Limerick pair, Ballingarry’s Maurice Noonan and James McCarthy of Clareview, will represent Ireland at the upcoming 2026 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup in Australia.
The sport is a fast, physical and highly tactical game played on a 40 x 20 metre court with five players per team using sports wheelchairs.
Teams can also be mixed gender, making it a unique and highly inclusive form of rugby league.
It is a first World Cup for Maurice and a second for James.
From a developing sport here just a few years ago, Ireland’s rise is one of rapid development and the team currently sits third behind England and France in the world rankings.
Ireland enter the stage on the back of three Celtic Cup wins in as many seasons.
“To be honest, it’s a huge personal achievement,” said Maurice. “To represent one’s country at the highest possible level is surreal. It’s great that James is so close to me here in Limerick, and we have worked very well with the rest of the squad over the last while, and feel that we are in a good position heading Down Under.”
“Our goal, of course, is for outright success, but once we reach our potential on the court it will be satisfactory.”
Both players have recently featured for Munster, winners of the Inter-provincial Wheelchair Hurling Championship.
Ireland are grouped with Wales (November 3rd), England (November 6th) and the United States, who are first-up in WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong (south of Sydney along the Grand Pacific Drive) on Friday, 2am Irish time.
The other group in this eight-nation event consists of Australia, France, New Zealand and Scotland.
The semi-finals/finals are listed for mid-November.
All fixtures will be televised live on Premier Sports.