First Wheelchair Rugby 5s International Tournament

Tigers triumph at the Poland Cup

The Poland Cup involved the top two British Wheelchair Rugby Fives teams against the top two teams from the Polish league. Day one saw all the teams play each other in a round robin competition, followed by semi-finals and a final on day two.

The first game between Northampton Saints and 4K Jokers ended with Saints coming out on top with a strong 26-11 win. Leicester Tigers then faced current Polish champions IKS Jezdzcy Mikolow (IKS) and after a tough start where they were down by three, they rallied to win by two tries with a final score of 27-25. After an 11-game unbeaten run, Saints were beaten in their next pool game against IKS who dominated the game to win by 10 tries with a final score of 31-21 to IKS. Leicester Tigers dominated against the Jokers to take their second win 29-19.

The last game came down to a repeat of the WR5s League final match decider, which saw the Saints take the title with a golden try over Tigers. This time round Leicester triumphed with a 26-18 win to top the group and secure their semi-final against the Jokers.

The final pool standings saw Tigers top, followed by IKS with Saints in third and Jokers in fourth after a tough day on court.

Day two saw both British teams facing the Polish teams for a place in the final. Having been beaten the day before, Saints came out fighting to take an early lead by two with a strong key defence. This limited IKS’s ability to use the long ball which had been successful in their previous meeting. They maintained this gap until the last two minutes when a tired IKS conceded two more turnovers for Saints to take the win by four, with a final score of 24-20.

In the second semi-final Tigers took on Jokers with Tigers dominating from the start to take a 30-15 win and set up an all-British final.

The final started as a hotly contested game going back and forth with only one point separating the teams at half time. An early turnover for Saints in the first minute of the second half gave them a two-point lead 12-10.

As the clock ticked down Saints player Kascie HIggins managed to keep the ball in play after a wayward pass with a flick to score to maintain their two-point lead. Saints got another turnover with just over five minutes to go when the ball was stolen from a Tigers player and Saints were now up by three tries, 19-16.

Leicester then got a turn-over back when a Saints player was pushed off court in possession of the ball. Leicester drew level with just over 2 mins to play, bringing the score to 20-20, the continued pressure from Leicester in the Saints half provided another turn-over and a Saints player in the bin – Leicester now up by one 22-21.

With 46 seconds left on the clock Saints drew level again but Leicester held possession to go one up with 38 seconds left on the clock. Leicester had the chance to intercept a long throw and instead punted it off court. Saints inbound with 20 seconds and a try down. Leicester nearly intercepted but Saints had an inbound following an illegal use of the hands foul with six seconds and equalised with one second on the clock. Overtime!

Overtime was the first team to score twice. In overtime Leicester won the tip and managed to score first putting the pressure back on Saints. Saints managed to score to equalise once more. Leicester holding possession and powered over the line to take the win.