A new rule around interchanges introduced at the 2026 Wheelchair World Cup is likely to become a permanent feature of the game after its success at the tournament in Wollongong.
Those who watched this year’s eight-nation IRL tournament at WIN Entertainment Centre, won by England 50-38 against France, would have noticed officials putting their hands on their heads during games in an ‘M’ shape.
This signifies a ‘mechanical’ issue with a chair and if the problem can’t be fixed in 30 seconds – for example, swapping out a blown tyre for a new one – then an unusual-looking interchange card is signalled on the sideline.
The card has a hammer and a screwdriver on it and acts the same as the HIA card, used in both the 13-player field game and the five-player wheelchair game.
“What we didn’t want to do was instantly send people off the court because that slows the game down,” said David Butler, Head of Competitions with the IRL.
“If after 30 seconds they can’t repair the damage to the chair then they get the mechanical signal.”
The hammer card means a free interchange, so the team has five minutes to triage the chair – at the workshop set up courtside with two mechanics to fix wheels, frames or spokes.
If the problem can’t be fixed in that time period, then the team surrenders the free interchange.
Butler is also Secretary of the IRL’s Wheelchair Advisory Group. And in Wollongong he was the head of match officials.
“Obviously with a couple of the days here in Wollongong we had four games on, so we had to help teams and officials keep to the schedule around timings,” Butler said on why the new interchange card was introduced.
“Broadcasters were also very important – five-minute delays in games leads to all sorts of problems - so we discussed before the World Cup how we could do this.
A policy was drawn up and that complements, or sits alongside, the established laws for the tournament.
“What we’ll do after this tournament is that the IRL has a Wheelchair Advisory Group. We’ll look at the laws and see if anything needs reviewing.
“It might need some refinement but I think overall it has worked pretty well here.”
The response from coaches, players, and referees to the hammer card has also been canvassed.
“The feedback in general is that it has maintained the pace of games and they recognise that five minutes – that’s real time and not game time – is a reasonable amount of time,” Butler said.
“And there’s value in that free interchange allowing you to get the player and his chair back on the court.
“The teams have adjusted well and it’s been quite a slick operation.”
During the World Cup there were two HIAs when the human driving the chair needed to leave the court for assessment and at least a dozen mechanical interchanges to fix the actual chair.
There are eight interchanges per team in wheelchair rugby league, the same as the field game.
