By Beau Greenway

Australia, Canada, USA and Japan all improved their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals with wins on day two of the wheelchair rugby tournament at Rio 2016 in front of huge crowds at Carioca Arena 1.

The Americans picked up from where they left off on Wednesday against France, with a convincing 54-44 victory over Sweden.

The world number one side got plenty of minutes into their younger players and controlled the match from start to finish to set up a Pool B decider with Japan on Friday.

“Winning is always great. It’s pretty great to see the younger guys out there and how well they are playing. It’s awesome,” USA veteran Josh Wheeler said.

“Things went our way, we flowed well on our contained defence, which is what we wanted.”

Sweden, meanwhile, were left to reflect on another tough result with Tomas Hjert aware they were unable to match the world’s best side.

“We’ve got to play our game and we didn’t do that today so we had no chance,” Hjert said. “I don’t know why it happened, especially since we started so bad last game. We had to go a lot harder this first half, but we couldn’t do it.”

The recent rivalry between Canada and Great Britain in major tournaments went to another level in the day’s second match, with the Canadians scoring with less than two seconds to play in overtime for a 50-49 win.

Rising to the challenge

Canada captain Trevor Hirschfield got on the end of a pass from Zak Madell, who top scored with 30 goals, to cross the line and end Great Britain’s chances of qualifying for the medal matches.

Hirschfield paid credit to the British side and star high-pointer Jim Roberts after another epic encounter.

“Jim has become a hell of a player over the last two years, we saw him at worlds and went double overtime, but down the line all their athletes have really come a long way in the last two years,” Hirschfield said.

“It was important for us to manage the clock and it was important when we were down a few goals that we didn’t get down and made sure we stuck to the game plan. There was a lot of back and forth during the game, but we were able to come back and put ourselves in a great position to win.”

Canada will face defending champions Australia on Friday to decide top spot in Pool A.

“The Aussies have had our number for the last little while, so we’re looking to win our pool and we’re really excited to play because we don’t see each other very often,” Hirschfield said.

A heartbroken Roberts spoke after the match about the devastating result for Great Britain.

GB rue missed opportunities

“The last few majors we’ve played against Canada they always seem to get us by one and mainly in overtime, which is really disappointing,” Roberts said.

“You could see how much it meant to the guys because we really put our heart and soul into trying to do well and come away with that medal that we think the British public deserves because they’ve put so much support behind us.”

Roberts identified the end of regulation time as a missed opportunity, which ultimately cost Great Britain the game.

“I think we should have scored that last goal and then we could have put on a good press to stop them scoring the tie-breaking goal,” he said.

“It was always going to be tough in overtime because with them winning the tip-off they got control of the ball and we were always chasing from that point.”

Japan and France then met in another interesting battle, which the Asian champions eventually claimed 57-52 to confirm their semi-final spot.

“The crowd was really comforting, they gave us a lot of strength and it has been really fun to play here in Brazil,” Shin Nakazato said. “We won this game so I think it will help us get in the mood to win the next game against USA.

Closing the gap to top spot

“I’ve played with the Americans before and I know they are really strong, so we need to play as a whole team tomorrow to be able to beat them.”

Meanwhile, France captain Johnathon Hivernat said while his side has shown a lot of improvement in recent years, they are still a few steps from the top.

“All the energy we’ve spent is energy well spent, and out of the seven countries that are fighting for the top spot, we’re starting to reach them,” he said.

“France is a new nation in this kind of a game and it’s a young team that still needs to work a lot to reach the top level. We want to climb in the world ranking and get to the second place in Europe.”

Another passionate home crowd flocked to the arena to support Brazil against Australia in the final game of day two, and, after a tight start, it was the defending champions who pulled away to a comfortable 72-45 victory.

Australia superstar Ryley Batt was public enemy number one for the Brazilian fans as helped his side to a big win with 34 goals.

“I’ve never been booed in my lifetime, but Brazil put it on,” Batt said. “They are passionate fans and it was probably the best crowd of played in front of. 

An occasion to remember forever

“They came out firing and played really well so props to Brazil and how competitive they were, as well as everyone who came out. It was something I’ll remember forever.

"They are passionate fans and it was probably the best crowd of played in front of."

Australia superstar Ryley Batt

“We came out a bit and we had a word about before the game to make sure we didn’t do that because they are going to be a fantastic team. It just took us a quarter to settle in and then we started to pull away.”

The Australians now look forward to a repeat of the London 2012 final against Canada, with the winner topping Pool A.

“Canada is a fantastic team, we’ve played them in a gold medal match before and Zak Madell is going to be on fire tomorrow and wanting to beat us,” Batt added. “We want to top the pool to give ourselves the easiest run to the final.”

Brazilian high-pointer Julio Braz, who scored 16 goals, was a key player for the home side, who were not quite consistent enough to upstage the favourites.

“Australia is very strong and we did a good job in the first and second period, but we have a lot of things we need to work on,” Braz said. “It was very nice to play against my idol (Ryley Batt) and this whole experience has been a good opportunity to learn with the best.

“The Brazilian support was really good and pushed us forward, I will remember it forever. It was amazing. We are not going to relax, we want to go up in the rankings and fight for a place in the next Paralympics.”

Photo credit: CWSA/Kevin Bogetti-Smith