Dame Sarah Storey and Kylie Grimes MBE celebrate International Women’s Day

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Join Dame Sarah Storey, Paralympic athlete, and Kylie Grime MBE, former GB wheelchair rugby Paralympian as we celebrate International Women’s Day, 8 March 2024.

Dame Sarah Storey is Great Britain’s most-decorated Paralympian, having won a total of 17 gold, 8 silver and 3 bronze Paralympic medals across two sports – swimming and cycling; Kylie Grime MBE was part of the GB wheelchair rugby squad which claimed gold at the Tokyo Paralympic Games – the first medal of any colour for a European nations, and the first gold in a team sport for Great Britain.

“…people always say to you, what do you want to be when you grow up? And some people say, a doctor, or a vet, or whatever. For me, it was, I want to represent my country and I want to win a medal.”

Kylie Grimes MBE

Launching today, and concluding on International Women’s Day, this three-part series will see Dame Sarah Storey and Kylie Grimes talk about their experiences as women in sport, the Paralympic experience, and the importance of role models in encouraging the next generation of women and girls to take up sport.

“I had a coach that once said, ‘Don’t be ordinary, be extraordinary.’ And that’s always stuck with me.”

Dame Sarah Storey

The series has been supported by Socios.com, the world’s leading fan engagement and rewards platform, as part of its community and social impact initiative Socios.com Supports GBWR announced a three-year partnership with Socios.com, to support the sport’s continued growth; Dame Sarah Storey is a brand ambassador for Socios.com Supports.




 

Studies have shown that 39% of women aged 16 and over are not active enough to get the full health benefits of sport and physical activity, compared to 35% of men. Moreover, disabled people are almost twice as likely to be physically inactive(43%) compared to those without a disability – this conversation between iconic figures in Paralympic sport will help us break down those barriers and encourage more women to take part in wheelchair rugby. As a mixed-gender sport, men and women participate on the same team – a classification system based on physical functionality and strength is used to ensure participation by players with different levels of function. Players are awarded a classification designation ranging from 0.5 to 3.5, with a maximum of 8.0 points on court at any time. Teams are awarded an additional 0.5 to their 8.0-point total for every female player that they have on court.

GBWR launches innovative 28 for 28 fundraising initiative

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Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby (GBWR) has launched a groundbreaking fundraising initiative – 28 for 28 – aimed at bringing 28 partners together to support the team on their journey to the LA28 Paralympic Games.

28 for 28 represents a unique and collaborative effort to garner support for GBWR, uniting partners in a shared mission to break down barriers and build bridges to advance inclusivity. The initiative aims to pool funds from multiple sources to maximize their impact and create a lasting legacy for wheelchair rugby.

Wheelchair rugby player, Jay Rumboldt speaking during 28 for 28 launch Credit: GBWR
Wheelchair rugby player, Jay Rumboldt speaking during 28 for 28 launch Credit: GBWR

GBWR CEO Jason Brisbane explains:

“It is our vision to be the showcase disability sport in Great Britain, but if we are to achieve our vision we need to think and act differently. This is an ambitious initiative that harnesses the collective power of organisations and individuals with a shared sense of responsibility to break down barriers and deliver opportunities for those with a disability so they can thrive.

“There is a disproportionate cost of living impact on the disabled population with the income gap between disabled and nondisabled population at 44% on average. Playing our sport at a high level is costly, requiring expensive equipment and typically weekend travel and accommodation costs. 28 for 28 will help us overcome some of these challenges so we can help people access the sport and develop a pipeline of world-class talent.”

Notable founding partners of the 28 for 28 initiative include England Rugby, Get Kids Going!, Allied Mobility, Socios.com Supports, Ascot Underwriting Holdings, the RFU Injured Players Foundation, and Tokio Marine Kiln. Their commitment and support lay the foundation for the success of this initiative which will fuel the future of wheelchair rugby in Great Britain.

