Road to Rio

Congratulations to the final 12 athletes who have been selected to represent Paralympics GB in Rio and commiserations to those in the squad who did not make it this time. Competition for places was strong but that is a good position for us to be in and one that will only increase as the benefits of our performance system, development squad, focus on coach development and the growth of our game takes root. We can be proud of where we have come from since the last games in 2012 and where we are going! Hopefully many of you will have tuned in to the live streaming from Japan and watched BT GB progress through the Japan Para Wheelchair Rugby tournament to emerge eventual Silver medallists. Th...
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Storm & Gaelic Triumph & Looking Ahead to Rio Selection

Storm with the BT Cup, presented by partner Roma Sports There is a real sense of energy and momentum with our sport at the moment and long may it continue! The weekend was really excellent – a very high quality of rugby, a good venue and a well organised and supported event delivered by the GBWR staff; thank you to them and to the many volunteers and officials. It brought the domestic season to an end on a high note. Cong...
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It’s been a great week…

Last night crowned a really great week for us. We saw Ayaz win the prestigious Muslim News Award for Sports Excellence presented to him by Baroness Manzoor CBE. We hear and read so much about difficulties around community cohesion and about Muslims being viewed with suspicion but I have always been really proud that in our sport no matter who you are, or where you come from, you are welcomed into a very special community. Ayaz is not just a great role model for the Muslim community, or for the disabled, he is a great role model full stop! – as indeed many of our athletes, volunteers and Members are. We have much to celebrate and much to contribute to the wider community and it is no surpri...
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Bulls Top Division 2, Canada & Sweden Arrive for Tri-Nations & Bring on the Spinal Unit Games!

The final weekend of Division 2 of this season’s Super Series saw Bulls take the top spot. It was not without a fight though and Bulls lost their first game this season to Burn. There were some tight games and some different looking teams from the earlier rounds. Ospreys were up against it without Stuart Robinson who was training with the GB Invictus team – congratulations to him on making the squad. Final positions at the end of the season are: 1. Bulls; 2.Canterbury; 3. Burn; 4. Ospreys; 5. Gloucester; 6. Hawks. So with that we see Bulls qualifying for promotion to Division 1 next season and the top 4 teams going on to the BT National Championships in Sheffield in 2 weeks time where...
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Lots Going On this Month

There is no loss of momentum as we near the end of year 3 of our current sports business plan. I have mentioned before that we are deep into preparing new 4 year investment plans in the hope that we can once again achieve successful funding from our principal funders, UK Sport, the Lottery and Sport England. We have already submitted our Tokyo proposal to UK Sport and are expecting some early feedback in May though it will not be until post Rio that we know whether we have been successful in achieving future funding. Sport England will not be publishing their funding criteria until around June and so although we are already thinking about this we will be putting together our submission over ...
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Super Series News

We are now well into this season’s Super Series tournament. Last weekend saw Division 3 in action with Liverpool RGC piling on some big scores against the opposition. They now share the top Division 3 league spot with Stoke Mandeville – both on 6 points. Next weekend we move to Stoke on Trent where Division 1 will play their second series. Storm currently top this division with 10 points but Crash are closing with 8, so expect some exciting rugby. It’s a few weeks before Division 2 compete again but Bulls currently lead here on 30 points, with Canterbury on 24 and Ospreys on 22 so lots to play for yet. It is really great to see the improvement in the quality of the competition as well ...
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