A medal at the 2026 World Wheelchair Rugby Championship is now within reach for the Australian Steelers after they defeated Denmark 59-47 in the quarter-final overnight.
The Steelers are now certain to play for either gold or bronze in the medal rounds in Sao Paulo after setting up a semi-final showdown with Great Britain.
Victory will send the Australians into their fifth-consecutive World Championship final, while defeat will divert their path the way it went at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, where the Steelers felt the despair of a semi-final loss and then the bitter-sweet experience of winning a bronze medal.
But unlike Paris 2024 where their highest winning margin for the entire tournament was just four goals, the Steelers have been far more dominant in every match at both ends of the court in Brazil.
Defensively they have conceded just 40 goals per match on average, a staggering 12 goals less than Paris 2024. Their average winning margin is also an incredible 22.5 goals per game, up from 2.5 goals per game in Paris.
But while those stark statistics certainly paint a picture of the Steelers’ dominance so far in Sao Paulo, it all begins with their attitude and commitment to each other according to 0.5 player Emilie Miller.
Heading into the semi-finals, we’re just focussing on our processes and getting everything right, we’re just focussing on what our next step is and not looking too far ahead. Getting our set-up right, getting our plays right, and just controlling what we can control in our own domain, and letting the result take care of itself.
The 31-year-old, who became a first-time mum earlier this year, was part of the starting line-up alongside Shae Graham, Ryley Batt and captain Chris Bond who went unchanged for the entire first quarter and took the game away from the Danes.
“We’ve worked really hard this year on building that cohesion and those values of backing each other and supporting each other, both on and off the court.
“I love that we’re seeing that come through in our rugby, and we were able to just push each other right to the end of the quarter to get us up and about, ready for the next three quarters for the rest of the team to come on.”
With interim Head Coach Lewis Quinn going to his bench for the rest of the contest, it was Miller’s fellow low-pointer Beau Vernon who shone in the second half to take Player of the Match honours.
Photo credit: Wheelchair Rugby Australia / Albin John
Vernon will be pivotal for the Steelers in the semi-final and has fond memories of playing Great Britain. He played every single second of the Paris 2024 bronze medal match and also scored an incredible and decisive goal when he brilliantly snatched a long pass at speed just millimetres from the line. That play swung the momentum of the match in Australia’s favour and the Britons never recovered.
Two years later, the Queensland father of three said he was looking to make a similar impact in the hope of finding his first gold medal at a major tournament.
It’s my first world champs so very excited to get to the semis.
The starting lineup got us off to such a good start and set up the game for us. That was great.
The Steelers can book their place in the 2026 World Championship gold medal match with a win over Great Britain in the semi-final, beginning on Sunday at 3:20am AEST.
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