Ascot Underwriting Holdings, a leading Lloyd’s of London insurer, hosted the launch of the 28 for 28 at their Fenchurch Street offices in London on what marked the six months to go to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

“28 for 28 is more than a sponsor badging exercise, members will be part of a true partnership where everyone benefits”,

Jason continues.

“Partner involvement not only supports an organisation’s ESG commitments by taking tangible action to support communities, it provides the opportunity through volunteering experiences to learn more about inclusion and how everyone can play a role in creating a truly inclusive society.”

 GBWR aims to build bespoke activations for each of the 28 for 28 members to ensure the partnership delivers for all sides. This includes valuable networking opportunities and insights into the tangible difference their investments are making. The GBWR community will also share stories, their lived experiences, and updates on the progress made possible by the generous support of the 28 for 28 partners.

Rugby Football Union Chief Executive Officer Bill Sweeney said:

“The RFU and England Rugby is delighted to be a partner of 28 for 28, rugby plays a vital role in bringing people and communities together and wheelchair rugby has huge potential for growth as well as supporting people with disabilities to live active lifestyles and thrive.  We share their ambition to become the showcase disability sport in the UK.”

Sebastien Dieguez said of Socios.com Supports’ involvement:

“We believe it is such a great sport to involve everyone, so when we heard about the opportunity to be part of 28 for 28 we jumped at the chance. It’s the perfect addition to our social impact programme which aims to enable inclusion and improved health in the community. We’re honoured to be part of this programme and look forward to seeing the sport continue to grow.”

Wheelchair rugby is the only mixed-gender Paralympic team sport which has grown five-fold since the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

GBWR ambassador Shaunagh Brown with GB athlete Aaron Phipps
GBWR ambassador Shaunagh Brown with GB athlete Aaron Phipps
Credit: GBWR

GB wheelchair rugby gold medallist Aaron Phipps said of the initiative:

“People watched us for first time in London and that started an amazing journey which saw two million people watch us win in Tokyo. Once you watch it you can’t take your eyes off it!

“We wouldn’t have taken gold without the support we received. Come along with us as we continue our journey. This is a great opportunity to make a huge difference to peoples’ lives. You will have a direct impact and improve lives in so many ways.”

To learn more about the 28 for 28 initiative and how to get involved, visit the official website at https://gbwr.org.uk/28for28/ or reach out via email at 28for28@gbwr.org.uk.

Paul Davies tribute

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“Paul Davies was one of the founding players of the South Wales Pirates which we set up in 1989, playing as a 0.5 During this time he competed in tournaments in Belgium, Holland and Switzerland. He also played a season for the Spartans. 

In 1996 he and Jon Nutman set up the Welsh Wheelchair Rugby Association. They organised the TSW Welsh International club tournaments in Cardiff in 1998 and 2000. 

He also contributed a huge amount to the Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby Association (as it was then), he served as both Secretary and Treasurer. 

He retired as a player and in 1997 became the Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby Manager, retiring after he had taken the team to Sydney 2000. Paul was instrumental in getting the World Class Performance Plan funding for the GB team which was funded from 1999 in the run up to Sydney. The funding gave a subsistence allowance to the team members and brought in sports science support, more competition abroad and some money for coaching and support staff. He dealt with partners at UK Sport and administered delivery. It is now known as UK Sport Lottery Funding. He got our foot in the door and GB has been funded on every Paralympic cycle bar after Rio. 

In 2001 he set up the GB Development Squad with Bob O’Shea and was the squad Manager from 2001-2003. 

He was awarded an MBE in 2011 for his services to Wheelchair Rugby and to other Army Veterans and injured rugby players, including representing the latter on the WRU Charitable Trust.“

 Keith Jones, GB wheelchair rugby Paralympian 1996 and 2000

CEO update – January 2024

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The year 2024 is off to a busy start. Our GB squad had their first camp of the year at the iconic St George’s Park. I was able to attend and see the team getting back into the swing of things after Christmas. It was great to witness many of the players from Talent promoted to the squad, and I look forward to seeing their ongoing development. With 8 months left until the 2024 Paralympics, the team continues to improve.

