Why wheelchair rugby pioneer James Simpson can’t wait for the World Cup

IT IS hard for James Simpson to comprehend just how far wheelchair rugby league has come in the time since he started playing.

The Leeds Rhinos and England international is one of the leading lights of the sport, highlighted by the fact he is a 2021 Rugby League World Cup ambassador.

Like many in similar situations, wheelchair rugby league has helped Simpson overcome significant adversity and his own ordeal while offering inspiration to others.

It was 2009 when life changed forever for him.

“I grew up in Leeds and joined the army when I was 17,” explained Simpson, who won the Challenge Cup with Rhinos last season and helped England to a series win in Australia.

“I went to Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan twice and on my second tour of Afghanistan I triggered an improvised explosive device.

“I lost both my legs above the knee. I came back to England, went through rehab and that alone was a couple of years.

“After the 2012 Paralympics I just started looking at sports and found wheelchair rugby league.

“Being from Leeds and a rugby league fan, it fell in my lap.

“It was a great sport for me to find at the right time. I started playing for Leeds in 2013 and it’s just gone from there.”

As well as travelling Down Under and playing in France, Simpson was invited to the 2021 Rugby League World Cup draw with Prince Harry in London.

Simpson conceded: “It’s brilliant to see where it’s taken me, going to Australia last year and down to Buckingham Palace at the beginning of this one.

“It’s incredible. But then from the perspective of the sport, when I started playing there was just six teams.

“Now we’re at 20 plus. We’ve teams in Wales, Scotland, Kent; our first away game for Leeds was in Medway. The game domestically has grown massively and with the build-up to the World Cup it’s just getting bigger.

“We’ve got more people signing up to start teams, to get kits, to get chairs and internationally these tours of Australia and things are something we’d never thought we’d get. We never expected to get to this level and now we are it’s incredible. You see how big the World Cup is going to be and it’s another huge jump for us. This is our chance to prove ourselves on the international scene.”

England will host the World Cup next year when all three competitions – men’s, women’s and wheelchair – will run together for the first time.

The sport is wholly inclusive; teams feature wheelchair athletes and able-bodied players as well as male and female and players of all ages.

Clubs have been set up to improve the physical wellbeing of players who cannot participate in the running game.

Fast-paced and with some slight adaptions to the rules of rugby league, the principles remain largely the same.

Like every form of the game, though, it is currently on lockdown.

Simpson added: “Our season started, we had one game away to North Wales and won and then literally the next day, it was all put on hold.

“That was the season over. We started off really well and were all ready to go and then boom, that happened. I am missing playing a lot but everyone is the same, missing playing and watching.

“For me, lockdown’s not been too bad; I’ve tried to keep busy and my partner’s a nurse in Leeds so she’s in full work mode.

“I’m just trying to do what I can to support her, make sure everything’s good here so when she gets home she can just chill out.

“As a club, with Rhinos, we’re chatting every day, having online meetings every couple of days just to chat, and we’re helping each other through it quite a lot.

“Four of us got together recently just to pass the ball about in a field to try and get something.

“But I think that was mostly just to see each other. We don’t know when things will start again.

“Obviously with wheelchair rugby league there’s a lot of disabled players so a couple are very high risk. For them it might be a case of staying locked down for even longer.

“But we’re all looking forward to the World Cup. This week marked 500 days until its start. I remember when it was over a 1,000 days and it feels like it’s flown by. When you look at it like that, it’s not that far away.”

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