Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup: England identify 10-player squad
Rob Hawkins is amongst 5 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup winners who will try to assist England defend the trophy in Australia this autumn.
Hawkins, Wheelchair Super League’s prime try-scorer this season with 70, scored 4 tries as Halifax Panthers accomplished a home treble by beating Leeds Rhinos to win Sunday’s Grand Final.
He is joined in England’s 10-player remaining World Cup squad by club-mates Jack Brown – who scored six tries in that remaining – and Finlay O’Neill.
Both Hawkins and Brown have been a part of the England squad who defeated France dramatically at Manchester Central in November 2022 to win the World Cup.
So too was Lewis King, who will captain England down beneath, plus King’s London Roosters club-mate Joe Coyd and Leeds Rhinos’ Nathan Collins.
Collins will probably be joined within the England squad by Leeds team-mate Tristan Norfolk, Roosters’ Mason Billington and the Sheffield Eagles pair of Luis Domingos and Chris Haynes.
England face Wales on Friday, 30 October (04:30 GMT) of their opening match on the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup – which will probably be staged alongside the boys’s and ladies’s tournaments.
They then face the USA on Tuesday, 3 November (07:30 GMT) and Ireland on Friday, 6 November (06:00 GMT), aiming to safe a spot within the following Tuesday’s semi-finals.
The wheelchair event will probably be staged on the Wollongong Entertainment Centre, with the ultimate on Friday, 13 November (08:30 GMT).
England head coach Tom Coyd – who led the aspect to their World Cup success in Manchester 4 years in the past – stated: “Every participant understands what it means to put on the England shirt and the duty that comes with it.
“Yesterday’s good Wheelchair Super League Grand Final was a testomony to the particular group that we’re privileged to characterize on the planet stage.”
England’s wheelchair squad will fly out to Australia on 22 October.
England squad: Mason Billington (London Roosters), Jack Brown (Halifax Panthers), Nathan Collins (Leeds Rhinos), Joe Coyd (London Roosters), Luis Domingos (Sheffield Eagles), Rob Hawkins (Halifax Panthers), Chris Haynes (Sheffield Eagles), Lewis King (London Roosters), Tristan Norfolk (Leeds Rhinos), Finlay O’Neill (Halifax Panthers).
