Wheel Blacks: Bodies on the Line | show | 2024 | Official Trailer - video Dailymotion

This three-part docuseries follows New Zealand's wheelchair rugby team in their bid to qualify for the Paris Paralympics | dHNfV1VjYXlIVVdKWk0

Transcript

00:00We're a rugby nation, right? Everyone talks about the All Blacks. Everyone talks about

00:13New Zealand being the best at rugby in the world. And that reflects the wheelchair rugby

00:17and you go, oh man, it's such a different sport. And it is so, some more cutthroat.

00:22I remember my first real taste. I definitely thought they were mad.

00:41From an athletic standpoint, it's no longer a rehab kind of mentality or, oh, well, these

00:46guys have less function. It's more about the athletics and about bringing out athletic

00:49ability in players. One of the things I do love about rugby is

00:54like the way that masculinity plays out in a sport with people with relatively severe

00:59impairments, right? You're talking some of the most disabled people participating and

01:03they're out there smashing each other playing rugby. It's pretty cool.

01:07That's really the magic of wheelchair rugby, to see the transformation of people that maybe

01:12society doesn't think they can do things. And sport is the mechanism to say, I can do

01:17whatever I want. Goals right now is getting qualification

01:25for Paralympics for the team. We have to grow the sport at the same time.

01:29We need more players coming in. We need players to be pushed.

01:33Welcome to 2023 Wheelchair Rugby Asia-Australia Championship.

01:38I think for a lot of people and especially the disability community, it's our link to

01:43being proud of being Kiwis. It's definitely going to be hard.

01:52They will have to go to the sudden death qualification toilet.

01:56It's a tough ass to go there and beat them, but you go to any tournament wanting to win.

02:02We're playing Australia and Japan and GB. They've got millions of dollars they get

02:08every year. Players eat, they drink, they sleep for sport.

02:12Whereas we scrimp and save and bleed and cry and swear.

02:16But we've always gone out there and had the Kiwi attitude, we'll get it done one way or

02:20the other.

02:21Looking at some options. Gets it away though.