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The Australian Steelers face a monumental challenge to feature in the medal rounds at the 2022 Canada Cup after a disappointing start to their campaign on Friday.
The Steelers were beaten convincingly by reigning Paralympic champions Great Britain and Canada and must bounce back on Saturday against France to keep their medal hopes alive.
The six-team tournament at Richmond Oval in Vancouver is considered the major test event for the World Championships this November. It’s also the first international hit-out for the Steelers since Tokyo 2020, prompting head coach Brad Dubberley to acknowledge that the lack of elite level rugby was evident in both losses.
Great Britain handed the Steelers a 61-54 defeat in the tournament opener before they again went down by a seven-goal margin eight hours later against the host nation (65-58).
With the Steelers eerily conceding seven turnovers and only forcing one apiece in the second half of both matches, Dubberley said he was looking for a lift in intensity from his team, particularly at the defensive end of the court.
“We were pretty rusty but I thought there was a lot of upsides and improvement ahead of us,” Dubberley said.
“We want to show that we’re hungry and really motivated to come back and win.
“These turnovers that we’re giving up are just silly passes that come down to not playing with each other and playing this level of competition more often. But you know, we only got one turnover off [Canada] which is the same that we got off GB. It comes back to our urgency. We weren’t transitioning quick enough to get back to do our jobs.”
With Great Britain and Canada showing the strongest form on the opening day, the Steelers are now engaged a fierce battle with France, Japan and Denmark for the two remaining semi-final positions.
Dubberley believes the key to Australia’s finals pathway will be their ability to better coordinate their offence. Aiming to block their passage will be the French, who will be buoyed by their gallant showing against GB before going down 54-53.
“We have to fix up some of this passing. It’s just about making sure we are switched on for every play,” he said.
“A lot of those [turnovers] were due to our [lack of] concentration and urgency. A lot of our passes were just left out there, and we were late to where we were supposed to be going.
“France are going to be a great competition – they pushed GB earlier on and we haven’t played them for a long time. They are a different team than they were at Paralympics, but we’ve got to obviously continue to work on things and continue to improve and try and get some good results coming through.”
The Steelers face France at 9am (AEST) on Saturday. Watch the live stream via the Canada Cup website.
By: Tim Mannion, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 3 June 2022
