I sat down over the weekend to watch the latest in BBC Two's excellent "Storyville" series of documentaries with more than a passing interest.
As a lifelong fan of rugby league and parasport (think of me as a British, less funny version of Adam Hills), the look behind the scenes at the rivalry between England and France both on the wheelchair rugby league pitch and off it during last year's World Cup promised to be excellent viewing.
What I didn't expect was for it to be so thought provoking about disability, the role sport plays in social inclusion and life in general.
For those who aren't aware, wheelchair rugby league is to all intents and purposes rugby league, just played on a smaller pitch, indoors, five-a-side and with everyone strapped into a wheelchair. The collisions can be brutal, the skill sublime and the drama every bit as intense as any other form of the game. It's a wheelchair-accessible version of the Physical Disability rugby league (PDRL) that Adam Hills produced his own documentary about for Channel 4,
Where wheelchair rugby league differs from many other parasports however, is that you don't need to have a recognised disability to play it. In its nearest Paralympic equivalents (such as wheelchair rugby - a very different game more akin to the Murderball you might have played as a kid - or wheelchair basketball) participants are graded on the basis of their disability and those gradings determine which players you can have on court at any one time.
In rugby league on wheels however, you don't need to have any degree of disability. To quote former England player and current Leeds Rhinos coach James Simpson (who lost both legs above the knee to an IED while serving in Afghanistan), "the chair is the leveller". Teams are restricted to two non-disabled players on the pitch at any one time. It truly is a game that anyone can play.
The origins of the game however lie very much in parasport. It was developed in France as a game purely for people with disabilities, but it has evolved into a sport for all, much to their chagrin. The French view the introduction of able-bodied players into the sport as being a safety risk and something that will deter those with more significant disabilities from taking up the game.
"The chair is the leveller" though, right? Well, not entirely say the French. Players without disabilities have better chair control and can generate greater speed and force into collisions as well as being more evasive. The documentary showed the effect of that evolution on players like veteran England international Wayne Boardman. A T4 paraplegic (essentially paralysed from the nipples down), Boardman found his time on the pitch at the World Cup severely limited, as without lower body and core function his chair mobility isn't as good as others in the modern game with a less severe (or no) degree of disability.
While Boardman himself is phlegmatic about the way the game has changed, the French see that as unacceptable and excluding disabled athletes. On a number of occasions during the tournament, France coach Sylvain Crismanovich expressed those concerns loudly and at length in media interviews.
To the English however, this comes across as an element of sour grapes. France had won the previous two World Cups and their domination of the sport was coming under threat from an England side featuring superstars of the wheelchair game such as Jack Brown.
Brown's story illustrates the quandary. His brother Harry lost both legs as an infant and grew up as a wheelchair user. When Harry initially took up wheelchair basketball, Jack was coaxed from the sidelines to give it a go alongside him and the pair went on to be part of the fledgling England rugby league team. Harry eventually moved on to play wheelchair basketball professionally and has won a Paralympic medal with Team GB - a route Jack couldn't have taken as a non-disabled player. Within wheelchair rugby league, Jack Brown is an instantly recognisable icon. A winner of the Golden Boot as the world's best player in 2020, his speed and chair control allied to his flamboyant nature make him compulsive viewing.
Does the sport want to lose players like Brown, or England captain Tom Halliwell whose foot injury as a teenager left him a temporary wheelchair user and who fell in love with the game during that period? If it were to become "disabled only", who determines the degree of disability that is permissible? Is England's Nathan Collins - who has dwarfism, but had played the running game growing up - sufficiently disabled to meet the criteria the French want to reimpose? Or should it only be those who are forced to use a wheelchair in their day to day life?
These are questions with no easy answers for administrators. The speed, impacts and skill of wheelchair rugby league are what make it compulsive viewing for live and television audiences. The final of the World Cup in Manchester last year drew a crowd some lower league professional football teams would be happy with and interest is growing through excellent coverage both on the BBC and Sky Sports.
Setting aside the inclusion argument, the documentary also showed the role that the sport can have in helping individuals cope with life-changing injuries. Ironically given the arguments above, probably best exemplified by wheelchair rugby pioneer and French international Giles Clausell.
Now aged 60, Clausell was a highly-rated rugby union player in France when he lost his left leg above the knee in a road accident. He spoke movingly of waking up in hospital and considering throwing himself out of the window, thinking his chances of a top-level sporting career were over, and what being able to play wheelchair rugby league has done for him in terms of his life post-accident. A similarly emotional story emerged from England's Seb Bechara, another lower-leg amputee as a result of a road traffic accident at the age of 18 who has gone on to win a World Cup, win the 2022 Golden Boot, be a professional musician and was one of the media stars of England's campaign, even appearing on Greg James's Radio 1 show.
Growing up in France having moved there as a child, Bechara found a mentor in the older Clausells when the youngster first joined the Catalans Dragons wheelchair team. The emotional bond the two share was clear in the scenes after the hooter in the World Cup final.
Neither Clausells nor Bechara are full-time wheelchair users, but wheelchair rugby league has played a huge part in both their lives. It has enabled both of them to play rugby league to the very highest level as well as becoming highly visible examples to others who may be facing up to a recently-acquired disability that it is possible to still be involved in the sport. It would be a shame if stories like those two, Jack Brown, James Simpson and others were to be lost to factionalism when the sport is finally breaking into the mainstream.
Made Of Steel remains available on BBC iPlayer. Even if you have no interest in sport, I'd recommend you give it a watch.
