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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Adam Cleary

Wales' deaf rugby teams crowned double world champions

Wales' men and women have been crowned World Deaf Rugby Sevens World Cup champions in Argentina.

Wales women reached the final for the first time and saw off England 32-0 on Sunday.

Wales men defended their title thanks to a 20-5 final victory against Australia, which sealed their third consecutive trophy.

This means that Wales are double winners for the first time in their history and have won every World Deaf event which they have entered.

Wales men beat Argentina 25-5 in the quarter-finals before seeing off last time's finalists England 14-5 in the semis. Wales women had already beaten England in the pool stage, 19-0, with a 36-0 win over Australia and a walkover against Barbarians making it a clean sweep.

Wales Deaf Rugby, which offers deaf and hard-of-hearing rugby players the opportunity to play international rugby for Wales, said on Twitter: "Congratulations to the men’s team. World Champions again! Wales are double winners for the first time ever and have won every World Deaf event we’ve ever entered! All the hard work and sacrifices of the players. All the hard work and sacrifices of the coaches and medical teams. All the hard work organising the trip by the committee. A true team effort to be the most prepared team team again! Thank you to the other participating teams. We all achieved so much just by getting there and showing everyone what we all can do!"

The tournament was the third Deaf Rugby World Cup, with Wales men having won both previous competitions. The first edition was a four-team 15-a-side tournament in New Zealand in 2002, which also featured a sevens competition that was won by Japan, while the second edition in 2018 was a purely Sevens World Cup hosted in Sydney, Australia. This year was the first time a women's competition has been held.

A Welsh squad of 12 men's players, with four in reserve, and 12 women's players headed to Corboda, Argentina, supported by a team manager and head coach per team, a British Sign Language interpreter and coaching assistants, with the overall cost of the trip reaching £80,000.

Each player and coach paid £1,625 of their own money to cover flights, hotels, transfers, insurance and player registrations. A GoFundMe page for the teams says they are not directly funded by the WRU, although they have access to Macron kit and have used the WRU's National Centre of Excellence in the build-up to the tournament.

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