Rugby League World Cup: England Wheelchair's Adam Rigby hopes the tournament will help the sport progress

Tom Coyd’s side face Wales in the semi-finals at EIS Sheffield on Sunday afternoon (2.30pm).

Rigby, who also plays for Wigan Warriors and was involved in the inaugural Wheelchair World Cup, believes the team spirit in the England camp can be seen through their performances.

He said: “Having the wheelchair game running alongside the men’s and the women’s will hopefully push the sport forward so we can be real pioneers.

“We want to increase participation at club level and in domestic leagues, getting more people down to our training sessions.

“Obviously we’ve been playing in London, and it’s way outside of the heartlands of the sport

“We spoke to people down there who haven’t watched rugby league, nevermind wheelchair rugby league, so it’s increasing the audience as a whole.

“We’re heading back up to Sheffield this weekend, where we’ll train and make sure our connections are still on point, just to get our timing off to a tee before we face Wales.

“It’s been great in camp, all the boys are having a real laugh. We’re so well bonded and so connected, people have started finishing each other’s sentences, which is getting a little bit concerning.

“I’m loving the atmosphere. You can see the connections are there on the pitch.

“The scorelines are a great thing, but the way we’ve bonded will really show in the next stages of the competition.

“We will really push through, sticking to the game plan and not going off course, to hopefully get where we want to be.”