England has won the inaugural Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup.
The English claimed the Cup with a very close 28-24 win against archrivals France in the final game of the tournament on Friday in Manchester.
The game went back and forth for the entire contest, and it wasn’t until literally the final seconds of the match when England’s Tom Halliwell scored the game-winning try to clinch victory for the host country.
The French led 14-12 at halftime, but by fulltime, the English team had outscored them by five tries to three.
Again, it was Jack Brown who led England’s charge, as he has done all tournament long, by scoring a brace. His teammate Halliwell also bagged a double, while Lewis King got the other four-pointer. Nathan Collins kicked three goals and Robert Hawkins added one to round out the English scoring.
On France’s side, tries were scored by Mostefa Abassi, Lionel Alazard and Gilles Clausells. Nicolas Clausells kept the French in touch with five conversions and Alazard kicked one as well.
In the end, it was England’s grit and determination that got them home.