GB will compete in three international competitions ahead of the Paralympics, serving as opportunities to build towards the goal of another successful Paralympics.

Our league competition is also back in full swing and we are planning behind the scenes how we can raise the level of event presentation, and get to the point where we can successfully stream our games, and begin inviting spectators. Venues are critical to this, and myself and the team have been speaking with a number of new venues to determine the feasibility of using them going forward. We will keep you updated as this area develops.

Our 2024 Quad Nations went live on the 22nd of January. Being a midweek event due to venue availability, we understand it may be challenging for many of you to attend. However, with two evening games at 7 pm, I hope many of you will be able to come and see the team compete. With teams ranked 1, 3, 4, and 6 in the world, this may be one of our most competitive Quad Nations in years and will certainly be an exciting event from start to finish. Register your interest HERE.

Some of the GBWR team are heading to Glasgow for a workshop at the end of January with our new partner Allied Mobility. There, we will develop the plan for the year to maximise the partnership, driving growth and visibility for the sport.

Next month marks the launch event for our 28 for 28 Road to the L.A Paralympics fundraising campaign. If you know of any organisations that would like to hear more about how they can support GBWR, please put us in touch with them.

All the best,

Jason

GBWR CEO statement as disability minister scrapped

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The decision by this government to scrap a dedicated minister for disabled people sends a clear message that the 16 million people in the UK currently living with a disability are not a priority for them.

With increases in costs of living having a greater impact on those living with disabilities, it is unacceptable that the government chooses to not have someone solely dedicated to the interests of the disability community.

Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby will continue to advocate for inclusivity and support the disability community.

Jason Brisbane

CEO, GB Wheelchair Rugby

CEO update: November 2023

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The 23rd of November saw the launch our league partnership with Allied Mobility. This was followed by an in person launch at our Premiership weekend at Lilleshall on the 25th November. I’m excited to see what the impact of this partnership has on the recruitment of all types of members into out clubs over the coming years. It is challenging to know exactly what the drivers are of people coming to our clubs, but we are sure that the additional visibility across a targeted demographic will surely be a positive driver of new members to our clubs across the country. We are arranging a strategy day with Allied Mobility in early January to build out our content and event play for the year, and ensure we can drive this partnership to great success.

Quad Nations will be back in 2024 at the Welsh National Sports Centre. We are hugely excited to be bringing elite wheelchair rugby back to Cardiff. The event date will April 16th-18th with 7pm games on  the Tuesday and Wednesday night.  There were some real challenges in fitting the event into the right time of year around the GB calendar and venue availability, so we appreciate that some of you may disappointed that it isn’t at the weekend.  We are committed to the continuation of the WR23Euros legacy and thus decided to take a less favourable date to ensure we could bring elite wheelchair rugby back to Wales in 2024. We are searching for partners to support the event so please get in touch to find out more. More details on the event coming shortly.

GBWR announces partnership with Allied Mobility

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Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby (GBWR) is excited to announce a three-year partnership with Allied Mobility, Europe’s leading specialist in transport for people with limited mobility. The Allied Mobility Wheelchair Rugby: Fours and Allied Mobility WR5s leagues aim to promote inclusivity and expand the awareness of, and participation in, wheelchair rugby.

The three-year partnership represents a shared purpose to increasing participation and awareness, with the goal of enriching the lives of people with disabilities through sport. The partnership is set to begin today, 23 November 2023, just ahead of the Allied Mobility Wheelchair Rugby: Fours Premiership at Lilleshall from 25 to 26 November.

Allied Mobility is a market leader in transportation solutions for people with limited mobility. With over 40,000 wheelchair users and carers on its database, this new partnership will provide further opportunities to introduce wheelchair rugby to a wider audience.

Allied Mobility designs and manufactures its own unique range of wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs). It employs almost 700 people across the UK and produces around 8,000 vehicles annually. Their portfolio includes wheelchair accessible cars for family use, taxis, and minibuses for schools and care homes. In the United Kingdom, Allied Mobility provides more than half of all new wheelchair accessible cars, in collaboration with the Motability Scheme. Allied Mobility WAVs are also available in most European countries, through a network of specialised distribution partners.

