Wheelchair rugby league puts a father and son back in the game

“We always say it sounds worse than it is,” says 27-year-old Harry, a member of the National Lottery-supported North Wales Crusaders RL and Disability Sports Club. “In the running game you have two 18-stone props crashing into each other. For us, it’s two 9kg titanium wheelchairs coming together, so you get the sound of metal on metal.”

The exhilarating feeling of making a tackle – which requires one player to rip a tag from their opponent’s shoulder – is one reason Harry fell in love with the sport when he first tried it in 2013. He also enjoys playing on the same team as his father, Stephen, 58, who is one of the club’s head coaches and an occasional player.

Stephen’s efforts to make wheelchair rugby league more accessible were recognised recently when he was named as one of seven National Lottery sporting Game Changers at an event at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. The event was part of The National Lottery’s 30th birthday celebrations.

Harry had played conventional rugby league for about four years when a shoulder injury forced him to give up the running game. He said, “I suffered an AC (acromioclavicular joint) separation about two minutes into a game, but played the full 80 minutes.

"Less than 18 hours after the match a doctor told me I’d have to hang up my boots. It was devastating at the time because rugby league was something I loved doing and it was a way to socialise with my friends.”

When Harry and Stephen learned that North Wales Crusaders was setting up a wheelchair rugby league club they both jumped at the chance to get involved. Stephen has Genetic Muscular Degenerative disease and has also been diagnosed with MERRF syndrome which affects the muscles and nervous system. But neither he nor his son use a wheelchair in daily life.

Stephen says it’s a common misconception that everyone who plays wheelchair rugby league is a wheelchair user. He said, “You might have a visible disability, an invisible disability or no disability at all. The only stipulation is that during a sanctioned match you can only have two people with no disability on the pitch at any one time.

"At our club we have all sorts of players. There’s people like Harry and I who have invisible disabilities, we have a young lad with cerebral palsy and somebody who’s an amputee. We’ve had players with quadriplegia. We are classed as one of the most inclusive sports on the planet.”

Harry says he fell in love with the sport from the moment he sat in a wheelchair for the first time. He said, “I was able to transition my rugby ‘head’ – the knowledge and skills honed by playing the running game – to the wheelchair version straight away. And playing alongside my father has been a big thing in terms of keeping me involved and interested.”

Harry and Stephen are the only members of the North Wales Crusaders to take part in every season since the club’s formation. Harry has played wheelchair rugby league for the Welsh national team and he was the club’s first member to compete in 100 matches.

Support made possible by National Lottery players has helped North Wales Crusaders RL and Disability Sport club at every stage of its development. Stephen said, “When we started we were borrowing wheelchairs from our head coach. If it wasn’t for The National Lottery we wouldn’t have been able to buy our own chairs, we wouldn’t have had the goalposts. We’d basically be sitting there with a rugby ball and not much else.

"We’ve now got about 45 usable sports chairs, 96 percent of which The National Lottery have helped us to buy. They’ve also helped us purchase a container that we can store them in. Without The National Lottery we simply wouldn’t be here.”

2nd December 2024