Australian Steelers through to the Gold Medal match of the 2025 Santos Wheelchair Rugby World Challenge TODAY

press pack

For immediate release | June 1 2025

• The 2025 Santos Wheelchair Rugby World Challenge (WRWC) finals TODAY Sunday 1 June has culminated in, an Australia vs Netherlands final.
  • The World Challenge, hosted in Adelaide, is the largest wheelchair rugby competition in the world in 2025.
  • The competition has marked the first time the Australian Steelers have competed on home soil since 2018.
  • There are 6 countries competing in the competition: Australia, New Zealand, Canada Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany.
• Sunday’s final match also marks Australia’s first female Steelers athlete Shae Graham’s 100^th game for the team.
• The World Challenge gold medal game will begin at 2:15pm Adelaide local time.
• Running alongside the WRWC is the existing domestic competition, the National Championships, which sees states compete against each other across 2 divisions, joined by the Chungnam providence of South Korea, playing across 2 Divisions
  • The Division 1 final will be between the Suncorp Queensland Cyclones and New South Wales Gladiators.
  • The Division 2 final will be between the South Australia Sharks and the Australian Capital Territory Buccaneers.
• Limited tickets are still available for finals day, buy yours now and help fill the stands with green and gold to cheer on our Steelers: https://www.wheelchairrugby.com.au/tickets

Quick stats about the overall event:

• Over 60 Aus players across the whole event
• 65 international players
• 18 female athletes across the whole event
• The Australian Steelers have had 4 debuts in this competition (Tai Martin-Page, Lilliana Prucha, Damien Mortaud, Conor Tweedy), and half of the team has debuted for the Steelers in 2025 (Jayden Jackson and Cooper Blackwood made their debuts earlier this year)
• 40 of games across whole event over 4 days
• 16 teams across the whole event
  • 6 playing in the World Challenge international games, 5 in National Championship Division 1, 3 in National Championship Division 2, 2 in the Juniors Division.

Australian Steelers photos: Available to download

Please credit Wheelchair Rugby Australia and Joep Buijs Photography.

Video footage:

Australian Steelers content across the competition, focusing on day three

General 2025 Santos Wheelchair Rugby World Challenge event VNRs: Day one, two and three

• The 2025 Santos Wheelchair Rugby World Challenge (WRWC) finals TODAY Sunday 1 June has culminated in, an Australia vs Netherlands final.
  • The World Challenge, hosted in Adelaide, is the largest wheelchair rugby competition in the world in 2025.
  • The competition has marked the first time the Australian Steelers have competed on home soil since 2018.
  • There are 6 countries competing in the competition: Australia, New Zealand, Canada Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany.
• Sunday’s final match also marks Australia’s first female Steelers athlete Shae Graham’s 100^th game for the team.
• The World Challenge gold medal game will begin at 2:15pm Adelaide local time.

SARAH ABBOTT 0409092255