Lebanon Call Their Final World Cup Game a "Grand Final"
Lebanon's Rugby League World Cup comes down to one game, and their coach says it will feel like a finals match. Michael Cheika said the clash with France on Sunday is "really our Grand Final", the one-off decider that rugby league fans know from the end of a season.
Kick-off is 06:50 GMT on Sunday 1 November. The match will close Lebanon's campaign at the tournament, and it is a game with no way back into the competition. The Cedars lost their opening two matches, against Papua New Guinea and Tonga, which ended their hopes of reaching the knockout stages. Those are the rounds where a single defeat sends a team home, so a loss will not change their position. The aim now is to finish strongly.
Cheika knows what a good Lebanon run looks like. The 59-year-old Australian took charge of the side in 2020, and BBC Sport reports that Lebanon reached the quarter-finals four years ago under him. Before that, he was one of the best-known names in rugby union, the 15-a-side code. He has been involved in World Cup, Heineken Cup and Super Rugby finals, and he led the Waratahs to the Super Rugby title in 2014. His last union role was with Leicester Tigers in the 2024-25 season.
He is also the son of Lebanese migrants. Cheika has said his family left Lebanon in 1950, and he has spoken about what it means for his players to represent their heritage. He said they have a chance to fly the flag for their people, and that is the message he has taken into this tournament.
Cheika switched codes to rugby league when he took the Lebanon job. Reuters reported at the time that the former Wallabies coach, the head coach of Australia's union team, was moving to lead the Cedars. He is now heading back to union, returning to the Waratahs for next year's Super Rugby campaign. Lebanon's rugby league future will depend on the work done at home. Cheika is also set to lead a new board to grow men's and women's league in Lebanon and strengthen its domestic competitions.
Assistant coach Matt King is working alongside him on the Cedars' World Cup squad. Bulldogs forward Jacob Kiraz has said he wants to wear the No.1 jersey at the tournament, a sign of how much the squad has been looking forward to this stage.
Lebanon have one chance left to show what they can do. A win over France would give the squad something to take home, and a strong performance would matter to a group that has spent months building towards this tournament. Whatever the result, Sunday's match is the last one on the schedule for the Cedars.
