Here are some excerpts from the media releases that went out from the BCWSA:

Canada Wins Bronze at World Rugby Championships

September 16, 2006. New Zealand – Canada won the bronze medal with a 23-19 win over Great Britain at the 2006 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Great Britain got off to a quick start and was up 2-0 two minutes into the game.  And, just like in yesterday’s match against the USA, Great Britain called a chair check on Canadian team member Patrice Simard.  The chair was deemed legal and Great Britain was given a penalty.  Canada played a strong defensive game forcing their opponents to take three of their four time outs within the first four and a half minutes of the game.  At the end of the first quarter it was seven all.  In the last minute of both the first and second quarters, Great Britain had possession but Canada was able to shut them down, preventing any opportunities for them to score before the buzzer.

"The game plan was to control the ball and control the game and we executed the game plan perfectly," said Head Coach Benoit Labrecque.  “We came back from a bad loss against Great Britain (in the round robin); we now know what we need to do to win against them."

Throughout the game, Great Britain was forced to make mistakes and Canada capitalized on the turnovers and bad passes.  By the end of the half Canada was up 13-11.  Canada maintained the pressure ending the third quarter with a score of 21-18.  Going into the final eight minutes of the final quarter, Canada’s game plan was to shut down their opponents.  They were able to do this with Garett Hickling’s (Kelowna) line-up.  Hickling and Mike Whitehead did an amazing job controlling the play.  The line-up was able to kill six minutes and 15 seconds before Canada lost possession and a goal was scored by Great Britain.

"It was amazing to be able to come in and help the team out," said Trevor Hirschfield of Parksville who’s ambition is to make the team for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.  "It was a lot of fun.  My job is to play ‘keep away’, tie up the big guys and not let them score.  I work with Daniel to set picks and hold them off."

Both Say Luangkhamdeng of Surrey and Richmond’s Travis Murao said it feels great to be bringing home the bronze.  Murao will play at the University of Arizona this coming season.

Ian Chan of Richmond said he was pleased with the team’s performance.  Overall in the tournament, he would love to have a couple of bad passes back but that’s sport.

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USA takes out World Wheelchair Rugby gold medal

September 16, 2006. In defeating New Zealand 34-30, top seeds the United States won the World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Christchurch today.

Ahead 9-8 at the end of the first quarter, the United States, withstood everything the New Zealanders could deliver then pounched in the final quarter as the Wheel Blacks risked all in an effort to break the US
stranglehold.

New Zealand coach Grant Sharman said that the Wheel Blacks did not quite have their "A Game" today and the United States played extremely well.

"On paper both sides are pretty even, but they just had the edge today.  While we are extremely disappointed at the result, having trained for this for two years, we have no excuses.  We were beaten by the better side on the day," he said.

At half-time there was still only one goal in it, 16-15, but the United States grabbed another turnover in the third to take a controlling 25-23 advantage into the final quarter.  Clawing these two goals back in the last eight minutes was a mountain too high for the Wheel Blacks.

New Zealand's silver medal equalled their performance at the 1988 world championships in Canada.  They finished third in 1995 and sixth in 2002.

Key New Zealand player Dan Buckingham said that the intial reaction after losing such a major match as this is one of emptiness.  "We have trained hard for this and had lots of good times on the way, but it is still pretty devastating.  In the end we'll get over the disappointment and look to our next campaign."

United States lynchpin Mark Zupan said that his particular side was the best he had been involved with and that as a squad they had been working towards this goal for four years.  "This is an amazing feeling.  To win a gold medal is what we all aim for," he said.

In the match for the bronze medal defending champions Canada beat great Britain 23-19 while Japan upset Australia 48-46 for fith placing.

Scorers: United States 34 (Mark Zupan 14, Andy Cohn 10, Bryan Kirkland 5, Seth McBride 3, Will Groulx 2), New Zealand 30 (Tim Johnson 13, Dan Buckingham 9, Gerry Tinker 8).

Today's results: Switzerland 36, Denmark 21 (11th + 12th); Sweden 36 v Netherlands 30 (9th + 10th); Germany 40 v Belgium 37 (7th + 8th); Japan 48 v Australia 46 (5th + 6th); Canada 23 v Great Britain 19 (3rd + 4th).  United
States 33 v New Zealand 30 (gold and silver medal).

Final placings: United States, New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, Australia, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark.

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Canada Will Play for Bronze at World Rugby Championships

New Zealand – Canada will play for Bronze against Great Britain at the 2006 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships following a semi-final 23-21 loss to the US.

Canada gained possession at the tip off but lost the ball quickly because they did not bounce or pass within 10 seconds.  The USA promptly scored and that became the story of the game as both teams began trading points and Canada continued to catch up. At the end of the first quarter, the US had a 7-6 lead.

"We shook off a few early cobwebs," said Assistant Coach Adam Frost of Vancouver, "but we were able to end the first quarter strongly."

At the start of the second quarter once again Canada gave away the ball and the USA went up by three points.  Canada quickly turned the momentum around forcing the USA to make a mistake and regained the point.

At 2:31 into the second quarter the USA called for a measurement on Canadian team member Patrice Simard’s chair.  The chair check was okay and the USA was called for a technical foul and received a penalty.  Garett Hickling (Kelowna) came on to play his role.  As a great ball handler, it is Hickling’s job to kill time.  He did a fantastic job killing the penalty, however the advantage slipped through Canada’s fingers when they failed to complete a pass with 30 seconds left on the clock, allowing the USA to take the lead at the half 12 – 10.

Canada drew within one point by the end of the third quarter but in the final quarter the team could not create the turnovers required to make up the deficit.

"We followed our game plan pretty well," added Frost.  "We wanted to control the game and slow the US down.  We wanted to keep the game close because we know in a close game the US has a tendency to make mistakes.  Unfortunately, for Canada we were the ones that made the mistakes that cost us the game.  We beat ourselves.  We did not get beaten by the US, we played a better game.  We made some errors and were not able to recover.

When asked how the team felt after the game Frost said "Of course they were down, they wanted to win but we tried to get them to focus on the positive and look towards tomorrow’s game.  One of the problems we heard after the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, when Canada lost the semi-finals, was that they were so bummed out they were not prepared for the bronze medal game.  So there is a real focus this time not to let that happen and be ready to go tomorrow."

In the other semi-final game today, New Zealand defeated Great Britain to advance to the Championship final.  Canada goes up against Great Britain in the bronze medal game, while the USA and New Zealand will play for gold.