When injury cut short her career in running rugby league, Brogan Evans turned to the wheelchair game as a means of continuing her involvement in the sport.
BROGAN EVANS hopes to make history at the Celtic Cup in May by becoming the first person in the world to ever to win a full senior rugby league international cap in two different disciplines.
Evans is already a Wales Women’s international – the 29-year-old came on as a substitute against England in 2023 – but two serious injuries have put her out of the running game indefinitely, so she’s taken up wheelchair rugby league and is starring for Salford Red Devils in the Championship.
She also attended open trials for the Wales Wheelchair side earlier this year and coaches were so impressed with her skills, she was put straight into the Wales squad to train for the Celtic Cup at Cardiff Metropolitan University on Saturday 24th May where the hosts will take on Scotland and Ireland.
In April, she played her first competitive Wheelchair games for Salford, in the day-long Challenge Trophy in York where two groups of eight competed in mini-games before semi-finals and final. Salford went out in the group stages, with Castleford Tigers beating North Wales Crusaders to take the trophy.
It was a welcome return to Salford for Evans, who previously left the club to join Wigan Warriors in the women’s game for 2024. Her appearances were limited to just two for Denis Betts’ side – both from the bench – before the injuries occurred.
However, 2023 was a lot better for her. Across both Group One and Group Two of Super League, Evans was the top player for carries with 217, and was also the top tackler, with 374. All this after playing just ten games, with her nearest competitor finishing with 371 over 11 games.
So, when Evans realised that she wouldn’t be able to compete in the women’s game this year, she decided to return to her first club.
“I was playing with Salford for two years and I fell in love with the club,” she said. “The atmosphere and the spirit there was incredible, something I’d never ever experienced before.
“I worked so hard that year and from that I got offered a place in the squad at Wigan Warriors to stay in Super League (as Salford were relegated from Group Two), so I accepted that and went across.
“And as much as I love Wigan, they’ve been amazing, as soon as I had the news about my injuries, there was only one place I wanted to play wheelchair rugby league.
“The game skills are very much the same. It’s the chair skills that I’ve been struggling with, but even with that, my coaches have been saying that how much I’ve come on from my Welsh camp.
“I cannot lose rugby from my life because it means too much to me. It wasn’t even a let’s go and get another achievement off the box. I needed to stay involved in this sport.”
As no-one has even won a senior men’s or women’s and then a wheelchair cap, Evans hopes to make history in May, and then go further. Especially knowing that wheelchair international players can play for longer than in the running game – John Doyle was 65 when he won his final cap for Wales.
“My dream was to go to Australia in the World Cup with the women’s team next year,” she says. “And that’s the hardest bit to let go of through all of this, that I really, really wanted to go to the World Cup.
“When I was a kid, we only watched men’s sports on the TV. We didn’t see women footballers or rugby players and as a female athlete, I didn’t think I was going to see myself in anything.
“But now, I could actually go to a World Cup one day as a female athlete, especially now in wheelchair, which is mixed gender, and everyone is phenomenal.
“Obviously I’ll be gutted if I don’t play in this year’s Celtic Cup, but I’m the newest and the least experienced player to join the Welsh team. There are some phenomenal athletes within that team and if I don’t play this year, it’ll like a kick up the backside and I’ll fight for it.
“My first Super League club was Warrington and I was told I wasn’t good enough, so I went to Salford and then I worked really, really, really hard.
“I think every athlete at some point in their career will be told that they can’t do something and that they’re not good enough, and I think if you listen to those things or to yourself in your own doubt, you’ll never go on to achieve anything.”
Adjustments can be difficult for Evans. Diagnosed as autistic when she was 21, she has faced struggles with change all of her life and like many neurodiverse people, a major change can be overwhelming.
April is National Autistic Acceptance Month and that’s an important time of year for her.
“I get things all the time like, ‘oh, you don’t look autistic’ or ‘I’d never be able to tell you had autism’. These are the things you hear day in, day out. It’s unintentional ignorance.
“So, this month is so important to spread both that awareness and that there’s nothing wrong with us.
“I think without neurodiverse people, the world would be a lot darker and it wouldn’t function as well as it does now.
“My first session with Wales Wheelchair was overwhelming. It was like going to a different country and everyone spoke a language that I just didn’t understand. I felt so out of my depth and at one point, I took myself to the corner and just cried.
“Also, I was very much hoping to return to the running sport and I was in a pretty dark place to know about my future.
“But with Salford and Wales, I’ve seen other people out there living their lives to the full. I’m surrounded by athletes at the absolute top of their game who’ve achieved things that they never would before accidents and they’re living their absolute best life, so there’s no reason that I won’t be exactly the same.
“I feel so much brighter. I don’t feel hopeless and lost anymore. I feel like no matter what happens now going forward that I know I will be okay.”
The Wheelchair Championship starts on the weekend of 10th/11th May with Salford’s opening game being a home game against Hereford Harriers, the only side in the top two divisions that’s not in the area of a running club. The other opening games in this league, which is split into East and West, are North Wales Crusaders v Widnes Vikings, Warrington Wolves v Rochdale Hornets, Hull Kingston Rovers v Bradford Bulls, York Knights v Castleford Tigers and Batley Bulldogs v Wakefield Trinity.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 508 (May 2025)
