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The Australian Steelers cruised to convincing victories in their last two round-robin matches on Saturday to book their place in the 2023 Asia Oceania Wheelchair Rugby Championship gold medal final in Tokyo, Japan.
The Steelers never looked troubled on their way to a 63-23 win over Korea on Saturday morning and a 46-42 win over New Zealand on Saturday evening.
Without being pushed by either opponent, it means the Australians should still have plenty in the tank when they face Japan in Sunday’s highly anticipated decider.
“We’re in good shape for this final,” Australian head coach Brad Dubberley said.
“We were able to give every player some minutes and every line-up some minutes in both games [on Saturday] and we gave our most experienced players plenty of rest.”
Not only is the title of Asia Oceania Champion up for grabs, so too is the prize of direct qualification to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games which is guaranteed to supercharge the pressure for the combatants and the spectacle for the fans.
It is already a celebrated rivalry between the two teams.
Japan (ranked three in the world) has established themselves as a bogey team for the Australians (ranked two), despite an incredible record that has seen the Steelers miss just one gold medal final at a Paralympic Games or World Championships since 2008.
Throughout that dominant Australian reign, Japan still found ways to defeat them in the 2018 World Championship final in Sydney, twice at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo including the bronze medal match, and in their round-robin fixture at the 2022 World Championship, before the Steelers bounced back to lift the trophy.
And with Japan again handing defeats to the Steelers in both round-robin games earlier this week – by seven goals on Thursday and five goals on Friday – the reigning World Champions know they will need to find something extra special when it matters most on Sunday.
“It’s another huge game between us. Japan will have good crowd behind them and it’s [Japan Head Coach] Kevin Orr’s last game in charge which will give them even more incentive to play well,” Dubberley said.
“For us it’s just going to be a case of really making sure we are switched on for the entire game.
“Games between Australia and Japan are always some of the best wheelchair rugby to watch. They are always close, always intense.
“Turnovers in the last quarter of both matches here have cost us against them, so we just need to make sure we don’t make the same error in the final. We know we need to keep turnovers to an absolute minimum and make sure we play the really clean rugby that we know we can.”
The Steelers and Japan play at 3:15pm (AEST) for the 2023 Asia Oceania Championship gold medal and the ticket to the Paris 2023 Paralympic Games.
The match will be livestreamed via YouTube.
The Steelers team for the Asia Oceania #WheelchairRugby Championships is set with Coach Brad Dubberley making 2 changes to the 2022 World Champion team.
— AUS Paralympic Team (@AUSParalympics) May 12, 2023
Victory at the tournament will secure direct qualification to #Paris2024: https://t.co/c979rsUbsS#ImagineWhatWeCanDo pic.twitter.com/EWIeiIdGsm
2023 WWR ASIA OCEANIA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Tokyo, Japan
Australian Steelers’ fixtures (Times are AEST)
Thursday 29 June – read our day 1 wrap
AUS 71 def KOR 23
JPN 53 def AUS 46
Friday 30 June – read our day 2 wrap
AUS 49 def NZL 40
JPN 57 def AUS 52
Saturday 1 July
AUS 63 def KOR 23
AUS 46 vs NZL 42
Sunday 2 July – watch live
13:15 – Bronze medal match
New Zealand vs Korea
15:15 – Gold medal match / Paris 2024 qualifier
Australia vs Japan
By: Tim Mannion, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 2 July 2023
Image: Yuuri Tanimoto (JWRF)
