James McQuillan’s incredible rise from wheelchair rugby novice to playing for Australia

When James McQuillan was learning to use his wheelchair, he started in a shopping centre, “where it’s all flat”. Then, he says, “you’re on pavements with some gutters that are a bit tricky, and then you go out and about with your friends or to the pub”.

The now 29-year-old spent years relearning the logistics of life – and in the first 11 months after an accident on a footy field left him a quadriplegic, he was starting from scratch.

“It was not so much about getting to use your arms again,” he says. “It was more just understanding what your body can do – how to have a drink of water, scratch your nose, those sorts of things.” After that he was introduced to a manual chair, and practised bending down to pick objects up off the floor or a table.

Eight years later, McQuillan has not only refined these skills to the point he can live and work relatively independently, but has also inhaled some new ones – so swiftly that he is now in Europe representing Australia in wheelchair rugby, just 11 months after taking up the sport. In August the Victorian made his international debut in Denmark, and he is back there this week with the Steelers to contest the world championships that started on Tuesday.

To put the speed of McQuillan’s rise into context, he was watching on television as Chris Bond and Ryley Batt led the team at the Tokyo Paralympics, having never even thought about playing wheelchair rugby at a local level. “Turns out I’m in the team with them now, playing in the next major tournament after Tokyo,” he says. “How unusual.”

McQuillan had always been sporty. Growing up on a dairy farm near the country Victoria town of Echuca, winters were dedicated to footy and summers cricket. The rest of the year was marking time,