The CEO of Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby, Jason Brisbane, expressed his excitement about the new sponsorship, saying, “This partnership is founded on a common goal of promoting awareness of, and participation in, wheelchair rugby. We’re thrilled to announce this partnership with Allied Mobility, uniting our shared goals and purpose of increasing accessibility and inclusivity for the disability community.”

Peter Facenna, managing director of Allied Mobility, commented: “We’re hugely excited to be working with GB Wheelchair Rugby. Sport provides a special opportunity for people to make friends, gain confidence, travel and find added purpose in their lives. It would be great if we can play a part in enabling even more wheelchair users to get involved in rugby, whether as players, coaches, volunteers or supporters.”

CEO update – September 2023

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The GB team travelled to Canada for a joint training camp with the Canadian team. This allowed us to continue developing the squad and implementing the new strategies and playing styles introduced after the Euros, putting us in the best possible situation in this cycle to prepare effectively for Paris.

The UK Sport LA 2028 investment process has begun. Our Performance Director Barry Mason and I have been meeting with our UK Sport performance advisor as we navigate through this process. While much of the strategy developed ahead of Tokyo remains relevant, the performance landscape has changed somewhat of the years. We look forward to developing a strategy that will further develop not only the GB squad, but our grassroots pathways to bring more talented athletes into the programme. .

Leicester Tigers clinched the 2023 WR5s season, winning the Premiership, thus achieving the ‘double,’ having previously won the Paralympic discipline’s Wheelchair Rugby: Fours league earlier in the summer. Help for Heroes emerged victorious in the Championship, while Penrith Pumas secured their first-ever League One division title, establishing themselves as an evolving club to watch for the future. The Welsh side, Dragons, finished atop League Two. With a record 23 teams participating in the WR5s league this year, the overall competition is thriving.

After a short break since last season, the 2023/24 Wheelchair Rugby: Fours league started this month with Division Two meeting at Fenton Manor. The season continues with Division Three early in October.

Development leagues have been running smoothly in the background for the past year, thanks to the three-year Middlesex Sports Foundation funding received last year. These leagues provide an environment for new members to learn wheelchair rugby and support their transition into the league. Several WR5s teams have enough players to form a Paralympic team, but they’ve been deterred by the higher entry costs, resulting from the fewer participating teams. A new Division Three in the Wheelchair Rugby: Fours league will be subsidised by the Middlesex Sports Foundation funding, serving as an entry point for these emerging Paralympic clubs and players.

Since the conclusion of the European Championship, our development team has been collaborating with Disability Sport Wales and the WRU, to agree plans of actions for the remainder of the year and beyond. We aim to release the plans for Wales very soon and are excited how the sport continues to grow.

As we continue to work on our diversity and inclusion action plan (DIAP) as part of the governance code, it has become evident that we need to integrate EDI practices throughout the organisation. According to our recent race report card by Sporting Equals, we are performing better than other sports across the board and organization. Nevertheless, our sport still lacks ethnic diversity. Establishing a shared understanding of EDI is the crucial first step and this will be initiated by the board meeting as a starting point, before being introduced to members and clubs. The very nature of our sport already makes us incredibly inclusive. We want to ensure that we can continue to reach as many people that are eligible for our sport as possible, and uncover some of the hidden barriers that may preventing more people from joining, or staying, with us.

 

IWRC 2023

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The 2023 International Wheelchair Rugby Cup will take place over five days from 18 to 22 October and it will bring together the top eight wheelchair rugby teams in the world for more information on the tournament click HERE.  The GB team, who are placed in Pool A, will face Australia, Canada, and Denmark in their initial matches. 

Watch all of the matches live streaming on YouTube – click HERE

GBWR Head Coach, Paul Shaw commented:  

“Following on from the European Championships, where we importantly secured our ticket to the Paralympic Games next year, the team have been working hard to continually improve.  The standard of competition has never been higher in wheelchair rugby and I am relishing the opportunity to see what these 12 athletes can achieve against some of the top teams in the world.” 

