After the successful 2013 tournament, a regular schedule was determined with the tournament planned every four years. As a result of this, the 2017 World Cup took place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea four years later. The tournament initially grew traction after high-profile stars Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita led a wave of players pledging their international allegiance to Tonga, their nation of heritage, instead of New Zealand and Australia. Using the same format as the previous tournament, various upsets sprung in the matches, with Lebanon defeating France, and both Tonga and Fiji defeating New Zealand, giving the Kiwis their worst result since the expansion of the tournament in some of rugby league's shock all-time results. Tonga and Lebanon both saw their best tournament performances, reaching the quarter finals and semi finals respectively. The tournament also featured three sell-out matches at the PNG Football Stadium in Port Moresby involving the home nation and a full crowd of 30,003 at Auckland's Mount Smart Stadium, who witnessed the tense semi-final between England and Tonga. One particular controversy was that Sydney only hosted two low/mid-drawing matches both involving Lebanon. The tournament organisers however defended this "Sydney Cup snub". The final was again played at Brisbane's Lang Park, with 40,033 fans witnessing Australia defeat England 6–0 to claim their eleventh tournament.