WHEELCHAIR WORLD CUP SEMI FINAL

European wheelchair basketball gold medalist Harry Brown put in a magnificent performance as England cruised through to their second successive World Cup Final. They now face France on Saturday (4pm)

Brown bagged an astonishing seven tries and a drop goal for 29 points as England now attempt to defend their title.

Fresh from his European success with the basketball team in Frankfurt, Harry Brown completed his hat trick before halftime and added four more after the break with his brother Jack and Jack Heggie each collecting a try double.

“We wanted to give Harry some game time with him not playing a lot of wheelchair rugby league this year,” said England coach Phil Roberts. “He’s an outstanding athlete, when you give him the ball he can make things happen.”

“We’ve rectified a lot of the mistakes we made in our first game against France and we are confident going into the final against them,” he added.

Andy Wharton, Chris Greenhalgh, Mike Stevenson and Adam Rigby also scored to seal the victory which sent the hosts through.

A quick exchange of passes down the line between Greenhalgh, Heggie and Jack Brown opened the scoring as Harry Brown touched down in the corner.

The Wheelaroos hit back through Daniel Begman to trail by two but that was as close as they got.Moments later, Jack Brown went in again and turned from scorer to provider as he offloaded to Wharton for another score in the corner.

Heggie chased down and collected his first try but he missed the kick and Greenhalgh crossed before Harry Brown ripped through the Australian defence to claim a 10-minute hat trick which gave England a 44-4 cushion at the break.

The Australians were strong and stubborn in defence for opening 10 minutes of the second half so Harry Brown added a drop goal, Heggie then claiming his second touchdown.

Harry Brown added four more tries and Stevenson and Rigby crossed, Fabian Castillo with a consolation score for the shell-shocked Aussies.

ENGLAND
Chris Greenhalgh, Andy Wharton, Mike Stevenson, Jack Brown, Gina Smallwood, Adam Rigby, Phil Roberts, Jack Heggie, Joe Coyd, Harry Brown

 
AUSTRALIA
Jason Attard, Tano Begnato, Rhys Baxter, Daniel Begman, Craig Cannane, Fabian Castillo, Rick Engles, Mitch Stone, Jason Voncina, Yara Ryan