The Wheelchair Rugby World Challenge, a new event on the global wheelchair rugby calendar, will see the all-conquering Australian Steelers play at home for the time since 2018 against 5 of the world’s best! The new competition will run alongside the existing Wheelchair Rugby National Championship and a newly introduced junior’s division ensuring Adelaide will now host the largest wheelchair rugby event in the world in 2025.

Event Details

Dates: Thursday, 29 May - Sunday, 1 June 2025

Time: Doors open from 9am daily!

Location: Netball SA Stadium

Don’t know anything about wheelchair rugby? Is it your first time attending the Nationals? Here are the 8 things you need to know before the first tip off!

1. Wheelchair Rugby is a full contact team sport where males and females play on the same team.

2. Australia are the reigning World Cup champions and currently ranked 2nd in the World. The Steelers are the most successful Paralympic team sport in Aussie history. 

3. The sport was originally called “Murderball” due to the aggressive nature of the game. It is a contact sport where collisions between wheelchairs form a major part of the game. Wheelchair rugby combines elements of rugby, basketball and handball. 

4. Wheelchair Rugby games are played across 4 quarters of 8 minutes on a regulation hardwood basketball court using a soft volleyball.

5. Wheelchair Rugby is played with 4 players on court for each team with aim being to carry the ball across the opponents’ goal line to score a point. Players have 40 seconds to do this.

6. To be eligible to play, athletes must be quadriplegic (tetraplegic). The degree to which this quad-impairment effects the athlete, leads into classification. A total of 8.0 points are allowed on the court at once and must be split up between the 4 athletes on court. Each athlete is assigned a classification based on functionality of their physical ability with 0.5 being less functional and 3.5 being most functional. Female players offer teams an addition to this 8.0 cap on court based on their classification (female’s with a 0.5 - 1.5 offer an extra 0.5 on court, while those with a 2.0 - 3.5 classification offer an extra 1.0 on court).

7. Running alongside the existing National Championship, and the new junior’s division, this is the biggest wheelchair rugby event in the world for 2025.

8. You can either watch all the action live at Netball SA Stadium or catch all the matches on Foxtel and Kayo in Australia. If you live outside of Australia, don’t worry, we have you covered to! International streaming options will be available and announced closer to the event!

Photo credit to Stephen Tremain