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\n England’s world champion squad will be aiming to retain the Wheelchair Ashes trophy they won in 2019.
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Australia’s hopes of a famous victory over England in the opening Wheelchair Ashes Test fell short fell after the world champions came from behind in the second half to win 56-28.<\/p>\n
The Wheelaroos took a 28-26 lead when Corey Cannane scored a brilliant long-range try midway through the second half of the Test at Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
However, England responded impressively with five unanswered tries in the last 23 minutes, two of them to the Halifax Panthers flyer Rob Hawkins who ended with a hat-trick and also landed four conversions for a personal tally of 20 points.<\/p>\n
England started the match as they finished and raced away to a 16-0 lead in the opening minutes before Australia had even touched the ball, with Collins, Rob Hawkins and Joe Coyd scoring early tries.<\/p>\n
When the Wheelaroos finally got possession they hit back almost immediately through Zac Schumacher, who converted his own try.<\/p>\n
Captain Lewis King put England further ahead but a try by Gold Coast’s Daniel Anstey just before halftime kept the Wheelaroos within range, trailing 22-12 at the break.<\/p>\n
Australia came out of the blocks much stronger in the second half, with Schumacher, who plays for Brothers Townsville, scoring his second try in the opening minute.<\/p>\n
A brilliant individual try by St George Illawarra’s Cory Cannane levelled the scores after he dummied and split the defence before racing away to score.<\/p>\n
Schumacher\u2019s conversion put the Wheelaroos ahead for the first time in the match but their lead was shortlived.<\/p>\n
England responded impressively with five unanswered tries in the last 23 minutes, two to Halifax Panthers flyer Rob Hawkins who ended with a hat-trick and also landed four conversions for a personal tally of 20 points.<\/p>\n
Collins, the Leeds Rhinos pivot who had opened the scoring in the second minute, played the key role in re-establishing England\u2019s lead with a classy pass which sent London Roosters wing Mason Billington clear down the left.<\/p>\n
Collins converted from wide out, his fourth successful kick of the day to take his own tally to 16 points, and nine minutes later a brilliant piece of play from Jack Brown sent his Halifax club team-mate and Test debutant Finlay O\u2019Neill over for a try his performance richly deserved.<\/p>\n
Hawkins\u2019 first conversion extended England\u2019s lead to 38-28 and Seb Bechara, who like Brown made a major impression off the interchange bench, then surged clear down the right for the eighth England try which secured the win.<\/p>\n
Hawkins rounded things off in style with his second and third tries in the last three minutes – one from a slick handling move, the other a thrilling dash from halfway.<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Schumacher said the Australian team were happy with the improvement they had shown since losing to England at London’s Copperbox Arena in the opening match of the last World Cup.<\/p>\n
England went on to win the World Cup against France in a tense final in Manchester that attracted 1.3m viewers on the BBC.<\/p>\n
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2025 Wheelchair Ashes Test: Wheelaroos v England – Game 1<\/p>\n
“We didn’t get the result but we were pretty happy with the game overall,” Schumacher said. “We will go back and do some recovery and analyse what we can improve and what we did wrong.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brad Grove captained the side in his 20th international appearance for Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cPulling on the green and gold for an Ashes Test is one of the greatest honours in sport,” Grove said.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re representing not just our team, but every athlete, supporter, and volunteer who has helped build Wheelchair Rugby League in Australia.<\/p>\n
“England is a world-class side, and we respect them immensely – but this is our home series, our moment, and we\u2019re determined to make it count.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Match Highlights: England v Australia<\/p>\n
England named an experienced side which contained three IRL Golden Boot winners \u2013 Sebastien Bechara, Jack Brown and Rob Hawkins \u2013 alongside debutants Luis Domingos and Final O\u2019Neil.<\/p>\n
Super League\u2019s Wheels of Steel 2025 winner Joe Coyd scored a try in his 38th England appearance with Jack Brown making his 35th.<\/p>\n
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\n England’s world champion squad will be aiming to retain the Wheelchair Ashes trophy they won in 2019.
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The tourists had warmed up with wins over NSW and Queensland and England captain Lewis King said the team has arrived determined and focused on retaining the Ashes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rivalry between England and Australia is unlike any other, and that\u2019s what makes the Ashes so special,” King said. “We have enormous respect for the Wheelaroos, but we\u2019re here with one goal – to bring the Ashes back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teams meet again in the second and final Test at the same venue on Sunday.<\/p>\n
England 56 (Nathan Collins 2, Joe Coyd, Rob Hawkins 3, Lewis King, Mason Billington, Finlay O\u2019Neill, Seb Bechara tries; Nathan Collins 4, Rob Hawkins 4 goals) def Australia 28 (Zac Schumacher 2, Dan Anstey 2, Corey Cannane; Zac Schumacher 4 goals)<\/p>\n
Australia<\/p>\n
Daniel Anstey, Peter Arbuckle (Gold Coast Titans), Cory Cannane (St George Illawarra Dragons), Dylan Gawthorne(SEQ Stingrays), Brad Grove, Diab Karim (Parramatta Eels), Zac Schumacher (Brothers Townsville), Adam Tannock (Townsville Marlins); Bayley McKenna (Brothers Townsville).<\/p>\n
England<\/p>\n
Sebastien Bechara (Catalan Dragons), Jack Brown, Wayne Boardman, Rob Hawkins, Final O\u2019Neill (Halifax Panthers), Nathan Collins (Leeds Rhinos), Mason Billington, Joe Coyd, Lewis King (London Roosters); Luis Domingos (Castleford Tigers).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s hopes of a famous victory over England in the opening Wheelchair Ashes Test fell short fell after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-250969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}