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The Australian Steelers have sent an early warning to their rivals at the 2026 Wheelchair Rugby World Championships by blowing Canada off the court in their opening match on Monday.
Despite Lilliana Prucha withdrawing from the match just hours beforehand due to illness, the Steelers overcame that setback and a sluggish opening few minutes to find their groove by converting their 23-16 half-time lead into a resounding 50-41 victory.
Prucha has since been ruled out of the tournament, with Andrew Holloway called in as her replacement. Thankfully for the Steelers, Holloway had travelled to Sao Paulo in Brazil as a member of the extended squad so his addition to the final 12 will be relatively seamless.
Playing in his sixth World Championship but his first as a 3.0 player after his recent reclassification from 3.5 where he spent the majority of 363 game international career to date, Steelers talisman Ryley Batt said it was a performance that Australia can build on.
We’re the defending World Champs so for us to come in and set the tone in the first game of the tournament really sets us up for the rest of the week.
“[Canada] are very balanced and they played absolutely unreal. I think our start was pretty bad. It was a bit frustrating, but it was good to get a bit of the rust out and just improve, and I think we won every quarter,” Batt, who was named Player of the Match, said.
“So that’s a win in our book, and that’s game one done. We’ll look to come out and play New Zealand tomorrow and hopefully we can improve our start.”
The Steelers aren’t expected to be troubled by New Zealand in their next match on Wednesday, but with host nation Brazil and perennial powerhouse United States the next two opponents to conclude their pool matches, Steelers mid-pointer Ella Sabljak said it was all about building momentum before the knockout rounds.
“We’re the defending World Champs so for us to come in and set the tone in the first game of the tournament really sets us up for the rest of the week,” Sabljak said.
“[Against Canada] I think we really showed all the preparation that we’ve done leading up to this point, and we’ve put it all into action.
We’ll learn from this game, and we move, and we grow, and we keep getting better and better each game.
“We’ll learn from this game, and we move, and we grow, and we keep getting better and better each game.”
The Steelers face New Zealand on Wednesday at 12am.
Watch live: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYHEYOIRc7Eg&si=jCWr9reDUSlYU-8h
Your Para Sport Journey
Begins Here
Paralympics Australia is only able to continue doing its work driving the Paralympic Movement forward in Australia because of the generous support it receives from Government, Corporate Partners and donors.
The focus continues to be on delivering teams to each Summer and Winter Paralympic Games and supporting Para athletes as they enter and progress through the Para sport system and into their post-sporting careers.
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