Saints celebrate wheelchair rugby membership status

The club says achieving Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby membership status is "a significant milestone"

A rugby union club is celebrating after its wheelchair rugby team was officially given membership status by a governing body.

Northampton Saints said it had become one of only six clubs nationwide to successfully pass Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby’s (GBWR) membership process and receive official accreditation.

The process involved establishing policies for health and safety, anti-bullying, anti-doping and safeguarding, along with a code of conduct for senior players, junior players and parents.

"It was a real team effort," said Saints wheelchair rugby head coach Jamie Higgins.

He said: "It shows that we are running the club through best practice. We’ve got everything in place to run the club for our players and participants and the local community that is engaging in our programme.

"The biggest thing for us now is around player recruitment, we really want to grow our junior programme.

"The numbers have dropped off slightly since the changes in eligibility to play, and we want to encourage more junior participation now – players aged eight to 17."

The team is next in competitive action on 24 August with matches against Norfolk Knights and Coventry Stampede in a Midlands Development League leg at the University of East Anglia.