Major World Club Challenge update with date and location revealed after Penrith Panthers’ NRL triumph

Penrith Panthers’ historic NRL Grand Final victory means that the possible staging of a World Club Challenge next year now depends on the winners of next weekend’s Super League Grand Final.

The Panthers produced an incredible defensive display to deny Melbourne Storm and secure a fourth successive title – the first time any side has done that in Australian rugby league since St George in the 1960s.

However, Penrith emerging victorious has major ramifications on whether or not the World Club Challenge will be able to be staged next year. Love Rugby League revealed last month that the Panthers would not travel to England for the event like they did this year, owing to their participation in the NRL’s trip to Las Vegas.

Had Melbourne – who are not going to Vegas – won the Grand Final, then the World Club Challenge would have been staged in England on the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of February against the Super League champions.

But Penrith’s victory means the event will not be in England: and it may not be held at all. It now depends on who wins at Old Trafford next weekend between Wigan Warriors and Hull KR, with Vegas again complicating the picture.

Love Rugby League has been told that with the Warriors also going to Vegas, should they win the Super League Grand Final then a World Club Challenge being held is ‘unlikely’, due to the schedules both the Warriors and the Panthers face.

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However, Rovers winning next weekend would mean a World Club Challenge in Australia on the weekend of February 15 and 16: the same weekend as the opening round of the 2025 Super League season.

Penrith would be willing to play in a World Club Challenge, but only if it is held Down Under due to the fact they will then travel to Vegas. Their schedule has no room for a trip to England in 2025.

It means that anyone hoping to see the World Club Challenge remain in the calendar next year will be rooting for the Robins at Old Trafford next Saturday.

There could perhaps be renewed attempts for some sort of showdown between Wigan and Penrith should the Warriors win, given how it would pit the undisputed two best club sides in the game against one another.

However, as things stand, a rematch between the Warriors and the Panthers in 2025 is unlikely. Only a Hull KR win now guarantees the World Club Challenge remains in the calendar.

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