Final scores: Great Britain 58 - Australia 55
PHILLIP Island’s Beau Vernon has done his community and Australia proud with his debut Paralympics’ match for the Australian Steelers rugby team in their opening round against world champions Great Britain in Paris.
Vernon saw heaps of court time in a topsy-turvy match, scoring two brilliant goals in the first half via his great court positioning and game awareness, and provided energy-sapping support for the Steelers’ main playmakers Ryley Batt and Chris Bond throughout.
It’s as if he’s been playing the sport for years.
Great Britain held a one-goal lead for much of the first half before Vernon engineered a stunning turnover which saw Australia even up the scores and even go ahead b y two at one stage.
But Great Britain’s scorers always seemed to find a way and they opened up a significant lead in the third quarter before ultimately winning 58-55 at the end after a very high-standard match.
If Australia can get through the preliminary rounds, its highly likely they’ll meet GB again and might be expected to have a well-developed strategy by then to deal with the likes Stuart Robinson, Gavin Walker and co who seemed to be able to roll in tries at will when they really needed them to get back on top.
But Australia had nothing to be unhappy about as their systems appeared well drilled in a generally free-flowing contests, nonetheless with plenty of hard hits, some of which were delivered by Vernon who was thoroughly engaged.
The Steelers enjoyed plenty of green and gold support and at one stage, the camera closed in on Beau’s partner Lucy, dancing, waving and supporting strongly in the crowd.
Despite the first-up loss, it was a good performance from Australia and you fancy they’ll be there when the whips are cracking at the end.
