Wheelchair team wants flash photography ban

WALES’ wheelchair rugby league manager wants flash photography banned at games – because players can be prone to seizures.

The team threatened to leave the pitch last week if snappers used flashes during their final game with Spain, which they won 66-45 on Thursday.

During the tournament player Harry Jones suffered two seizures. “Harry has been carried off on a stretcher because of photography,” manager Mark Andrew Jones said.

Flash photography was not automatically banned in the competition, but Wales requested announcements be made at matches.

Jones wants it made a rule at future tournaments. “There are announcements and posters at every game regarding flash photography,” he told the BBC. “We now remove the team from the pitch until it’s sorted,” he said. “Harry has photo-sensitive epilepsy and flash photography can affect him quite badly, to the point of a seizure.”

Wales told the world cup organisers they would request no flash photography.

Jones said they were “helpful in trying to make that happen”.

“It is not a rule, but Wales rugby league will take it up with international bodies to make it a rule not to use flash photography in the future,” he said.

“If we see flash photography, the Wales team will come off the pitch until the problem is sorted.

“If you had seen the condition Harry was in, you would not see that as a drastic measure. It is all about player safety.”

The competition was won by France on Friday. They beat England 38-34.