GBWR Head of Performance, Barry Mason commented:  

“We are thoroughly looking forward to the competition. The IWRC presents us with a rare opportunity to play the best teams in the World, alongside an invaluable opportunity for players to be internationally classified. These events don’t come around too often and will provide us with a vital performance marker as we continue our preparations towards Paris 2024.”

 

 Name  Classification  Club 
Stuart Robinson  3.5  West Coast WRC 
Aaron Phipps  3.5  London WRC 
Ollie Mangion  3.0  London WRC 
Jamie Stead  2.5  Leicester Tigers WRC 
Coral Batey  2.5  NE Bulls WRC 
Kieran Flynn  2.0  Leicester Tigers WRC 
Gavin Walker  2.0  Leicester Tigers WRC 
Nick Cummins  1.5  Leicester Tigers WRC 
Ryan Cowling  1.0  West Coast WRC 
Daniel Kellett  1.0  West Coast WRC 
Jack Smith  0.5  NE Bulls WRC
Jonathan Coggan  0.5  London WRC 

Schedule

All times in the below schedule are in BST.

Wednesday 18 October – pool matches

08:00 Australia 48-49 Canada
10:00 Great Britain 55-49 Denmark
12:00 Japan 52-36 New Zealand
14:00

Opening ceremony
16:00 France 51-53 United States

Thursday 19 October – pool matches

08:00 France 46-37 New Zealand
10:00 United States 50-55 Japan
14:00 Canada 50-46 Denmark
16:00 Australia 50-48 Great Britain

Friday 20 October – pool matches

08:00 USA 48-35 New Zealand
10:00 Great Britain 47-48 Canada
14:00 Australia 57-50 Denmark
16:00 Japan 49-50 France

Saturday 21 October – crossover matches

08:00 Great Britain 46-42 New Zealand
10:00 United States 58-57 Denmark
14:00 Canada 51-50 France
16:00 Japan 48-52 Australia

Sunday 22 October – placement matches

09:00 New Zealand 47-54 Denmark
12:00 Great Britain 45-43 United States
14:30 France 49-50 Japan
16:30

Closing ceremony
18:00 Canada 48-53 Australia
19:30

Medal ceremony

 

Final positions:

First place: Australia

Second place: Canada

Third place: Japan

Fourth place: France

Fifth place: Great Britain

Sixth place: United States

Seventh place: Denmark

Eighth place: New Zealand

German Nations Cup 2023

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The GB Talent team will travel to Frankfurt at the end of September to take part in the German Nations Cup 2023, competing against the national teams of Germany, Netherlands, and Brazil.

Our Performance Pathway Manager, Stuart McLindon commented:

“While our competitors will be using it as preparation for up coming international competitions, we see it as an opportunity to expose talent players to different playing styles and new opponents, for them to be stretched against high level opposition and for us to put into the practice the principles we’ve been working on since our successful trip to Poland in June.

The focus for the majority of this group of players is on being ready to compete for places for the LA 2028 cycle and competitions like the German Cup are a key part of players progression towards the elite squad.”

Name Classification Club
Faye West 3.5 West Country Hawks
Tyler Walker 3.0 Ospreys
Luke Collier 2.5 West Country Hawks
George Rogers 2.5 Solent Sharks
Joel Connor Saunders 2.0 London WRC
Josh Payne Gover 1.5 Solent Sharks
Harri Jenkins 1.5 West Country Hawks
Luke Wilson 1.0 Ospreys
Bruno Carrico 0.5 West Country Hawks

Schedule

The tournament will not be live streamed, however you can follow our social channels for the results.

Friday, 29 September 2023

Netherlands 51 – 37 GB Talent
Germany 56 – 47 GB Talent

Saturday, 30 September 2023

Brazil 59 – 43 GB Talent
Semi-final Brazil 58 – 47 GB Talent

Sunday, 1 October 2023

Bronze medal

Netherlands

55 – 41

 GB Talent