Lebanon's rugby league team owes its existence to a group of Lebanese-Australians who played for the Middle Eastern state at the 1997 Rugby League World Sevens. Within 5 years, Lebanon had a domestic league which served to benefit its national game, and the fruits of this rapid development were seen on the world stage in 2017, when the Cedars reached the quarterfinal stage of the Rugby League World Cup, an impressive run which brought them automatic qualification for the 2021 tournament.
