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The Australian Steelers’ nine-year reign as Paralympic champions in wheelchair rugby has come to an untimely end at Tokyo 2020.
The Steelers will now play host nation Japan for the bronze medal after both teams were upset in semi-final action on Saturday.
Ranked number one in the world, the Steelers were thumped 49-42 by the United States (ranked two), while Great Britain (ranked three) destroyed the hopes of a massive and expectant Japanese viewing audience by thumping their world number two team 55-49.
For Australia, the defeat brought the most successful record in the sport’s history to a disappointing end.
Sunday’s Paralympic gold medal match will be the first since the Athens Games in 2004 that Australia has not featured in. That fact was not lost on captain Ryley Batt after the match.
“We’ve had a really, really good run with making it to Paralympic finals, but unfortunately today, we just weren’t in the game. We came out early, I thought, pretty well but just a little bit too panicky and a bit too hyped up and that probably caused a few unforced errors,” Batt said.
“You can’t do that against a team like America, you need to make sure you nail everything.”
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The Steelers’ had arrived at Yoyogi National Stadium for the match already feeling besieged after star 0.5 player Mick Ozanne was ruled out just hours earlier.
The Queenslander has been battling a non-COVID related infection in Tokyo and also missed the Steelers’ pool game against France last Thursday. In his absence, the Steelers were unable to run their most dominant line-up and its influence on the contest, or lack thereof, was glaring.
“Psychologically I think when the US knew Mick was out, they knew they had the edge on us and for us, even though we beat France without him the other night, not knowing that we had that line-up to call on for some impact moments and even just to create some extra pressure and couple of timeouts off them made a difference,” said Brad Dubberley, Australian coach.
“I’m absolutely shattered. We’re all here as competitors and obviously hoping and planning to win. We threw everything we had at them today and we just killed ourselves with some silly turnovers and the US played really well.
“I’m gutted for the guys, and all their families at home but I think we’ve just got to come out tomorrow, make sure we make the most of this because two weeks of quarantine is going to be a lot harder coming home with nothing rather than coming out with a bronze medal.”
The Australians will again be relying on the depth of squad with Ozanne unlikely to return for the bronze medal match. It means Australia’s most dominant line-up comprising Batt, Ben Fawcett, Ozanne and Chris Bond will not get their chance to fire a shot.
Bond, who has never failed to qualify for a World Championship or Paralympic final during his international career that began in 2011, said the job now is to regroup and salvage a medal from a campaign in which the Steelers have won just once from four matches.
Speaking to international media after the semi-final, Bond found himself answering questions about whether Australia’s decade-long dominance of the sport was about to unravel.
“Our result here is the accumulation of a lot disrupted preparation, but I also think the world has caught up. There are a lot of strong teams now with balanced line-ups,” Bond said.
“We’ve been knowing that they’ve been catching up for a while. It just seems like this one is not ours.
“Not at all mate. We play again tomorrow. A medal is still up for grabs. We reflect on ourselves as well, we don’t want to come away with nothing.”
Watch the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games live and free on Seven and 7plus from August 24 – September 5.
Australia face Japan for the Paralympic bronze medal on Sunday at 3pm (AEST), before the United States and Great Britain do battle for gold at 7pm.
You can watch the action on Seven and 7plus.
By: Tim Mannion, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 28 August 2021
