Wheelchair side keep England's World Cup hopes alive after dismal autumn

England's men's and women's rugby league teams both suffered historically early exits from this year's World Cup in Australia, but the wheelchair side have made the kind of start that keeps the nation's record intact.

England opened their campaign with a 98-18 win over Wales at the Win Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, and face the USA in Group A on Tuesday, according to BBC Rugby League.

This is the fifth staging of the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup, and England have reached every final so far, lifting the trophy in 2008 and again four years ago when the tournament was held on home soil.

The side is led by Rob Hawkins, 25, who this year won the Wheels of Steel award for the best player in the Wheelchair Super League after helping Halifax Panthers to Grand Final success.

Hawkins is chasing a second world title having been part of the England squad that won on home soil in 2022, and he scored 11 of England's 18 tries in the opening victory over Wales.

Among his team-mates is Luis Domingos, a former Portugal basketball international who switched both sport and country and now plays his club rugby for Sheffield Eagles.

The contrast with the rest of England's World Cup campaign is stark. The men's side, coached by Brian McDermott, failed to reach the semi-finals for the first time, going out at the pool stage despite beating Papua New Guinea 34-12 in Wollongong, a result that kept their hopes alive only briefly, Yahoo Sports reported.

England needed Tonga to beat Samoa by an enormous margin in the final round of pool fixtures to progress on points difference, a scenario Yahoo Sports described as improbable given the gap between the two sides.

Yahoo Sports also noted that England or Great Britain had never previously finished outside the top four in 16 earlier editions of the men's World Cup, making this year's exit a historic low.

Guardian Rugby League placed the result in a longer-term context, recalling a warning issued by Australia's then head coach, Ricky Stuart, after England lost at the same stage of the 2008 tournament.

"England have gone backwards over the last eight to 10 years," Stuart said at the time, a verdict the Guardian argued still carries weight given England's fall to fifth in the world rankings and the emergence of Samoa and Tonga as genuine contenders for this year's final.

Against that backdrop, the wheelchair team's unbeaten start offers the clearest source of encouragement from this World Cup cycle. England will look to maintain their perfect record in the competition when they take on the USA on Tuesday, with the final scheduled for 13 November.