This Sunday 17 July 2022 GB have achieved another historic gold-medal win. This time it has been at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, competing in the low-point wheelchair rugby event. Low-point rugby is another format of wheelchair rugby where only players with a classification of 1.5 and below can compete. GB swept the pool stages comfortably winning all five games in the lead up to the gold-medal match vs the second-place Japan side. Confidence was high going into the gold-medal game after coming back from four points down to defeat Germany 38-32. The Germany game started off poorly with multiple handling and passing errors by GB resulting in turnovers that left GB trailing for the first time in the tournament. As the saying goes, it’s not over until it’s over, and GB made some personnel changes, refocused, forced some turnovers of their own (17 in total), and took back the lead – finishing comfortably ahead by six points. While the whole team has been playing fantastically under the leadership of co-captains Ryan Cowling and Kylie Grimes, Nick Cummins has been by far the standout player of the whole tournament. Nick has been out-pacing and out-classing the opposition every step of the way, scoring a whopping 91 tries ahead of the gold-medal match. His performance was recognised on Sunday and was awarded the ‘Athlete of the Day’ award.
GB dominated Japan on day two of the event 46-27 thus becoming a favourable opponent to meet in the final. But with experienced Paralympians in the Japan squad led by seasoned coach Kevin Orr, GB knew Japan would come back with a new game plan and would fight until the end – which was definitely the story for the first half.
Japan appeared to be more structured with both teams putting in good defensive performances. Japan were able to keep the GB offense in check somewhat but GB still managed to close out the first quarter with a three-point lead 7-4. This game was far from over. The second quarter started similarly and with some great defensive play from Grimes, creating space for Cummins allowing GB to maintain their lead. The second half ended with some great passing and Myles Pearson sneaking over the try line as time expired to go into half-time 16-11 to GB.
The third quarter started with a quick score from Japan to reduce the deficit to four points, but a GB turnover put the ball right back in the hands of Japan. This was shortly followed by a penalty which meant GB were down to three players and allowing Japan a second score of the half making it 16-13. Pearson swiftly made up for his earlier error, coming straight out of the bin to receive the ball and score, bringing the cushion back to four points.
After some back-and-forth, Cummins and Pearson had back-to-back interceptions for tries, extending the GB lead: 21-15 to GB with four minutes left in the third quarter. Some more great defensive work from Grimes and Pearson led to an erratic Japan path with Pearson sweeping up the trash and dumping it over the Japan try line for another score.
Things were starting to get out of hand for Japan with GB’s defence causing all kinds of problems for Japan, continually forcing turnovers and converting them into tries. With two minutes left in the third quarter GB led by ten points, 26-16. The third quarter ended GB 28 Japan 17.
A Dan Kellett GB inbound kicked off the fourth quarter followed by a Cummins conversion, and shortly followed by another by Pearson. Kellett has had a fantastic tournament playing a key defensive role and launching some long balls converted to tries. The trend of forcing Japan turnovers continued. Japan seemed like they were running out of steam and simply could not contain the GB offense nor find an answer for the GB defence. The veteran Cowling was shortly brought onto the court and immediately forced a turnover. Sam Dickinson got his name on the scoresheet with a great reception with only 0.2 on the shot clock. GB followed this up with a great defensive stop making Japan run out of time on the shot clock for the fourth time in the game. Luke Wilson joined the action with 1:10 left in the game and GB up 34-21 with some tough hits and rounded off a fantastic tournament.
The domination continued and GB marched their way to claim the first ever wheelchair rugby gold medal at a World Games.
The World Games is known for being a staging ground for sports as they make a push to be included in the Olympic Games. This year is the first time that a disability sport has ever featured at the World Games and we will wait eagerly to find out if low-point wheelchair rugby will remain at the Games.
Jason Brisbane, Chief Executive
