Defending champions the Wheelblacks were beaten by Australia in their second match of the wheelchair rugby competition to be put out of medal contention at the Beijing Paralympics last night.
The 38-39 scoreline was the same as the previous night's loss to Britain and had the New Zealand
team equal at 28-28 going into the final quarter.
Captain Dan Buckingham, the team's top scorer, took the loss hard.
"It would be really good right now to have a deep dark hole to crawl into, or a rock to go hide under," he said. "The best we can do now is fifth."
Buckingham admitted to shedding some tears after he'd fronted media and gone back into the dressing room.
"We put our heart and soul into this campaign and will be going away from it with nothing. What makes it all the worse is I had one of the worse games of my career.
"It is my job to be safe with the ball, and I continually gave it away. I just don't know what went wrong, my prep was great, I felt great...and then mistake after mistake."
Buckingham said two players came out shining from the win.
"The big positive for me was watching Curtis (Palmer) kick ass and get us back in the game, and Dave K (Klinghammer) too, for his first Paralympics he is excelling."
Buckingham was eventually able to put the loss in perspective and thanked those from New Zealand who had sent messages of support.
"They help to remind us it isn't the end of the world and the sun will rise again tomorrow. A new day and a new game to play awaits us."
The Wheelblacks play Germany tonight.
- NZPA
