Wheelchair rugby league booming ahead of England v France Test says Leeds Rhinos coach

Simpson was a non-playing substitute when England, captained by Rhinos’ Tom Halliwell who scored the last-minute winning try, pipped France 28-24 in front of a record crowd of 4,526 in Manchester last November.

Thanks to live television coverage, the wheelchair code captured the public’s imagination throughout last year’s tournament and Simpson, who has hung up his wheels to focus on coaching, insisted there is no sign of enthusiasm beginning to fade.

England and France meet again at Leeds’ First Direct Arena on Sunday, with ticket sales already well into four figures, according to the RFL. Simpson, whose side were beaten by Wigan Warriors in October’s Betfred Wheelchair Super League Grand Final, revealed: “There’s been a 364 per cent increase in participation this year at Leeds alone.

“We played a friendly against Bradford earlier in the year and put out a full women’s team, we’ve got a junior team and a community side and players are buying their own chairs. The Grand Final loss was hard to take, but bringing those guys on is what it’s about for me. We could win every week and if we haven’t got anyone coming through, it’s pointless.”

Simpson accepts new champions are good for the sport as a whole, at the end of a year when Catalans Dragons won the Challenge Cup - also against Leeds - and Rhinos topped the Super League table.

“I believe in this game and I want this game to be competitive, but we are not going to roll move and let it happen,” he insisted. “Other people have to come and take it off us and that’s exactly what happened in the Grand Final. It does make the game stronger, we have got three different teams that have won the things on offer this year and that puts the game in a good place.”

Seeing other teams lifting trophies also makes Rhinos want to bounce back in 2024. Simpson stressed: “We got the league leaders’ [trophy] this year, for the fourth time in a row and that is something I am really proud of. It shows the level of consistency in the team.

“In terms of Super League, we’ve only been around since 2019 so to get the league leaders’ every year is great, but obviously we’ll be coming back next year and we want to go again. I’m hoping then we will have some of our community players and some of the new players we’ve got will start filtering on to the big stage as well.”

Halliwell and Leeds teammates Josh Butler and Nathan Collins are in England’s squad for Sunday’s Test. Tickets are available from the RFL, priced £10 for adults, £7.50 concessions and £5 for under-16s.