Queensland Wheelchair Rugby League reveals City v Country teams

An intriguing City versus Country battle awaits after Queensland Wheelchair Rugby League revealed the teams for the critical state team selection trial on March 2.

Townsville Sports Precinct will play host to the match, with each side boasting four members of Queensland's victorious Wheelchair State Challenge team from 2023.

Adam Tannock, who was player of the match in the interstate clash, and Gage Ives are the two players unavailable for the 2024 campaign.

Queensland coach Jack Brown and assistant coach Cameron Sullivan will select the squad to take on New South Wales later this year following the City versus Country contest.

Both sides contain a number of players relatively unknown to their opposition, making the ability to adapt key to the result and impressing the selectors according to QWRL interim chairperson and Country player-coach Zac Schumacher.

"The City team... there's a few names I don't know in there, so it's going to be interesting to work out pretty quickly as a player-coach what they will be doing and how to find a way to pick up any weak points or things we need to do in defence," he said.

Schumacher said the Country team was excited to welcome Jeff Wright back into the representative arena, having previously represented Queensland in 2017 alongside some talented emerging players.

He said the preparations were gathering momentum as players new to this level formed combinations with their more experienced counterparts.

"We're just focusing on defence and combinations between players. A couple of players haven't played with one another before at the higher level," he said.

City player-coach Shaun Harre said he felt his side was in a good place with their fundamentals, praising the support of fellow Wheelaroo James Hill in building the culture within the City squad in the lead-up.

The team features two cross-code recruits from wheelchair basketball - Dylan Gawthorne and Shannon Buxton - who have made the switch and a speedy transition to rugby league thanks to their typically "nifty" chair craft.

"They've come to our come-and-try sessions and performed really well in those enough to be able to put themselves in the frame for selection... so we're pretty keen to unleash them," Harre said.

City's final training session on Saturday coincides with a come-and-try day at South Pine Sports Complex, Brendale from 2pm until 5pm.

The City versus Country match, being held at Townsville Sports Precinct on Saturday, March 2 kicks off at 3pm.