England wheelchair rugby league squad: Tom Coyd calls up Luis Domingos

Luis Domingos – a Portugal wheelchair basketball international – has been called into England’s wheelchair rugby league national performance squad.

Domingos, who plays club rugby for Wheelchair Championship side Castleford Tigers, is one of three uncapped players in a 17-strong squad hoping to win places on an autumn tour of Australia.

Hull FC’s Josh Edwards and Halifax Panthers’ Finlay O’Neill, with Domingos, are among nine players added to the initial list of eight who were selected in May.

From that group, head coach Coyd will pick a final squad of 10 to fly to Australia in October for a four-match tour.

That tour will culminate in a two-Test series against Australia on 30 October and 2 November, with both matches in Gold Coast.

They will warm up with two matches against state sides – New South Wales in Sydney on 24 October and Queensland on the Sunshine Coast on 27 October.

Domingos played wheelchair rugby league for Leeds before switching to basketball, then returned to join Castleford, and scored the winning try as they beat North Wales Crusaders to win the Wheelchair Challenge Trophy – for second-tier clubs – in April.

Coyd said: “He’s a really exciting athlete in his chair and is now keen to test himself in wheelchair rugby league again after representing Portugal in basketball – quite a coup for our programme.”

O’Neill helped Halifax beat London Roosters in last Saturday’s Wheelchair Challenge Cup final – and all three uncapped call-ups made an impact in two recent trials at the University of York.

Two more members of Halifax’s cup-winning side – Nathan Holmes and captain-coach Wayne Boardman – are among the nine added to Coyd’s squad.

The other four to join up are Roosters pair Mason Billington and Jason Owen, Edwards’s Hull FC team-mate Tristan Norfolk and Sheffield Eagles’ Chris Haynes.