O'Neill earns England wheelchair rugby World Cup place — SkimNews
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- Finlay O'Neill dislocated a knee playing rugby league at 16, and extensive tests found shallow kneecaps and hypermobility; after family encouragement he switched to wheelchair rugby league with Halifax Panthers and, over three years, rose into the England squad.
- England selected O'Neill, 21, in coach Tom Coyd's 10-player squad for the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup in Wollongong from 30 October to 13 November, alongside Halifax teammates Jack Brown and Rob Hawkins; he is one of five England debutants.
- O'Neill earned his first England call-up in August 2025 and played in the Ashes series in Australia that October and November; England open their campaign against Wales on Friday at 04:30 BST, then the USA and Ireland, with France, Scotland, New Zealand and hosts Australia in the other pool. He combines the sport with a job at a local supermarket.
- Halifax Panthers swept the domestic honours for a second successive season with O'Neill, Brown and Hawkins in their ranks; Brown and Hawkins were part of the side that beat France in the 2022 World Cup final, which O'Neill watched on television.
- Jack Brown and Rob Hawkins know how O'Neill holds the ball, running under or around him without on-pitch talk, with O'Neill describing himself as a playmaker who puts players through gaps rather than one who breaks through to score tries.
- Wheelchair rugby league, developed in France, is fully inclusive — five-a-side, six tackles, 80 minutes, with up to two non-disabled and three disabled players on the pitch — and differs from Paralympic wheelchair rugby, a four-a-side, eight-minute-quarter contact game with no tackling and a classification cap of 8.0 points.
Why it matters: England's 10-player squad includes five World Cup debutants, with the title defence opening against Wales on Friday at 04:30 BST. Halifax teammates Jack Brown and Rob Hawkins, both 2022 final winners, give the 21-year-old O'Neill a ready-made passing link after two successive domestic title sweeps.
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