Lewis King is the new England wheelchair rugby league captain and will lead the national team in Australia this October.
He will also lead the London Roosters in their first Super League Grand Final in Manchester against Halifax Panthers.
For rugby league, formed when 22 northern clubs broke away from the RFU in 1895, King is an historic success story for London.
The 2023 Wheels of Steel winner knows he stands out, too.
King said: “My accent stands out when I’m around anyone in rugby league.
“When I’m up and down the M1 and M6 every weekend, you realise how big rugby league is in the North.”
Outsider King was introduced to league through a patient at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, as he adapted after sustaining partial paralysis.
His life was saved by 21-hour emergency surgery on a spinal blood clot at King’s College Hospital, and King was clear that his priorities changed afterwards.
He said: “It took me six months to a year to come to terms with my injury.
“I think that if you set your mind to anything, you can achieve anything.
“I’m always setting myself little goals every few weeks. If you win all those little goals, you’ll achieve the big reward.
“I never thought like that before my spinal injury, I was working Monday to Friday as a plasterer and out with my mates on the weekend.”
The 40-year-old’s growth is closely connected to his surgeon Daniel Walsh and wife Ellie, with his achievements after paralysis even making it to where his disability journey began.
King said: “When I told Ellie I was England captain she just started crying.
“She’s always pushed me to do things that I thought I wouldn’t be able to do as someone with a spinal injury.
“I went to see Mr Walsh, he said the patients at King’s College Hospital were watching the 2022 World Cup and that he told everyone he operated on me.”
Named in the 2025 Wheelchair Super League Dream Team, his focus was primarily on a Grand Final, the Roosters looking to win their first Super League title and trophy as a club.
London will meet Halifax Panthers at Belle Vue on 28 September, marking their second final against the Panthers this season.
They lost 46-24 against the Yorkshire side their on their maiden Challenge Cup final appearance earlier in the year, then played out a 40-40 draw in the Super Leaguer regular season followed by a 36-28 loss in the play-offs.
The only defeats for the Barking-based Roosters this campaign have come against Panthers and King cut a determined figure ahead of the crucial finale.
He said: “I’ve already started thinking about words I want to say to the team – ‘Trust each other, believe in each other and believe we can win that game’.
“It’s about being composed and sticking to Roosters rugby: being patient, disciplined, getting to the end of our set.
“I know that other teams hate playing against us because we’re so relentless.
“Building a team from scratch from 2022, you must be patient. It takes a few years to build connections in the team.
“The first couple of years we used to look for each other on the pitch. When you build that trust, you play your best rugby.”
The opportunity to lead an England squad into an Ashes series was still not far from his mind, however.
A two-test series against the Australian Wheelaroos is preceded by tour matches against state sides Queensland and New South Wales, only a year before a Rugby League World Cup defence down under, dials up the pressure on late October.
The Wheelaroos are a somewhat unknown opponent, with their standards likely improving from previous meetings due to greater investment – something the international Golden Boot finalist admitted.
King said: “We are expecting tougher opposition, we’ll see that in Queensland, New South Wales, and the Australia squad.
“They’ve got their mini-league setup, they’re competing.
“They’ll want to prove a point. We’re going over there as world number ones, world champions.
“We don’t get to look at Australia often and we have to be weary of that.
“The preparation for the World Cup started the first training session after we won the World Cup. We need to prove why we are number one.”
Feature image: Free to use from Pixabay
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