England to face France in Wheelchair World Cup final

Correspondent 13 Nov 2022 5:45 PM

England will face France in the Wheelchair World Cup final on Friday, 7:30pm, at Manchester Hall following their victories in the semi-finals.

It is the fourth time England have reached the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup final, having won it in 2008.

Jack Brown scored eight tries as England cruised into the final of the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup with a convincing 125-22 victory over Wales in Sheffield.

England, led by player of the match Brown, passed triple figures for the third time in the tournament. Seb Bechara went over four times, with Joe Coyd scoring a hat-trick and Robert Hawkins, Lewis King, Nathan Collins, Declan Roberts and James Simpson also adding tries.

Wales had only managed one try in the first half courtesy of Scott-Trigg Turner, but three further efforts from Stuart Williams, Gary Preece and Alan Caron proved in vain and Preece was sin-binned late on as they were dumped out of the tournament.

Match report

After France had confirmed their place in the final with a 84-40 victory over Australia earlier in the day, it did not take long for England to click into gear and they scored two tries in quick succession when Bechara twice picked holes in the Welsh defence.

Bechara notched his treble inside eight minutes and England had a fourth try five minutes later, but Wales were not out of the contest and scored a try of their own midway through the half when Trigg-Turner muscled over.

Coyd also grabbed a hat-trick and another three tries were chalked up when Hawkins got in on the act either side of a Brown double.

England were out of sight before the halfway point as Bechara added a fourth to his tally and Brown a further two tries as they continued to breach the Wales defence, with the score 70-6 to the tournament hosts at the interval.

HT: England 70-6 Wales

The second half started in similar fashion to the first and Brown wheeled over before Coyd and King put England further in front.

Wales hit back through Preece but another try arrived for Brown before Collins etched his name among the try scorers.

Skipper Williams scored once more for Wales before Brown wheeled over twice to bring up England’s century with a quarter of the game to go and another Welsh effort arrived through Caron.

England’s onslaught continued right to the end when Roberts grabbed a try and drop goal, but Preece was handed the first sin-bin of the tournament for dissent before Simpson added insult to injury with another try as the hosts advanced to the showpiece final against France on Friday.

England to face France in Wheelchair World Cup final

Match report

HT: England 70-6 Wales

England 125-22 Wales

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