England Wheelchair will bid to retain their world title when they face France in the 2026 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup Final tomorrow (13 November, KO 8:45am GMT) at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong – live on BBC iPlayer and Premier Sports.
The showdown is a repeat of the unforgettable 2022 final, when England edged France 28-24 in Manchester to become world champions for the second time.
With the scores level heading into the closing stages, then-captain Tom Halliwell crossed for the decisive try three minutes from time, sealing victory in front of a record crowd.
Four years on, the sides meet in a fourth consecutive World Cup final, with England looking to lift the trophy once again and France determined to reclaim the title. Tom Coyd’s squad secured their place with an emphatic 86-18 semi-final victory over hosts Australia on Tuesday.
The final also follows another landmark moment for player Rob Hawkins, who has been crowned the 2026 IRL Wheelchair Golden Boot winner for a third successive year. The Halifax Panthers star adds this year’s award to his successes in 2024 and 2025, becoming only the second player across the men’s, women’s and wheelchair game to win the Golden Boot on three occasions.
Hawkins scored five tries in the semi-final win over Australia and was joined on the Golden Boot shortlist by England teammate Joe Coyd. Ahead of the final against France, Coyd said:
“France have been one of the leaders of the game internationally since it began, as you know every time we play them it’s a great contest.
“We're a pretty relaxed group overall, which is really helpful. But we all understand what's at stake. We talk a lot about being present, staying connected as a group.
“They're [France] a fantastic outfit and it really is so exciting every time we get to play them.
“We're blessed that they're just across the water really back home, to have such a great competitor that close.
“Every game, every opportunity we get, I don't think there's been a bad or not very exciting game against them.”
England Head coach, Tom Coyd MBE added:
“It’s knockout sport isn’t it, anything can happen on the day. It’s hugely important that we ride those waves of expectation and get our framing right.
“When the guys push out on Friday, I don’t expect that they’ll feel the weight of expectation, I expect them to feel confident knowing that they’ve earned the right to be a fancied team, but France have that right too.
“They’ve also been a high performing international outfit in the last four years and have beaten us in the last four years, that’s what makes it such an exciting contest on Friday.”
A win for England would be an historic achievement that would see them not only be the first England side to win back-to-back Wheelchair World Cups, but also be the first team to win the title three times.
“It would be amazing [to win the World Cup three times], and that’s what we came here to do, that’s what we’ve worked really hard for in the last four years and we’ve been building in this way,” said the Head Coach.
“We’ve been put in our place along the way, I remember in 2023, our first game after the 2022 world cup, we were very humbled at the First Direct Arena by a France team that came with revenge in mind.
"To have the opportunity to go back-to-back and also be the first team to win the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup three times, because the England team won in 2008 and in 2022, that's a piece of history that we're hunting as a group as well."
