The Rugby League World Cup starts tomorrow. For Mate Ma’a Tonga, the road to the semi-finals runs through England, Lebanon and Samoa.

Ten nations will compete across Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand over the next month. Only four will reach the semi-finals. There are no quarter-finals this time. That means every pool match counts.

The tournament opens on Thursday, October 15, when Australia play New Zealand at Allianz Stadium in Sydney. It ends with the final at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Sunday, November 15.

How the pools work

The 10 teams are split into three pools. Every team plays three matches. But the pools do not all work the same way.

Pool A has four teams: Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the Cook Islands. Each team plays the other three once. The top two go straight into the semi-finals.

Pools B and C are different. Each has three teams, but they do not play each other. Instead, every team in Pool B plays every team in Pool C.

Pool B is England, Samoa and Lebanon. Pool C is Tonga, Papua New Guinea and France.

All six teams then go into one combined table. The top two from that table take the last two semi-final spots.

Tonga’s campaign

Mate Ma’a Tonga open against England at HBF Stadium in Perth on Saturday, October 17. It is a tough start. England come in as one of the favourites, and a strong result here would put Tonga in a good spot early.

Six days later, Tonga play Lebanon at CommBank Stadium in Parramatta on Friday, October 23. Lebanon will be looking for an upset, so Tonga cannot take the match lightly.

The final pool match is against Samoa at CommBank Stadium in Parramatta on Sunday, November 1. That is the last day of the group stage. A Pacific derby on the final day could decide who goes through to the semi-finals.

Two of Tonga’s three pool matches will be played at CommBank Stadium, giving the large Tongan community in Western Sydney two chances to back the team close to home.

Tonga never meet PNG or France on the field. But those two teams play the same three opponents. So every result Tonga get will be measured against theirs in the combined table.

With nine crossover matches feeding one table, there is little room for a slip. One loss could be enough to end a campaign.