How a 'lifeguards and sharks' philosophy helped England win the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup

England's wheelchair rugby league team claimed back-to-back World Cup glory with a 50-38 victory over France in Australia, and an intriguing philosophy is what helped them over the line.

England went into the 2026 Rugby League World Cup as the defending champions after their triumph in 2022 over France.

That win on home soil four years ago marked their first World Cup victory since the inaugural Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup in 2008. Since then France won in 2013 and 2017, with England claiming the last two.

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Coming into the tournament, the world 'defence' was used a lot to describe the task ahead for England but that is something the side rejected as too passive.

Rather, after a surfing trip, they came up with their unique analogy which saw their focus turn to 'lifeguards' and 'sharks' as the two key tenants of how they would approach the game.

That notion moved their defence of the title into all-out attack, and sees them once again experiencing the ecstasy of being on top of the world.

"We had a really fun surfing lesson with the whole team," England star Jack Brown said.

"The analogy that came was that the lifeguards are there to protect and we wanted to protect each other like we like we've always said to protect.

"The lifeguard was kind of a slow down a little bit, feel it out, earn the right to play.

"We also had another call for the shark. So the shark was just going to attack and that was find an opportunity to attack if it was there.

"I think the winning balance was getting the balance right between being a lifeguard and the shark."

It was a way to change the narrative and execute in a way that took the pressure off England and placed it all on the teams that tried, and failed, to take the trophy out of their grasp.

"The narrative that we felt might be on us coming in was that we are here to defend, we are here to retain and we found that framing to be defensive," said head coach Tom Coyd.

"We have been world No 1 since November 2022 and we wanted to come in with an attacking mindset, with a hunter's mindset.

"We haven't spent the last four years talking about defending a World Cup so we weren't going to spend the last three weeks talking about it either.

"We wanted to prime the group to be forward thinking and when we did have the ball to be a shark and smell blood in the water, search out the opportunities, and look for a feeding frenzy.

"I think the way they executed that tonight was just outstanding."

Brown: This sport just keeps surprising me!

While going back-to-back in a World Cup is special for the whole England team, Brown is a unique case in that he has represented his country in all five Wheelchair Rugby League World Cups and is now a three-time world champion having taken part in five finals.

Back when he was just a teenager at the first in 2008, he never could have envisioned that 18 years later, he would be scoring the try of the tournament and a hat-trick in a performance to remember.

"I was 18 years old and I didn't know what was happening even two days on from what I was doing back then," Brown added.

"I have just been riding the rollercoaster of this sport and it has surprised me every single time.

"It has just been a beautiful thing to be part of and it just keeps surprising me the more we go along.

"This is another very, very, very happy surprise for me."