Great Britain raring to go at Wheelchair Rugby World Championships

Tokyo 2021

Great Britain go into the 2018 Wheelchair Rugby World Championships – second only to the Paralympics in the sport’s calendar – with hopes of a title challenge stronger than ever before.

This year’s edition, set for Sydney from August 5-10, is regarded as the most evenly-matched in its history and this will favour Paul Shaw’s European champions.

Britain, ranked fifth in the world, have never got a medal at the competition – finishing fourth in both 2006 and 1995, the first-ever edition of the tournament.

The European champions have been drawn in Pool B alongside United States, Canada, France, Colombia and Poland with just the top two progressing to the semi-finals.

USA, world number two and most successful nation in World Championships history, stalk the group as favourites but Britain did beat them 50-47 at the Quad Nations in March.

They should see no demons in the knockout stages either, should they get that far, having ran World and Paralympic champions Australia all the way in their Rio 2016 opener.

They also pushed the Antipodeans right to the final whistle at the inaugural Quad tournament which, despite a 55-51 defeat in the semi-final, offered a perfect tune-up to the main event.

Equally Japan, another potential knockout opponent, were pushed all the way at the Leicester Arena in March before squeezing past Britain with a narrow 44-41 success.

Chris Ryan will captain the Great Britain side out in Sydney

A British squad that strikes the fine balance between youth and experience will therefore travel Down Under with confidence.

They will be captained by Chris Ryan, who stepped up to lead his country to their first European title in eight years back in 2015 and has Paralympic pedigree.

The title of senior player goes, however, to 35-year-old Jonathan Coggan who is a four-time Paralympian and can call this his fourth appearance at a Worlds.

With five debutants also in the frame for a start, Britain are sure to be ready and raring to go for their tournament opener against Poland on Sunday night.

Fixtures (Aus time):

Sunday August 5: Poland v Great Britain (19:30)

Monday August 6: USA v Great Britian (13:30)

Tuesday August 7: Great Britian v Canada (11:00) and Great Britain v Colombia (18:00)

Wednesday August 8: Great Britain v France (16:00)

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