Hawkins, Ponga and Waaka secure IRL Golden Boots
On 12 November 2026 in Brisbane, the International Rugby League announced Rob Hawkins had won the wheelchair Golden Boot for a third successive year, while New Zealand's Kalyn Ponga and Stacey Waaka received the men's and women's Golden Boots respectively.
Hawkins, 25, became the first player in any form of rugby league to claim three consecutive Golden Boots and is only the second player in the sport's history, after Johnathan Thurston, to win the award three times.
Rob Hawkins was previously named the Wheels of Steel winner — English rugby league's wheelchair player of the year — in September, and he beat a field of nominees that included England team-mate Joe Coyd and France's Jeremy Bourson, Nicolas Clausells and Dany Denuwelaere.
Additional nominations for the wheelchair Golden Boot included Ireland captain Joe Calcott and Australia's Bayley McKenna and Adam Tannock; Hawkins has scored 19 tries at the World Cup, including five in England's 86-28 semi-final victory over Australia.
Kalyn Ponga, 28, produced a standout display in New Zealand's 34-10 semi-final win over Tonga just 23 days after breaking his forearm, and he also featured strongly in last month's NRL Grand Final as the Newcastle Knights were beaten 19-18 by the Sydney Roosters.
Dual-code international Stacey Waaka, 31, scored a hat-trick in New Zealand's 32-0 semi-final defeat of Samoa; she also won a bronze medal in rugby union at the 2025 World Cup and holds two Olympic golds plus a Commonwealth Games title in sevens.
The IRL announced inaugural inductees into its Hall of Legends alongside the awards, naming Sir Billy Boston — described in the announcement as the first rugby league player to be knighted — Ellery Hanley, Malcolm Reilly and Alex Murphy among others. Neil Fox, Roger Millward and Mick Sullivan, described in the announcement as the only Englishman to have won two World Cups, were also included in the initial class of inductees.
Hawkins is set to be part of the England team who will seek to retain the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup. England face rivals France in Wollongong, Australia, on Friday at 08:45 GMT.