Edinburgh Giants will be flying the flag for Scotland as newcomers to the 2025 Betfred Wheelchair Super League, writes IAN GOLDEN.
THE teams for the 2025 Betfred Wheelchair Super League season were announced just before Christmas, with two new additions to the fold.
It was no surprise to see Sheffield Eagles, who won the Wheelchair Championship last year, included, but a name not many expected to see was Edinburgh Giants.
Obviously, it’s great news for the expansion of the game and it’s a credit to the Rugby Football League that they’ve decided to include a side from another country. For the record, North Wales Crusaders didn’t apply.
Sheffield and Edinburgh join the existing five sides in Super League. Each of the seven teams will face one another home or away over seven rounds of fixtures, before the division splits into a top four and bottom three competition from Saturday, 23rd August.
The final rounds of the season will then be played at central venues and will act as the play-offs before the Grand Final which is set take place on Sunday, 28th September at Manchester Basketball Centre – and shown live on Sky Sports.
Edinburgh Giants are fairly new in the wheelchair game, but many of their side are experienced Scotland international players. Founded under two years ago by former Leeds Rhinos and England head coach Martyn Gill, who relocated due to his Scottish wife, formed the club as a hobby and didn’t expect things to move so fast.
“I’ll keep it local, just play a few games,” he said. “Now here we are, less than two years later.
“The opportunity was there to apply for Super League, so it was just a case of let’s go for it and see where we get.”
Edinburgh entered the Wheelchair Challenge Trophy last year and reached the final, losing to Hereford Harriers. However, this gave them a place in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup where they were heavily beaten by London Roosters.
“We entered the Challenge Trophy with a view that we’d probably enter the Championship this year,” Gill said.
“That competition was a test for us to go compete against some of the Championship teams and we made the final for the first time of asking, losing in golden point in the final.
“But I think we took a lot from that in terms of understanding where we were from a benchmarking point of view as we played a few Championships teams.
“Then we had a taste of Super League when we played London, so we know that the pace and the skill levels we can expect to face next are a few levels above what we’re used to.
“So, for us in 2025, it’s just it’s about getting used to that speed and understanding what success looks like to us.”
Edinburgh will be representing a nation and their inclusion in Super League has already started to attract support.
“We’ve a three-year partnership with the University of Edinburgh, so they’re on our new kits,” Gill confirms.
“We’re guaranteed a place in Super League for the next three seasons and I think that’s to make sure we’ve time to settle into the climate and understand where we are. Our aim by 2027 is to become an established Super League team.
“From a strategic point of view, we obviously tick a few boxes in the fact that we’re the capital city of Scotland and part of the ambition is to have wheelchair rugby league in the major cities around the UK.”
The Giants announced an 18-player squad early in January that includes six Scotland international players.
As Gill will also be coaching Scotland, and with the Celtic Cup and potentially World Cup qualifiers on the horizon, it’s going to be a busy 2025 for him.
“We’ve built a good solid playing base,” Gill said. “They’re all active pretty much every week, so we’ve a good core playing group to be able to fulfil both reserves and Super League fixtures.
“Part of the ambition for me is obviously as the Scotland head coach, I’d still like more local playing opportunities. It’s just understanding how we do that, and for this year, our focus will be on building in the reserves in the Super League, as every side now needs to have reserves.
“For us at Edinburgh, we’re just going to have to look after our own house this year, but with my Scotland hat on, I’d want to know how we extend the development out for the long-term growth with a view to the pathway it can create.”
Scotland’s men’s side were excluded from World Cup qualification, the proposed women’s side hasn’t yet emerged, it’s now up to the wheelchair side to keep the tartan flag flying in the next World Cup.
“I think when you look at the different variants of the sport, wheelchair rugby league is probably the best shot that we’ve got of having a homegrown squad,” he said.
“The talent pools for both the men’s and women’s are obviously distributed not just across the UK but across the world, whereas in wheelchair rugby league, we’re getting a lot more people interested in the sport, and we’re attracting people that maybe weren’t necessarily just rugby league fans. We’re getting people that just want to be active in a disability sport, so being able to provide that, it just so happens that rugby league provides them with that platform.
“So yes, we’ve an opportunity to fly the flag both at club level, but also international, which will hopefully pay us dividends. Being in the Super League, it’ll create the competition that we need to make us stronger at international level.
“The focus for me is to be spinning the plates and just making sure that Edinburgh Giants are ready to go come the start of the season.
“One of the main things is to make sure that the people of Edinburgh realise that there’s still a lot for us to do, so if they can get behind us in some way, whether that’s coming down as a volunteer, playing or if there’s a local business that maybe wants to consider sponsoring us. We still have a lot of work to do.”
Please go to www.edinburghgiants.org for more information on the club.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 505 (February 2025)