Wales boss John Kear hits out at World Cup qualification

“The first qualification was first based on the last quarter-finals, which were dominated by the southern hemisphere.

“Now whoever wins the European leg of qualifiers has to go down south and play a World Series to actually make it to the World Cup.

“It’s like having a double qualification to have a European team in there.

“I’m not very happy but we’ve just go to get on with it.”

England and Lebanon are the only northern hemisphere teams to have already qualified.

But the likes of Wales, France, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica and Greece, who all featured in 2022, could miss out.

Kear, speaking after his team’s 22-16 win over Jamaica in a friendly on Tuesday night, fears that would hamper ambitions of growing the game’s global appeal.

“We have to acknowledge that Australia has taken the World Cup at very short notice, but now it has been condensed to fewer teams,” said Kear.

“If you look at rugby union, it has teams like Georgia and others coming in.

“Even if they get walloped, there’s still something for players within Georgia to aim for and that’s playing at a World Cup. But we are restricting that straight away [in rugby league].

“Hopefully the tournament will be expanded for the next tournament but until then, we just have to try to qualify.”

Former Wales rugby union hooker Richard Hibbard – now CEO of Wales Rugby League – believes Wales will relish the underdog tag following the tournament’s format change.

“It’s going to be a tough ask, we’re not shying away from that,” he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

“We know what the Welsh are like, we love to be the underdogs.

“We’ll go out there play some good league and hopefully the result goes our way.”

Wales are set to announce their squad for the qualifiers in France on Wednesday.