SINCE forming in February last year, Bradford Bulls’ Physical Disability Rugby League Team have continued to go from strength-to-strength.

Set up in partnership with the Bradford Bulls Foundation, the newly established side began training at the start of 2022, however the numbers were scanty with only three participants present at the time. Just under a year on, Bradford’s PDRL side boast around 20 first team members.

Following the success of England’s PDRL side who became the first-ever Physical Disability Rugby League World Cup champions after beating New Zealand in October’s final, Bradford’s Head Coach Mick Colborn hopes that more people in West Yorkshire will be encouraged to get involved with the sport.

Speaking to the T&A, Colborn said: “I’d love to think that England’s World Cup victory will help to encourage individuals within the area to participate in this great sport, and I think it will do that to be honest.

“The competition itself wasn’t advertised as much as the wheelchair or the women’s tournaments because it wasn’t an ‘official’ World Cup, but we now know that it will be an official tournament when it comes around next. At Bradford Bulls, we are hoping to have members of our team getting involved in that tournament whether it be players being selected for England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales.

“I went to watch several of the World Cup games in October in Warrington and I was extremely impressed with the standard, it was brilliant to see. The England squad were overwhelmingly strong and it makes for an exciting future.”

Bradford Bulls’ PDRL team was set up in February last year and in April the club were ready to take part in the biggest PDRL calendar to date.

Throughout 2022, the Eastmoor Dragons community club in Wakefield was a familiar and welcoming venue for the Festival format which has been central to the development of PDRL over the last five years.

Bradford Bulls joined the Physical Disability Super League – alongside the original pioneers Leeds Rhinos and Warrington Wolves, plus Wakefield Trinity, their neighbours Castleford Tigers and Wigan Warriors.

At each Festival, each team played two fixtures – and by the end of the season each of the six teams played the other five twice, culminating in a Finals Day Festival.

The speed at which Bradford Bulls have progressed as a PDRL team has left Head Coach Colburn overjoyed.

He said: “It’s been an amazing year. The first day we started in February, we only had three players and by the end of the season which was in September, we had around 19 or 20 players on the books.

“We had a cracking season and we were able to show some teams who started in 2019, what rugby is all about. We shocked a lot of teams to be honest. A lot of sporting teams talk about goals and projects but we do have one for this upcoming season, and that is to win the PDRL trophy. We feel like we’ve come a long way in only a year and we’ve shown our quality on the pitch.”