England and France will face off in Friday night\u2019s Wheelchair final in a rematch of the 2022 World Cup decider.\u00a0<\/p>\n
England can now win back-to-back trophies after they demolished Australia 86-18 in tonight\u2019s semi-final at Wollongong\u2019s WIN Entertainment Centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was the Wheelaroos’ second-worst defeat to England, only marginally better than the 81-10 loss suffered in the 2013 World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t execute what we practised. I just don\u2019t know what happened today, we just seemed to switch off so there\u2019s no excuses,\u201d Wheelaroos coach Brett Clark said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got picked apart on the wings a bit and we weren\u2019t communicating well. We knew they\u2019d be strong there (sidelines) and we did things in training to counteract that but we didn\u2019t execute.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Australia will now face Ireland in the play-off for 3rd and 4th on Friday at 5.15pm AEDT \u2013 the curtain-raiser to the final at 7.45pm AEDT.<\/p>\n
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Calcott untouchable as he sets up Johnston<\/p>\n
The French wrapped up their spot with a comfortable 15 tries-to-five win over the Irish 82-26 in the earlier semi-final.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Wolfhounds were tenacious in the first half scoring three tries to France\u2019s six, but a wealth of ball in the second half to the Tricolours put any thoughts of a comeback out of reach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
France are two-time winner of Wheelchair World Cup (2013, 2017) and are undefeated so far in the 2026 tournament with victories over Scotland, New Zealand and Australia to top Pool B before facing Ireland.<\/p>\n
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Billington and Brown combine for a beauty<\/p>\n
Wheelchair World Cup Semi-Finals
\nEngland 86 bt Australia 18<\/p>\n
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Magic from the Wheelaroos!<\/p>\n
England was out of the blocks early with doubles to Robert Hawkins and Joe Coyd helping set up a healthy 30-0 lead by the 25th minute.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s first points came soon after through Diab Karim but England added another two for a very handy 40-6 half-time lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former Queensland captain-coach Jack Brown scored twice early in the second for a 52-6 lead opening up a clear passage to the final for the Empire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mason Billington was Player of the Match with a hat-trick, seven tackle-breaks and 20 hit-ups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just so connected and Tom (coach Tom Coyd) told us before the game to play without shackles,\u201d Brown told NRL.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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England are in first through Billington<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had a lot of structure going through this tournament so we\u2019ve got that nailed down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s time to show some individual flair but still back up each other as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown faced five of his former Maroons teammates tonight.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI still consider them family but I\u2019ve got a job to do today so I have to put that to one side,\u201d Brown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for the rematch with the French, Brown said it wouldn\u2019t be a rinse and repeat of what worked so well against the Wheelaroos.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working all the way through with the aim of peaking in the final,” he said. “We\u2019ve got a few things still up our sleeve \u2013 we\u2019ve got more to give.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
England won the 2022 World Cup with a 28-24 win over France.<\/p>\n
France 82 bt Ireland 26<\/p>\n
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Another out of this world try from France<\/p>\n
France rested their two-time Player of the Match from the pool games, Jeremy Bourson, but still snuck away to 32-14 half-time lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the second half, four quick tries to the Tricolours opened up the gap to 40 points as they starved the Irish of possession.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Player of the match was Dany Denuwelaere with six tries, but that wasn\u2019t what pleased him the most about tonight\u2019s win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so glad to be here. I didn\u2019t make it to the last World Cup so I was very keen to give it my all,\u201d he told NRL.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be making a big thing about the six tries \u2013 I owe my teammates for getting me in the right spot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Irish also had fairly broad smiles on their faces \u2013 this is the first time the Emerald Isle has reached the World Cup semis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve come so far since the last World Cup,\u201d player-coach Phil Roberts told NRL.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Real try of the tournament contender from France<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it was possible we would have finished ninth out of the eight teams that played in 2022 because we were so far behind, so far off the pace.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I am so proud of this group to get us into the top four. It\u2019s come off the back of having a far better domestic competition so we can identify and develop players.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd most of this squad is under 27 (years) so we\u2019ll be able to keep them together for 2030 and be a real threat again. Those 20-25 minutes where we couldn\u2019t get the ball really hurt us so we\u2019ll be far better next time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pool B semi-final: Scotland 44 bt USA 12<\/p>\n
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Scotland v USA \u2013 Semi Final Pool B, 2026<\/p>\n
Pool A semi-final: Wales 64 bt New Zealand 36<\/p>\n
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Wales v New Zealand \u2013 Semi Final Pool A, 2026<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England and France will face off in Friday night\u2019s Wheelchair final in a rematch of the 2022 World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":959596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-959595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959595","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=959595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}