Leeds Rhinos Foundation PDRL player-coach and Iraq war veteran Simon Brown is ready to spread the gospel of the game he has grown to love when the new season kicks off tomorrow. The 43-year-old from Morley in Leeds has been a virtual ever-present in Leeds’ PDRL (Physical Disability Rugby League) team since their historic first game against Warrington Wolves in February 2018.
He scored a try in a 22-10 win for Leeds at Victoria Park, in a game which also featured television stars Adam Hills and Alex Brooker, and now also coaches the team as well as Hunslet Parkside Under-8s. And despite the havoc caused by the pandemic, Brown and his team-mates are raring to go when the Rhinos play the first two games of 2022 at Eastmoor Dragons on Saturday.
Leeds will open up their new campaign against old foes Castleford Tigers, before taking on a Bradford Bulls team making their PDRL debut in a festival of disability rugby league with all seven of the competition’s sides in attendance. Brown plays despite a visual impairment which resulted in a life-threatening injury while serving in Iraq in 2006.
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He was a corporal with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers when he was shot in the face as he led a successful mission to recover six stranded colleagues. The bullet entered his left cheek and exited the other side but Brown was able to perform his own first aid for 25 minutes before his colleagues managed to get him to Basra Palace.
When he woke from an induced coma 17 days later in a Birmingham hospital, he had lost his left eye and was left with around 20% to 25% vision in his right eye. Brown, who joined the military aged 18, also had to undergo several intensive operations to reconstruct his cheeks and nose.
He told Rugby League Live: “On December 6, 2006, I was the commander of a recovery team and we had to rescue a vehicle from a fire in Basra.
“During the extraction I was shot by a sniper and the bullet went in my left cheek and through my right cheek… as you can imagine, it ruined my Wednesday morning! What saved my life was that I wasn’t knocked out, so I was able to do my own first aid for the first 25 minutes until we got some medical facilities.
“Both cheekbones had been shattered and my jaw was broken in four places, so the palate had collapsed and I was suffocating. Somehow I figured out to put my thumb in my mouth and keep my palate up. To be honest, the bleeding was never really a major drama; it was the suffocation that was the problem.”
With his airway closing, Brown was placed into a drug-induced coma and underwent emergency treatment out in Basra. “I was back in the UK within 72 hours – shot on the Wednesday morning at 11am and then back into Birmingham in the early hours of Friday morning,” he said.
“I was 28 at the time and had several years of surgery and rehabilitation to try and reconstruct my face. My left eye had been completely destroyed and my right eye had compression damage. Until the swelling went down, they didn’t really have any idea what the end game was for that eye.
“When I first came out of the coma, we discovered where the scarring was and I retained about 20% to 25% vision in my right eye. I can see colour, shape and shadow but it’s like opening your eyes under water.
“You can make out shapes and see things moving about, but there is no detail. Fortunately with the help of agencies like Blind Veterans UK, I have been able to adapt to the sight I have got. That enables me to live and work relatively independently.”
Having undergone rehab with Blind Veterans UK, he went to work for the charity, reaching out to other veterans who can benefit from the support they offer. Brown, who played rugby league for Morley Borough during his formative years, was introduced to the PDRL game through Sam Horner of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation.
Brown, who has also worked with the Leeds Rhinos Women’s team on resilience, remembered: “In 2017, Leeds Rhinos Foundation mentioned to me about the concept of playing disabled rugby and whether I was I interested in getting involved.
“At the time, I was coming up for 40 and thought ‘my playing days are done!’ But I said I was happy to do some coaching or be involved with PR to help get it off the ground. Anyway, I turned up, did a couple of sessions and realised I still had a bit left in the tank.
“In February 2018, we had our first game at Warrington and Adam Hills and Alex Brooker playing in that helped raise the profile of the game. I was lucky enough to score, Leeds won, and I enjoyed it so much. As the game has developed, I’ve come to love it and we’ve got a great ethic within the team.”
The coronavirus pandemic wiped out the entire 2020 PDRL campaign and last year’s season was disjointed due to further disruptions. Brown said: “That’s time you can’t get back and is something you have to remember – some of our players are on a ticking clock.
“Their bodies have only got so long left because of the types of illnesses they have. We want to give them as much rugby as they can. Things started loosening up at the start of 2021 and we played a few games but injuries, illnesses and Covid meant we could get no kind of continuity or structure going. It was so disrupted but we won a third-placed final play-offs which gave us something to build on going into this year.
“Pre-season has gone really well and, through the Leeds Rhinos Foundation, we get to train at Kirkstall on a Monday night and they support us with kit and transport for away games. We had Jack Broadbent and Brad Dwyer down to training the other day, which was fantastic. The Foundation of the club is incredibly supportive and do champion us whenever possible. We don’t feel like outsiders, we feel part of the Leeds Rhinos brand and part of a champion community.”
PRDL is a nine-a-side game where teams are permitted up to two ‘red shorts’ – players who can touch-tackle only in defence and attack. Currently teams are also allowed up to two able-bodied players and games last 25 minutes. Brown says: “We have tried to phase that out of the game because it takes a jersey off a disabled person.
“The less we rely on able bodied players the better. The players are full contact but the only difference is that a knock-on is a tackle in order to help the rhythm of the game. It’s not a sympathy sport and when these guys go out there we expect them to perform. We have recruited new players and new talent ahead of the new season this weekend.”
The challenges of everyday life with a physical disability can be huge, let alone when taking to a rugby league field. Brown explained: “There are lots of different elements to having a disability and in our team we have got a couple of guys with below elbow amputations.
“We have got several guys with multiple sclerosis and another with a rare form of muscular dystrophy. Other members of the team have cerebral palsy and Parkinson’s disease, plus a couple of lads with stroke-related brain injuries. I think we have 18 players signed on but you need a largish squad to cover the team’s playing commitments because sometimes a disability can flare up.”
On his own disability, 6ft 3in and 19 stone Brown said: “I don’t think people understand the challenges that visual impairment can bring.
“You try charging at someone as fast as you can on a rugby league field, when you can’t actually see them, and it takes some doing! It takes just as much if, for example, you’re carrying the ball into contact when you have only got one arm. We learn from each other’s challenges and inspire one another.
“I’m just an advocate of team sport and PDRL gives an opportunity to people with disabilities to play rugby league. There are disabled people out there who are fanatical about Leeds Rhinos and rugby league in general. PDRL is an opportunity to get involved in a sport they love.
“What happened to me in Iraq was life-changing but I was on tour with guys who were killed. Therefore I’m not a victim but a survivor and that’s the way I now approach life.”
