THE WHEEL DEAL
England skip Halliwell insists: We’ve matured... it’s our time now
DEFIANT captain Tom Halliwell insists England have learned enough to finally overcome nemesis France in tonight’s World Cup wheelchair final.
After losing in the deciders against them in 2013 and 2017, England hope to make it third-time lucky at a sold-out Manchester Central.
France have racked up a prolific group-stage 350 points, including a 154-6 thrashing of Wales, to show they are not ready to let slip the title.
England – looking to win the World Cup for the second time after a 2008 success – lost 2-0 in a home series against France last year but beat them in a one-off game in June.
And Halliwell said: “Composure’s probably the biggest thing we’ve learned that we didn’t have last November. We’ve grown and matured a lot as a team. The average age was 25 or 26 back then.
“And having big intense finals, with the Challenge Cup and Grand Finals this season, has really benefited us as players.
“Having that more often has put us in good stead whereas France, I don’t think, have had the intense games we’ve had. That will really help us against them now.”
The Leeds Rhinos star admits they have been preparing for their arch-rivals since long before winning Sunday’s semi versus the Welsh. “We set a target of getting to the World Cup final. Watching France in the tournament, we saw they were beating sides convincingly,” said Halliwell (right, in action against Wales).
“We were looking at each game as it came but in the back of our heads we were thinking, ‘We’ve France to prepare for’. France are obviously the best team in the world. But we think we can beat them.”
That would be a huge lift for English rugby league, too, especially with the men’s and women’s sides out of the World Cup at the semifinal stage. Halliwell added: “We were watching the men’s semi on the way to our Captain’s Run. And the mood after it, we were down.
“We got ourselves back up and trained well and got through that semi. But then we watched the women and that put us in a bad mood as well. But we’re sure we can bring it back to England and celebrate.” With its exciting and brutal style, wheelchair rugby league has won an army of new fans in recent weeks, especially when being aired live by the BBC.
England, with 15-try Jack Brown and newly crowned Golden Boot winner Seb Bechara, have captured plenty of imaginations. Halliwell is sure the pain of previous World Cup final defeats – losing to France by just four points in 2017 – will not hinder them.
He said: “We’ve only two or three players from 2013.
“There’s more of us from ’17 but we were mainly squad members so didn’t get much game-time in the final.
“We’ve learned a lot from that but we’re looking back. We are just looking to the future.”