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2009 ‘A Great Year’ For Irish Wheelchair Rugby

2009 ‘A Great Year’ For Irish Wheelchair Rugby

2009 was a great year for Irish rugby. It was also an amazing year of the Irish Wheelchair rugby team who, as the only amateur side, performed exceptionally well in the European Championships.

There are two injured rugby union players now involved with the Irish wheelchair rugby team – Garrett Culliton and Craig McMillan.

Both players were successful in their selection as members of the national squad for the 2009 European Wheelchair Rugby Championships and performed exceptionally well on court throughout the tournament. 

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They both are extremely thankful of the support which the IRFU Charitable Trust has shown to them to enable their progress within the sport to as high a level as is currently possible.

The Irish team qualified to compete at this year’s European finals was a result of winning the European Championship qualifiers in February of this year, beating France and Czech Republic respectively.

The Ireland squad travelled to Copenhagen in Denmark on October 11, which turned out to be the beginning of a successful tournament.

Ireland went into the Championships seeded 11th and their objective was to finish in a position which would automatically qualify them for the next Championships in 2011. 

The team gelled well and succeeded in their objective, they finished in a respectable 10th place out of 12 sides. This was not bad as they were the only amateur team competing at the tournament. 

The Irish squad now will be focusing towards the 2011 European Championships in the hope of qualifying for the 2014 World Championships and the ultimate goal of the 2016 Paralympic Games.

Craig McMillan