Against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine it seems strange to be writing purely about sport, but last week GB were in attendance at the World Wheelchair Rugby European Championship in Paris. A silver medal by any account would generally be seen as a successful outcome from a tournament, however, as the current Paralympic champions and having won three European Championships, GB were the favourites to come home with the gold. But as we know, sport isn’t always as straight forward as it sometime appears. Our performance reminds me of a proverb I read once for the Chinese game called Go. While I can’t recall it exactly, it goes along the lines of:
“If you have a good opening you might lose, but if you have a bad opening, you can’t win”.
We committed errors early in the first quarter of the final that the French capitalised on. On average we were three points down for most of the game and at one point we were down by six! There are however lots of positives to take away from the tournament. Clawing back the lead to a one-point deficit tells a positive story. Reducing such a large point deficit, especially in elite-level wheelchair rugby is extremely difficult. We played a much better second half and it showed what we can do when we bring it all together. It is also a reminder of how devasting early mistakes can be in this sport. The tournament wasn’t solely about our performance final however important it may be. We worked with some new lines and managed to get significant game time for some of our new additions to the team. I’d like to call out Faye West, Kieran Flynn, and Dan Kellett on their championship debuts for GB. They played a solid tournament and have bright futures. Let’s also take a moment to highlight that Faye was the only female high-point player in the tournament, perhaps marking a change in this traditionally male-dominated classification.
As a team, we didn’t play anywhere close to our ceiling, which creates feelings of frustration, rather than fear. We are still as competitive as ever. When we brought it all together, which we did on many occasions during the tournament, we looked like a dominating team that could go out and win a world championship medal. Everyone is confident that the only direction we will go from here is upwards. That’s not just us being overly positive either. But let’s not take anything away from France. They had a game plan, stuck to it, and, importantly, committed fewer errors than us. They deserved to win with how they played. I am confident that this loss will make us an even better team and further strengthen the bond our team has. This is why we all love sport, right? The ups, the downs, the twists, the turns. This isn’t the first time this team has faced adversity. Remember how we responded after losing our funding and then having to train through a pandemic? There is a lot of high-quality competition coming between now and the World Championship in October, the first being the Canada Cup in June. Our GB team will now take a well-deserved break for March to recover before training resumes.
2022 has introduced many a change for GBWR: new players, new performance staff, a new look brand, a new mission and vision (see it here), and a new medal. I hope you all like the new look brand as much as we do and have clarity on what our priorities are for the remainder of the cycle. It was important that we share our direction with not just our members but also the wider community. As the year progresses, we will be introducing new opportunities for clubs to have opportunities to speak with myself and the GBWR senior leadership team on club, competitions, and development matters. We very much want to improve our communication with our members, and we will follow up with more details regarding that shortly.
Finally, this month also marks Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month. We will be supporting CP Sport on their awareness campaign for this month which aims to highlight the benefits of physical activity for young people and adults with cerebral palsy, as well as sharing all the opportunities available to get active. Some of our athletes will share insights into how wheelchair rugby has helped them and hopefully this will drive others to get involved in the sport. Keep an eye on our social channels.
Jason Brisbane
