Tokyo 2020 Wheelchair Rugby tournament wrap up

Beau Greenway (Twitter, @BeauGreenway)

Great Britain made history by becoming the first European nation to win Paralympic gold in Wheelchair Rugby with a 54-49 salute in the Tokyo 2020 final on Sunday.

After a momentous win against host nation Japan, 55-49, on Saturday, to guarantee a medal, Great Britain ensured its greatest ever performance at a Paralympic Games would result in the sport’s ultimate prize with a sublime performance against the USA in the decider.

Just five players were used by Great Britain for the entirety of the contest as star playmaker Jim Roberts (24 tries, three steals) and low-pointers Ryan Cowling and Jonny Coggan were on court for the whole match.

Great Britain’s 3.5-classified players Aaron Phipps (11 tries) and Paralympic debutant Stuart Robinson (14 tries) split minutes on the court and also turned in huge performances.

Similar to the meeting with USA in the pool phase, which saw Great Britain open up a five-try buffer, they again got off to a flying start to lead 15-12 at the first break.

Great Britain extended it to four with the first try of the second term, but the pressure was immense from both sides.

USA was forced to use its final player timeout halfway through the quarter, while Great Britain was reduced to one.

Phipps crossed to make the margin three with just over five seconds to play, but some brilliance from USA saw Chuck Aoki cross after a perfect long inbound from Josh Wheeler to close it to two (26-24) at the main break.

USA had first possession in the second half and reduced the gap to one and they were level at 29-29 shortly after when Phipps missed the target with a short pass.

The quarter remained even throughout, but Great Britain got the all-important final score as Cowling crossed with 3.6 seconds on the clock to give his side a 37-36 lead with a quarter to play.

Possession was in favour of Great Britain, but USA made the perfect start when Aoki and Joe Delagrave teamed up to knock down Robinson and force a turnover, which they converted to make it 37-37.

Robinson got his revenge soon after when he delivered a perfect hit on Delagrave to win the ball back and put Great Britain ahead 42-40 with five and a half minutes to play.

A fumble from Chad Cohn two minutes later was stolen by Roberts and eventually converted by Robinson to make it a three-try lead with less than three minutes to go.

USA had to take more risks in order to cause a late turnaround, but Great Britain forced another two turnovers and held their nerve to record a famous 54-49 victory, sealed by Robinson’s 14th try on the stroke of the final buzzer.

Roberts revealed it’s set to be his last tournament as an international player, but he couldn’t have asked for a better way to go out.

“I’ll never say never, but I think it will be pretty cool to bow out on top,” Roberts said.

“The body feels a little bit wrecked to be honest and I don’t think I can continue to keep hurting myself for the game.

“We stuck to our game plan and managed to keep them out of the key because that was a big win for them in the first game.

“We knew if they tried to press we’d have the speed to get around them a little bit.

“I’m glad it didn’t go to overtime to be honest, but Aaron and Stu were massive. They’ve progressed so much in the last couple of years and it’s amazing the world got to see that.”

After three fourth-place finishes for Great Britain at both the Paralympics and World Championships, Roberts said the overarching emotion was relief to be part of the first European team to medal at the Games.

It was probably one of the better games in terms of nerves I’d felt going into because we had secured a medal now it was about could we get Gold!.

“I obviously still wanted to win, but it didn’t feel do or die and I think that helped free us up a bit. As a team, that’s a performance we can be proud of.

“A massive thanks to all the guys who set up GB Wheelchair Rugby all those years ago and have pushed it on. There’s been so many that have come so close and they’re all part of this journey and part of the legacy now that we’ve actually done it.”

Ultimately, USA was unable to go one better than Rio 2016 after it defeated defending Paralympic champions Australia, 49-42, in the semi-finals a day earlier.

Aoki (18 tries) and Wheeler’s (21 tries) partnership was on show with a number of fine passes executed between the pair, but it wasn’t enough to deliver the USA its first gold medal since Beijing 2008.

“It’s a disappointment certainly. We wanted gold, so we’re frustrated and sad, but at the end of the day I’m proud of my team,” USA star high-pointer Chuck Aoki said.

“We go into every match confident and we thought we had a good strategy and game plan.

“They [Great Britain] certainly made some adjustments that were effective on their offence and their defence and we perhaps weren’t prepared for that. I thought we weathered the storm early, but towards the end we broke before they did unfortunately.

“We made a few adjustments we thought would be effective, but they made a few more and their pressure was a little too much for us to handle today.”

Aoki said the gut-wrenching double-overtime loss in the gold medal game to Australia in Rio five years ago was spoken about by some of the team, but wasn’t a motivating factor for the Tokyo final.

“We dispatched Australia in the semi-final so we kind of put that [Rio 2016] to bed so to speak, but I think this was a different match for us,” Aoki said.

“We tried to focus on Great Britain and take care of business.

“It’s great for the sport to have so much depth across the board. It makes it harder for us, but as a fan of the sport I’m very happy to see it.

“We had to battle through so much adversity just to get to this point with the pandemic. I love to be part of this team and I know we’ll come back strong.

“I know the team will certainly reload as quickly as we can because we’ve got the World Championship just around the corner [in Vejle, Denmark, October 2022].”

Japan matched its effort from Rio 2016 with a bronze medal after a 62-50 win against Australia.

Australia was unable to field its preferred high-low lineup, featuring captain Ryley Batt and Chris Bond, as 0.5 classified player Mick Ozanne was ruled out with illness, and Japan piled on the pressure to lead 14-11 at the first break.

The buffer was five at the half, but Australia closed it to three early in the third quarter, before a host of turnovers saw Japan race to a commanding 45-36 advantage heading into the final period.

Veteran Daisuke Ikezaki was outstanding on both ends of the court. He led the way with 23 tries and four steals.

Japan went on to complete a 60-52 victory and assure Australia finished the tournament with just one win and missed the podium for the first time in Wheelchair Rugby since Athens 2004.

Australia was somewhat fortunate to progress to the semi-finals after Paralympic debutants Denmark pulled off a stunning 54-53 victory against the reigning champions on day one.

The Steelers dug deep to beat France in their second match, and despite a four-try loss to Japan in the final pool game, Australia reached the top four via a tiebreak having boasted the best try difference of the three teams locked on one win, after France defeated Denmark.

France showed massive improvement with two-try losses to Japan and Australia in the pool phase, but went on to finish sixth after a 57-49 loss to Canada in the playoff match.

Denmark had to settle for seventh, but finished on a high with a 56-53 triumph against New Zealand.

Tokyo 2020 results

Day One

USA 63-35 New Zealand

Australia 53-54 Denmark

Great Britain 50-47 Canada

Japan 53-51 France

Day Two

Canada 54-58 USA

Japan 60-51 Denmark

France 48-50 Australia

Great Britain 60-37 USA