ENGLAND have salvaged something from an otherwise disastrous World Cup, brushing aside aggressive France to retain the wheelchair World Cup.
In the men’s game, the English missed the semi-finals for the first time – a failure that was mimicked by the women in Australia.
And France scored three consecutive first half tries at WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong to lead 22-10 12 minutes before halftime.
The key to French revival was Jonathan Hivernat being thrown out of his chair in a violent collision, the penalty from referee Rebecca Whitely shifting momentum towards the tricolours.
England their way back and retook the lead right on halftime, Rob Hawkins kicking for Jack Brown to dive full-length and score one of the tries of the tournament.
But the second half was less than two minutes old when Dany Denuwelaere scored, signalling an epic victory would continue at 28-28.
Hawkins scored again and then – tellingly – Joe Coyd got his fourth.
Brown posted further tries in the 62nd and 69th minutes to put England in control. They ran out comfortable 50-34 winners.
ENGLAND 50 (Coyd 4 Brown 3 Hawkins 2 tries Collins 6 Hawkins goals) beat FRANCE 38 (Denuwelaere 3 Bourson Hivernat Dore Guttadoro tries Hivernat 3 Clausells 2 goals) at WIN Entertainment Centre.
Teams:
ENGLAND: Joe Coyd, Rob Hawkins, Tristan Norfolk, Lewis King (c), Mason Billington, Nathan Collins, Luis Domingos, Jack Brown, Finlay O’Neill, Chris Haynes.BBC
FRANCE: Gilles Clausells (c), Damien Dore, Florian Guttadoro, Jeremy Bourson, Adrien Zittel, Jonathan Hivernat, Dany Denuwelaere, Jorge Gelade Panzo, Leo Hivernat, Nicolas Clausells.
Referee: Rebecca Whiteley.
