Welcome to our complete RLWC 2026 Lebanon v France Match Hub. Here you’ll find all the pre-match information, including team lists, predictions and stats you need and want, key players to watch and why you should bother watching the game at all. Plus we ask AI to do better than us with a predictions and AI Greg Norman pays a visit for his thoughts on this and all RLWC 2026 games.
After the game stop by for just enough of the opinion and post match stats you could need to keep up with each match of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.
RLWC 2026 Lebanon v France Preview
Match Details
TEAMS
Lebanon team: 1. Jacob Kiraz 2. Tony Francis 3. Michael Gabrael 4. Jordan Samrani 5. Jason Saab 6. Joseph Nohra 7. Alex Conti 8. Jaxson Rahme 9. Moustafa Dirani 10. James Roumanos 11. Tony Sukkar 12. Abbas Miski 13. Alex Twal (c) 14. Yehya Ayache 15. Tupou Francis 16. Jalal Bazzaz 17. Khalil Rahme 18. Shadi Hammoud 19. Mikael Ibrahim 20. Ibrahim El Labban 21. Cameron Kanaan 22. Mohamed Alameddine
France team: 1. Arthur Mourgue 2. Léo Darrelatour 3. Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet 4. Roméo Tropis 5. Benjamin Laguerre 7. Thomas Lacans 8. Romain Navarrete 9. Alrix Da Costa 10. Julian Bousquet 11. Mathieu Cozza 12. Mathieu Jussaume 13. Benjamin Garcia (c) 14. Amir Bourouh 15. Lambert Belmas 16. Jordan Dezaria 17. Jowasa Drodrolagi 18. Théo Fages 19. Fouad Yaha 20. Tiaki Chan 21. Louis Grossemy 22. Arthur Romano
TEAMS TALKING POINT:
A few changes for Lebanon, mostly players we haven’t really heard of, but the regular five eighth is out – Khaled Rajab and he is replaced by Joseph Nohra. France have lost their only NRL player Latrell Siegwalt.
PLAYERS TO WATCH:
Jason Saab – This is the game where Saab lives up to his luxury car name and scored a bag of tries.
Abbas Miski – We just like Abbas Miski.
Alrix Da Costa – New to starting hooker for France with a great name. He’s moving to Hull from Catalans for 2027, so must be pretty handy.
BATTLES TO WATCH:
Lebanon Backline v France – If the Lebanon back five fire, they could really tear the French apart, who have struggled at this World Cup so far.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THIS GAME
We really don’t blame you if you don’t. Two teams not going great, Lebanon better. But what an ordinary timeslot.
PREDICTION
Too many weapons out wide for Lebanon, and they have been competitive without winning. They’ve also had an easier draw than France.
Lebanon by 30
STATS
OVERALL H2H – Lebanon 4 France 1
WORLD CUPS – Lebanon 1 France 0
- France’s only win over Lebanon was the first meeting between the sides in 1999 in the Mediterranean Cup. Hazem El Masri has the starting five eighth that day for Lebanon.
- The only World Cup game between these sides was in Canberra in 2017 when Lebanon won 29-18. Some players who played then and are playing now include Abbas Miski, Alex Twal, Benjamin Garcia, Théo Fages, Julian Bousquet and Fouad Yaha.
- France has lost their last seven World Cup games in Australia.
All stats and so much more is available from the only source for rugby league stats – Rugby League Project.
AI GREG NORMAN’S PIC-REDICTION
AI Greg Norman is always on hand to give his opinion on anything sport related, and we harness the power of AI and his imagination to come up with a pictorial prediction.
AI Greg sees the French as nothing more than glorified turnstiles and predicts Lebanon to win the wrestle and score plenty to win.
AI PREDICTION
Since everyone else is using AI, why not us for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.
We asked AI the following: “Predict the winner of this 2026 Rugby League World Cup based on historical H2H records, each team’s record at World Cup, each team’s International record from the last 10 years with a recency bias on the last three years, relative toughness of each team’s forward pack, and overall courage of the general population from each country.”
AI SAID:
