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Pdrl

23 Jan 2022

England first for Physical Disability Rugby League

England first for Physical Disability Rugby League

Physical Disability Rugby League broke new ground yet again this weekend, with the first ever England Community Lions PDRL training session as preparations begin for this Autumn’s PDRL World Cup.

England hopefuls have endured a frustrating 12 months since the national PDRL team was formed last autumn as part of the RFL’s Community Lions programme. Yet despite the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there are now more players than ever aiming to impress head coach Shaun Briscoe – the former Wigan, Hull, Hull KR and Widnes full-back, who represented England on 11 occasions between 2004-2009.

24 players drawn from the Castleford Tigers, Leeds Rhinos, Wakefield Trinity, Warrington Wolves and Wigan Warriors foundations, were put through their paces at Hopwood Hall in Middleton, Lancashire on Saturday.

And although the squad is dominated by players from Warrington Wolves and Leeds Rhinos, who contested the first game of PDRL in the northern hemisphere in 2018, team manager John Welch, who introduced PDRL to England from Australia in 2017, is keen to spread the net still further.

“It’s fantastic to see how far we’ve come. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d be seeing this today and building up to a PDRL World Cup. Five foundations have players here today and there are plenty of players knocking on the door. Plus, we also have foundations from Hull, St Helens and York also showing interest in PDRL.”

Chris Godfrey, the RFL’s Social and Inclusion Manager, added: “This is a landmark moment for Rugby League and PDRL as a sport – the first ever England PDRL squad session. The 24 players here today should be extremely proud of their selection, having gone through a rigorous classification process as well as being stand-out athletes within PDRL.”

Rugby League broke new ground in 2021 with the sport’s first ever ‘classification day’ for the Physical Disability game as part of the selection process for the PDRL World Cup. All 24 players have been through the process, which assessed and categorised physical impairments using the Activity Alliance (formerly the English Federation of Disability Sports) profiling system.

England Community Lions PDRL squad:

Mike Addison, Jamie Barnett, Tom Bayliss (all Warrington Wolves), Pete Clarke (Leeds Rhinos), Adam Fleming (Wakefield Trinity), Scott Gobin (Leeds Rhinos), Mark Gummerson (Castleford Tigers), Nick Horner (Leeds Rhinos), Lewis Kennedy (Warrington Wolves), Nick Kennedy (Castleford Tigers), Connor Lynes (Wakefield Trinity), Adam Morris (Warrington Wolves), Steve Mort (Wigan Warriors), Ben Nicholson, Callum Parkinson (both Wakefield Trinity), Tommy Pouncey, Harvey Redmonds (both Leeds Rhinos), Ben Seward (Wigan Warriors), Tony Seward, Barry Whalley, Josh Whipday (all Warrington Wolves), Keenan Wilkes (Castleford Tigers), Chris Young, Sam Zellar (both Leeds Rhinos)