England's wheelchair side came from behind to defeat Australia Wheelchair 38-8 in their Rugby League World Cup opener which was watched by a record crowd in London.
Joe Coyd, Nathan Collins and Jack Brown all scored two tries while Lewis King got over the line for one himself. Collins made four conversions as Robert Hawkins added a fifth.
A lack of concentration saw England fall behind inside the first 10 minutes as Diab Karim scored the first try of the match and then converted moments later. It took another 10 minutes to spark the hosts into life and Coyd scored England’s first try of the game. As soon as England switched on they looked dangerous. They started to break the Australian defensive line regularly and Coyd struck again to edge his side in front.
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Having missed their first two conversions, it wasn’t a problem for England who were now turning the screw and starting to dominate proceedings. You could see that they were brimming with confidence as they started to concoct some mesmerising passages of play as they started to extend their lead by a comfortable distance as they went into the break 26-6 up.
Despite being overwhelmed in the first half, Australia came out fighting in the second. Similarly to the first half, they started to cause England problems and they thought they had pulled one try back through Brad Grove, only to be denied for an adjudged forward pass.
England were under intense pressure at that point and there would have been a sigh of relief from the players to see the try disallowed. In a cruel blow to the visitors, England went straight down the other end to strengthen their lead through King as Collins made his third conversion of the night.
This seemed to take the sting of what might have been an Australian resurgence and England quickly regained control of the game. Although England made a couple of errors in the second half, it was a stark contrast to the start of the match as they defended Australia’s threatening attacks excellently.
The Wheelaroos gave a spirited account of themselves but they were bested by England’s quality. They will have positives to take moving forward in the tournament and as for England are concerned, they have laid down a marker with a strong attacking display.
Brown was justly named the Player of the Match as he demonstrated that he is just as effective in attack as he is in defence. He was relentless in nullifying Australia's threat and that was key in keeping his side in control.
In the earlier game of the evening, Spain defeated Ireland 55-32. Due to their margin of victory, England sit atop of Group A with a seven-point difference on the Spaniards.
