ENGLAND hope to attract talent from other wheelchair sports to build their player pool and potentially develop new international stars.
An invitational festival is being held this Saturday (April 19) at the University of Nottingham to start the year’s national programme.
Top players at clubs across the country have been nominated by their coaches to take part in the event, which will include England’s current wheelchair internationals.
And players of other wheelchair sports have also been invited in an attempt to convert talented athletes to Rugby League.
“We’re looking at talent transfer,” said England head coach Tom Coyd.
“The University of Nottingham has quite a strong wheelchair basketball player population and they have just won the national basketball competition.
“They have some people who work there who are quite established in the sport of wheelchair basketball, so we’re working together with them to open the door for talent transfer.
“There are athletes who are good wheelchair basketball players but maybe are interested in trying other sports to see which path they want to go down.
“There’s a lot of skill crossover, and if you can move your chair well already it makes a massive difference.”
One player to already transition is Mason Billington, who debuted for England against France last October, less than a year after taking up the sport.
Billington moved from wheelchair basketball, and previously played rugby union before being paralysed from the waist down in a work accident.
Coyd added: “The ambition is that we find new talent and Mason Billington is a brilliant example of that – he made his England debut last year after playing ten games of wheelchair Rugby League.
“That’s the beauty and accessibility of the sport. You could be a running Rugby League player, you could be a wheelchair basketball player, you could be in wheelchair athletics. The sport is so easy to get into.”
Players from the invitational festival will then be selected to take part in a tri-series event in York next month, another step towards selecting an England performance squad.
The national team will travel to Australia this autumn for an Ashes series, then return down under at the end of 2026 in a bid to retain their World Cup crown.
