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Australia has knocked Denmark out of the Paris 2024 wheelchair rugby competition, exorcising the demons that have haunted them since Tokyo 2020.
The 53-49 victory in Paris on Saturday kept the Steelers’ semi final hopes alive and Great Britain’s win over France later in the day ensured the Australians would go through to a battle with Japan for a place in the gold medal match.
The Steelers took care of business against Denmark with one date firmly in mind for the entire match, August 25, 2021.
That’s when the Danes orchestrated arguably the greatest upset in the sport’s history by defeating the two-time defending Paralympic champions in the opening match in Tokyo.
The shock result ultimately proved to be the catalyst that derailed the Steelers’ campaign. They eventually missed a medal for the first time in 16 years.
The Steelers have carried a painful grudge ever since.
In their mission to exact revenge, they gleefully knocked Denmark out of the 2022 World Championship semi-final in Denmark, but on Thursday in Paris in front of a global viewing audience of millions, they played with a maliciousness that showed the scars from Tokyo had still not healed.
Australian captain Chris Bond and head coach Brad Dubberley both acknowledged that fact at full-time.
“Not everyone in our team was part of that game back then, but definitely in the tunnel before we went out, I reminded everyone about Tokyo and how much that hurt those who were there,” Bond said.
“We just didn’t want to give them any edge. You get a bad start against them, they get their heads up and think they can beat us but deep down we know they can’t.
“But they are a bloody good team, we don’t write them off. I think until the third quarter, there were hardly any turnovers from both teams. It was just high quality rugby and we knew coming in to this tournament that that’s what it would take to win it.”
With both teams playing mistake-free rugby in the first half, the critical moment came midway through the third quarter when an intelligent defensive read and a desperate lunge from Andrew Edmondson gathered a critical turnover.
After trading goals up until that point, it gave the Steelers a two-point buffer for the first time which they did not relinquish.
“We’re getting better and better every game. We didn’t lose a quarter in that match and as we know, to go deep in tournaments, you need to build momentum and that’s what we’ve been doing,” Bond said.
Coach Brad Dubberley said he was not fazed who was blocking his team’s path to the medal podium.
“It’s the nature of the sport nowadays. It’s progressing and it’s so close across the board,” Dubberley said.
“We’ve done all we can to bounce back from the Great Britain game and now we just have to see what happens from here.
“We’re confident against everybody, even against Great Britain who knocked us off the other day. We know if we play our way here, we can win it. We’ll just let the rugby Gods do their thing and we’ll see what happens. Whoever we play, they’re in our way and we’ll continue this mission.”
Watch the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on the 9Network and 9Now live and free, and on Stan Sport till September 8
By: Tim Mannion, Paralympics Australia
Published: 1 September 2024
