England coach Tom Coyd believes his side got the test they needed ahead of next year’s World Cup in Australia after snatching victory with a last minute try in the second match of the Wheelchair Ashes Series against the Wheelaroos.

Down 30-18 at halftime and 42-26 midway through the second half, England scored four unanswered tries to triumph 48-42 at Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre.  

“That is exactly what we wanted coming over here and it is a massive credit to the Wheelaroos,” Coyd said.

“We didn’t want to go home without being truly tested. I am not saying that we were 100% confident all the time but that is why you do it. That’s when you feel alive when you are in a game like that.”

Jack Brown, the 2019 IRL Golden Boot winner who coached Queensland while living in Townsville, turned momentum in favour of England with his second try and a double by captain Lewis King levelled the scores at 42-42 to set up a gripping finish.

With the match appearing destined for a draw after Australia had managed to hold out England until the final minute, Mason Billington put Joe Coyd over the match winning try to break the hearts of the Wheelaroos.

“There’s players in that team who have been in that position before when playing for England and then there are players who have never done it before,” Coyd said. “Mason Billington, who was playing his fourth match for England, passing the ball to Joe Coyd, who is England’s most capped player - that was just the boys trusting their instincts and it was a really nice way for us to finish the series.

“The confidence and the connection that that moment has built will carry us through to the World Cup next year, no question.”

However, the Wheelaroos have also grown in self-belief after proving in both matches of the Ashes Series that they can match it with the best after leading England 28-26 last Thursday night before going down 56-28.

Bayley McKenna, who missed the series opener, was player of the match after scoring two tries and landing seven conversions for a personal haul of 22 points, while Zac Schumacher again proved a handful as the Australians ramped up the physicality.

“It is the closest we have ever got,” a disappointed Wheelaroos coach Brett Clark said. “It is a credit to the players. We haven’t had a lot of preparation leading up to this but we got together as soon as we got to the Gold Coast and really dug in for a couple of hours to work out what our strategy was and where we were at.

“The team dynamic has changed a bit, and the biggest thing is that we are no longer coaching the fundamentals of wheelchair rugby league, we are now coaching strategy – game play and execution – which is a completely different shift.

“The last five minutes was probably our undoing and the error count skewed dramatically in the second half, along with penalties. That is probably us still needing a bit of maturity but come the World Cup we are going to be extremely dangerous.”

Coyd said the tour, which included matches against NSW in Sydney, Queensland on the Sunshine Coast and the Ashes Series on the Gold Coast, had tested the players mentally and physically.

He also praised the Wheelaroos for their improvement since the last World Cup in 2022.

“I think the Wheelaroos have improved massively and we expected them too,” Coyd said.

“They are a different team when they play in Australia and they will be very, very buoyed about playing here in the World Cup next year. I can’t wait to play against them with a full crowd of partisan fans because the atmosphere just changes the game completely.

“In terms of the matches, I think they had a really clear idea of how they wanted to play and they executed it pretty consistently. That disrupted our flow. You could say our players are more experienced when it comes to playing rugby but the Wheelaroos know how to manage a game.”

Photo: SWPix