You Won’t Believe Prince Harry’s New Sport, Playing For A Great Cause

It’s called “murderball.” It’s also known as wheelchair rugby, and Prince Harry has quickly become a merciless player. Harry and Zara Phillips recently took to field in an exhibition match to promote the Invictus Games, a sporting event where 300 wounded veterans can show off their athleticism held in London. The event is meant to prevent wounded warriors from being forgotten. As Prince Harry said at the launch of the games, they are meant to “demonstrate the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and demonstrate life beyond disability.”

Harry’s participation in one of the games served to promote a noble cause, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t serious about it. At one point, he even had to be suspended from the game for a foul. As the Daily Mail put it, the Prince “offered no quarter to anyone as he stormed up and down the pitch in his wheelchair.”

Murderball is played by two teams with up to six players each. The objective is to get the ball across the opposing teams goal line within 40 seconds. As the name suggests, the game is a full contact sport similar to rugby or football. The striking difference from most sports is that all players use a wheelchair during play.

Prince Harry and his cousin Zara took on a team that included Zara’s husband Mike and Dame Kelly Holmes in front of about 7,000 people in the Copper Box Arena at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Harry struck first, scoring a point for his Team Invictus, but the opposing Team Endeavour answered back quickly. In the second half, the Prince was sent to the “sin-bin,” the game’s version of a penalty box, when he fouled an opposing team member. Despite the tussles, the game was all in good fun.

Prince Harry won.

Though the important thing is to remember the Invictus games. Invictus means, “unconquered.”

“It embodies the fighting spirit of the wounded, injured and sick service personnel and what these tenacious men and women can achieve, post injury. The Invictus Games will celebrate this through sporting achievement that recognises the journey to recovery these men and women are on.”

Prince Harry was inspired to start the games when he saw a British team competing in the U.S. Warrior Games in Colorado in 2013.

For more information about the games, Prince Harry’s support, tickets, and schedules, please click here.

[Image Credit: Carfax2/Wikimedia Commons]