The 2017 Rugby League World Cup Americas qualification was a rugby league tournament that was held in December 2015 to decide the American qualifier for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. It consisted of a round-robin tournament involving three teams, Canada, Jamaica and the United States, at two venues in Florida in the United States.
The United States won the tournament and qualified for the World Cup.
On 3 October 2014, the 2017 Rugby League World Cup qualifying competition was announced. Seven of the eight teams who made the knockout-stages of the 2013 Rugby League World Cup were announced as automatic qualifiers.[1]
USA, who were quarter-finalists in 2013, were denied automatic qualification due to an internal governance dispute which saw the nation's Rugby League International Federation membership temporarily suspended. Once the issue was resolved, USA was allowed to enter the qualification process. In August 2015, the qualifiers were announced to be held in Florida in December 2015.[2]
The Canada squad as of 26 November 2015 was as follows:[3]
| Club Team | Players | |
|---|---|---|
| Chad Bain | ||
| Billy Gemmell, Christian Miller, Steve Piatek | ||
| Alex Boyd | ||
| Tom Dempsey | ||
| Steve Bouchard | ||
| Louis Robinson | ||
| Rhys Jacks | ||
| Ryley Jacks | ||
| Jamie Kelly | ||
| Jonathan Cregg, Robin Legault, Matt Wyles | ||
| Eddie Bilborough, Antoine Blanc, Enoch Wamalwa | ||
| Daniel Blasco-Morris, Rick Schouten, Adam Timler |
The Jamaica squad as of 25 November 2015 was as follows:[4]
| Club Team | Players | |
|---|---|---|
| Alex Brown, Wayne Reittie | ||
| Omari Caro | ||
| Joel Farrell | ||
| Ryan Grant | ||
| Daniel Thomas, Mo Agoro, Richie Barnett | ||
| Antonio Baker | ||
| Lamont Bryan | ||
| Joe Brown | ||
| Corey Hanson | ||
| Nathan Campbell, Marvin Thompson | ||
| Tyronie Rowe | ||
| Unattached | Brian Hutchinson |
The USA squad as of 25 November 2015 was as follows:[5]
On 2 December the US team suffered a setback after Tui Samoa pulled out of the squad for personal reasons. He was replaced by Corey Makelim.[6]
| Club Team | Players | |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Newlin | ||
| Taylor Alley | ||
| Matt Walsh | ||
| Taylor Howden | ||
| Delaware Black Foxes | Kevin Wiggins | |
| Jon Purnell | ||
| Mark Offerdahl | ||
| Kristian Freed, Luke Barron | ||
| Abe Cohen | ||
| Sam Carson | ||
| Ryan Burroughs | ||
| Casey Clark, Rich Henson, Andrew Kneisly, Roman Lowery, Mike Timpano | ||
| Danny Howard, Steve Howard, Corey Makelim |
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This match was also the third and final game of the 2015 Colonial Cup series.
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Romeo Monteith
Aaron Zimmerle