Canada to battle France for 5th place at wheelchair rugby worlds after beating New Zealand

Canada will play for a fifth-place finish at the wheelchair rugby world championship following a dominant second-half performance in Saturday's win over New Zealand.

The men's squad led 26-25 at halftime but pulled away over the final 16 minutes, scoring 17 points in each of the third and fourth quarters for a 60-49 victory in Vejle, Denmark.

"Our line was focused on stopping the players with the ball and forcing them to pass," said Quebec City's Fabien Lavoie, who scored four of his five points in the third quarter and was awarded performance of the day honours. "We transitioned quickly to defence to retrieve those passes."

Canada, ranked sixth in the world, will face No. 5 France on Sunday at 5:30 a.m. ET. Coverage via expanded highlight show will be available at 9 a.m. on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

On Aug. 28, 2021, Canada upended France 57-49 in its final match at the Tokyo Paralympics to place fifth. At the 2018 world championship, France prevailed 52-51 in a fifth-place contest between the teams after a 51-42 win over the Canadians in the tourney opener in Sydney, Australia.

Following the Canada vs. New Zealand game, Fabien Lavoie has been named the performance of the day presented by <a href="https://twitter.com/CanadianTire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CanadianTire</a> Sports Analytics! <a href="https://twitter.com/WCRugbyCanada?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WCRugbyCanada</a> <a href="https://t.co/jixQlK7qcy">pic.twitter.com/jixQlK7qcy</a>

In Denmark, the Frenchmen downed the reigning Paralympic champions from Great Britain 51-48 on Saturday, a day after the host Danes beat them in Friday's quarter-finals.

The Canadians, who haven't won a world title since 2002, were relegated to the seeding bracket following