Round 2 of the Wheelchair division of #RLWC2021 has been highlighted by another triple-digit score as teams jockey for positions in the finals, and fans start asking themselves if this is going to be the norm.
This time, England humbled Spain 104-12 in a Group A match Sunday in London. That pummeling came on the heels of France’s massive 154-6 thrashing of Wales in the first round of the competition.
The English team scored 18 tries. They were led by Robert Hawkins, who notched five of his own, while Declan Roberts scored a hat-trick. England already had the game in the bag at halftime, leading 50-10.
In the second game of Sunday’s Group A doubleheader, Australia put up its second big victory of the tournament with a 76-18 defeat of Ireland. Hat-tricks by Bayley McKenna and Brad Grove highlighted the Wheelaroos’ 13-try haul against the Irish.
Monday saw Group B matches in Sheffield, and for the first time in the Wheelchair division, we saw a game that, early on at least, looked as though it wasn’t going to be a one-sided affair when France squared off against Scotland.
The Scots kept in touch through the first quarter, but then the French turned up the pressure to build a 50-6 cushion by halftime, and as has been the case so far in this tournament, they ran away with it to win 80-15. Nicolas Claussels led all of their scorers with four tries.
It wasn’t until the last game of the round that we finally got to see a competitive contest for pretty much the entire match, with Wales and the USA going at it. They went score for score in the first stanza, with the Welsh narrowly in front by 30-22 at the half.
The second half was very much the same until Wales edged ahead slightly and stayed there to eventually post a 50-32 victory. In the end, the Welsh outscored the Americans by nine tries to six.
