The Lionesses will win but Saints should be at least mentioned?
The Lionesses will win but Saints should be at least mentioned?
Would imagine Lionesses are shoe ins. Then behind them the England cricket team based on their test turnaround and T20 World Cup win.
As harsh as it sounds Saints haven’t done anything this year to put them ahead of Leicester Tigers, Man City, Surrey Cricket Club and any other league winners. 4 in a row is a great achievement but one league title on its own in 2022 isn’t a special standalone achievement. Would need to have at least won the challenge cup as well to get themselves in the conversation.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
What about the wheelchair World Cup winners?
Some good news..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sports-personality/64027090
I’ll be honest, it doesn’t bother me and wasn’t something that even entered my consideration when watching on TV or live at the venues and I didn’t hear anyone around me discussing it or attempting to “guess” who wasn’t in a wheelchair off court.
It’s worth remembering that the game of wheelchair rugby league isn’t yet twenty years old so I imagine the player pool has always been quite small, which has been boosted by non-wheelchair users. Hopefully, the uptake of the sport increases in the wake of this World Cup and we may get to a stage where non-wheelchair users are reduced further.
On the subject of “casual TV viewers”. What do they matter? Why are rugby league fans so focused on other people? Also, if you didn’t know, you probably wouldn’t guess that Adam Hills has a prosthetic leg, so people being “bemused” about people walking probably says quite a lot about them as people.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
It all depends on the able bodied ratio to the handicapped ones, I think we only have 3 players out of the current 12 men current squad who have no disability. Some disabled players can walk but can't use their legs like normal people. Once you get more non disabled than disabled in the team then thats probably a turnng point. There are also gender participitation with some squads which will probably change once the sport becomes more widespread.
One of my favourite players is Collins, smallest player in the sport but with the largest skill factor.
Didn't see the show, I take it we didn't get a look in or mention?
I ate a tuna sandwich on my first day!
Well it was supposed to be an inclusive RLWC!
It's an interesting debate, and some good points have already been made above.
I must admit that I did notice some walking at the end of our final, and I do find myself sometimes 'guessing the disability' when watching paralympic events, which I'm sure is very non-pc!
My take on it would be that an able bodied person would probably find it much more difficult, and so would be at a disadvantage.
Does anyone know if the other wheelchair sports are open to all? Was ours?
WRT to Wheelchair RL, the BBC did a decent explanation of it:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/rugby-league/63507661
One of the England stars, Jack Brown, is able-bodied. He started playing so him and his wheelchair-bound brother could play a sport together. It's a heart-warming story. His brother went on to switch to wheelchair basketball (plays for G, but Jack loved wheelchair RL so stuck with that.
I think being able to have a small number of able-bodied players (numbers are limited in the rules) actually makes the sport more inclusive, and one where wheelchair users are usually better than their able-bodied peers for once. As Kentish says, being able-bodied gives no advantage; indeed, it could be a disadvantage
He's not the Messiah, he's a naughty boy.
Yes, I don't think they tend to focus on highlights etc these days. They seem to go for 'stories' and different angles on things. For example the wheelchair segment was a good 5-10 minutes or so whereas the Cup Final and Grand Final got 3 sentences between them. If you take a step back the story behind the wheechair team is going to be more interesting for the casual sports fan than a summary of the season. They want us to watch the whole thing, not just our own sport's two minute slot
On the subject of able bodies players- has anyone thought it may be actually quite difficult to make a team up of truly disabled players. In that instance the able bodies are probably allowed to literally make the numbers up - without which they wouldn't be able to raise a team.
I'm out on a limb (no pun) myself as I have no interest in watching the wheelchair game but fine with those who do and its great that the guys can get to participate in a form of the game.
Yes, this is a good point. Plus, I think there is a limit to how many able-bodied players can be on the 'pitch' at any time (two per team?). There can still be an inclusive element even to able-bodied players taking up the game, too. If I remember correctly the lad who scored the winning try in the final is able-bodied but took up wheelchair RL after a knee injury stopped him from playing the running game.
Its fascinating the pros and cons of different bodied wheelchair players and how they are used, the likes of Brown and Collins are usually in the middle were they are evasive and use their legs to quickly change direction, if you have no legs its likely a wing position with the advantage of being lighter and faster. The skills must be very different on balance and reactions and wheelchair control, Wilkin had a go and being an ex rugby player had no advantage at all.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
The sport is constantly developing but there could well be a split leading to two different games. I'm sure in France, where it is more popular and had more players, they want to go down the route of disabled players only. To me that would be a shame as it's USP as opposed to other wheelchair sports is it's inclusivity, allowing anyone to be able to play.
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I think it comes down to whether it is classed as a disability sport, or just a different form of rugby. If it is the latter then no problem with who plays. If it is the former then able bodied athletes are just blocking disabled athletes from representing their country. I accept that participation numbers may be small, but that is the same for any new sport.
Last edited by Belgian Saint; 23rd December 2022 at 12:57. Reason: Typo
Ive read a few things that made me think about this. One of them has a disabled brother who fancied trying the sport so went with his brother to support him and ended up playing and loving it, so that makes sense. And I also know of someone who has just taken it up, used to play but older now and damage to knees etc from playing so has taken it up as a way to keep playing the game, although in a sense you could argue he's able bodied, but he's not fit to play actual rugby as cannot run