Canada Cup wheelchair rugby: Hosts lose chance at gold with loss to Australia

Canada's hopes of winning a gold medal ended with a 54-43 loss to Australia Saturday at the 2016 Canada Cup international wheelchair rugby tournament.

The loss dropped Canada to 3-2, who will need help just to place among the top three. Canada has never finished out of the medals in the previous six Canada Cups.

Both Canada and Australia struggled to find their rhythm in the early stages of the game. The first quarter featured multiple fouls and turnovers, and ended with Australia leading 12-11.

Australia began to flex its muscle in the second quarter. The smothering defence of Ryley Batt and Chris Bond stymied the Canadians, who also struggled with ball movement, resulting in three consecutive turnovers, allowing Australia to build a 26-22 half-time lead.

Canada finished the game with 16 turnovers.

"Sometimes, it's hard to say what team is going to show up," said Canadian coach Kevin Orr. "When we play our style of play, we're awesome. When we don't, it's ugly."

Orr said he hopes the disappointing performance will be a learning experience as the team prepares for this summer's Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

"We've got some work to do," he said. "But that's why we're here, so we can do better in Rio."

U.S. finishes 1st

Canada finishes the tournament Sunday against the United States. The best Canada can finish is with a bronze. 

The Americans used a 56-46 win over Sweden to improve to 5-0 and lock up first place.

"We are happy we won but we didn't play up to our standard," said U.S. team member Josh Wheeler,.

With nothing but pride on the line, Wheeler expects Canada will play tough in Sunday's final game.

"[Sunday] is the biggest game of the tournament for us," he said. "They are a great team and they will be a hard opponent for us."

The U.S. leads the standings, followed by Australia 4-1. Japan and Canada are next at 3-2. Great Britain and Sweden are 1-4 while Switzerland is 0-5.

Swiss 'satisfied'

In other games Sunday, Australia plays Sweden and Japan faces Switzerland.

The best Canada can finish is with a bronze. For that to happen, Canada needs to win its game against the U.S. and Japan must lose to Switzerland.

Canada started the day with a 58-34 victory over Switzerland. Fabien Lavoie led the Canadians with 15 points and five steals.

"I thought we did a good job of playing our Canada style of rugby," Orr said after the win.

The Swiss, who lost 60-37 to U.S. earlier Saturday, have been using the tournament as a learning experience. They're ranked No. 14 in the world and are the only team at the tournament that won't be playing in this summer's Paralympics.

"To play at this level is an awesome possibility for us," said playing coach Adrian Moser. "We don't expect any special things. We want to improve our game step by step. I'm satisfied now."

In other games, Japan defeated Sweden 58-48 and Great Britain 49-43 while Australia downed Great Britain 53-47.