Australia were given a real scare by Great Britain in today’s semi-final, but did enough to advance to tomorrow’s gold medal match at the International Wheelchair Rugby Four Nations at Sydney Olympic Park.

The Australians will clash with Canada for the title in tomorrow’s final, but the home side’s stranglehold on the trophy looks a lot less firm after scraping through with an ugly 58-49 win over the gritty Great Britain outfit.

Undefeated through the qualifying rounds, top qualifier Australia were expected to make light work of the fourth-ranked Brits, but found themselves down 14-13 at quarter time and under siege until deep into the second half.

Australian coach Brad Dubberley was scathing in his evaluation of his team’s performance, and warned a repeat effort will be nowhere near enough to claim victory in tomorrow’s decider.

The gold medal match at Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre is at 2pm.

“I’m happy with the result, but that’s about all I’m happy with,” Dubberley said.

“We can’t play like that at this level and expect to win games, especially big games.”

“In some patches, the guys were just going through the motions and almost seemed lazy. That’s just not good enough. If we do that in the final, we will go down heavy.”

Ryley Batt again led the scoring for the Australians with 31 goals, and will hold the key to an Aussie victory tomorrow along with Steve Porter (eight goals), Cameron Carr (eight goals), and Andrew (four goals), who also made handy scoring contributions in today’s match.

“Canada has been very strong this week, and although we beat them in both qualifying games, the finals are always a different story. We’re expecting a real battle,” Dubberley said.

“It’s a great rivalry between the Canadians and us. We knocked them out of the gold medal match at the Beijing Paralympics and I’m sure that is still in the back of their minds,”

“There is no doubt at all that they would love to spoil the party and win this tournament on our home turf.”

Second seed Canada advanced the final with a 58-50 win over third seed New Zealand in the other semi-final.

The Kiwis will face Great Britain in tomorrow’s bronze medal match at 12pm ahead of the gold medal match at 2pm.

Staged by the Australian Paralympic Committee, the Wheelchair Rugby International Four Nations is a major warm-up tournament ahead of the World Championships this September in Vancouver, Canada.

Finals – Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre – Sunday, May 2.
12pm - Bronze medal match –  Great Britain v New Zealand
2pm - Gold medal match – AUSTRALIA v Canada

Semi final results – Saturday, May 1.
Australia 58 defeated Great Britain 49
Canada 58 defeated New Zealand 50