos coach Jess Skinner has added her two cents to the growing push for separation between men’s and women’s rugby league, declaring she would like to see a stand-alone Women’s Rugby League World Cup.

The Australians met for their first day of camp on the Central Coast on Friday ahead of next week’s World Cup kickoff.

The Jillaroos are hot favourites to take out a fourth consecutive crown, but some of their hype has been diminished as the men’s and wheelchair version of the global showpiece event takes place at the same time.

There was an agreement to separate the three tournaments and host a sole women’s World Cup as soon as 2028, but the international rugby league federation backflipped on the decision last year.

“I’m always about the women’s game. If I’m gonna be honest, I’d love to see our own World Cup,” Skinner said.

“It’ll all be about us, all eyes on us, all resources into the women’s space to keep growing.

“We (men and women) are all still pretty strongly aligned together at the moment.”

The push for greater gender independence comes after veteran half Ali Brigginshaw called on the NRL to create a separate chief executive for the NRLW ahead of last Sunday’s grand final.

Staging a stand-alone women’s World Cup isn’t a foreign idea, considering the women had their own tournament most recently in 2003 in New Zealand.

Soccer, rugby union, basketball and cricket are some of the sports that also host women’s World Cups where the men aren’t playing in their version of the event at the same time.

But for now, Skinner and her players are mostly focused on helping Australia continue to stamp their dominance over the international arena.

The coach insists it won’t be an easy task despite the team thumping both world No.2 New Zealand and No.3 England last year.

“The Jillaroos only won the last three World Cups. Prior to that, it was a wipeout … The Jillaroos are dominant, but it’s not actually the case,” Skinner said.

“When you see the talent across all of the teams that have been announced, everyone’s been in an NRLW system and had a great season, so it’s gonna be a lot tougher for us this year.”

Much discourse around Skinner’s selection has centred on the shock omission of Brigginshaw, and the coach said she still hadn’t talked to the Brisbane star since informing her of the news.

Regardless, the mentor is not fretting about the changing of the guard in her team’s halves, especially as Sydney Roosters pairing Tarryn Aiken and Jocelyn Kelleher were named ahead of her.