This sporting worklife

Adam Rigby is on a mission to take the growing sport of wheelchair rugby league out of the heartlands of the North West and make it nationwide. He talks about balancing the needs of sport and work

I first got involved in wheelchair rugby league through a friend of mine. I go to church in Wigan, and one of my friends who used to go as well saw me in my chair and asked if I like rugby league, which happened to be my favourite sport and the only one I watched. He asked if I’d ever thought about wheelchair rugby, which was something I’d never even heard of at the time.

I was invited down to train with Wigan and worked my way up through the ranks. That was back in 2006, and I’ve been playing ever since.

I now play with the England wheelchair rugby league team, and we’ve been really successful, it’s been brilliant. We went to the inaugural wheelchair rugby league World Cup in Australia in 2008, where we played five and won five and subsequently won the World Cup, which was a brilliant and memorable experience.

Wheelchair rugby league is a completely different sport to the more common form of wheelchair rugby, which is also known as Murderball. Wheelchair rugby league follows all the conventional rules of the game you’ll see in the rugby Super League.

The only real difference is that there are no scrums, and all kicking is done by hand. Matches are 40 minutes each way, the same as the regular game, and we play with a rugby ball, although it is scaled down to a size 4 as opposed to a regular size 5 as it is easier to catch and hold with one hand.

We train regularly – at Wigan we train every Tuesday and Sunday, while for England training we get emailed and just have to turn up! Training sessions can be in Wigan, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds – anywhere in the North West really.

We’ve recently been doing taster sessions elsewhere in the country, taking the game to clubs, and trying to grow the sport nationally really.

I am studying part-time at college, and also work part-time as a medical technician for the Ambulance Service.

College are brilliant in terms of my rugby, they class it as a normal absence because it’s seen as representing my country so there’s no pressure from that side of things.

The next England match is this October over in France. We’re hoping to keep on winning and hoping to make the sport as big as we can.

• Adam Rigby was talking to Paul Carter