Great Britain’s wheelchair rugby stars stormed into the semi-finals of the European Championships following emphatic wins in the opening two rounds of the tournament in Vejle.

The two-time defending champions kicked off their campaign in style, succumbing Switzerland – who were making their first appearance at the tournament since 2013 – to a 52-21 defeat in Pool B.

Paul Shaw’s troops headed into their next encounter with a chance to seal their place in the last four with a game to spare, and the side – who finished fifth at the Rio Paralympics – cruised to a 56-21 win over Poland.

Having warned GB were still building into the tournament after their opener, skipper Chris Ryan explained the win over Poland demonstrated the team are firing ahead of the knockout rounds.

He said: “It was a really good performance and we improved on a few things from yesterday.

“We kept it tight, were relentless right until the last whistle and just kept pushing the score line.

“We’ve got loads of different line-ups, and because of that we’ve got that fire when each one of those comes on.”

GB face tournament hosts Denmark on Friday in the last of the Pool stage matches as they continue their quest for a third successive title, with the semi-finals to follow on Saturday.

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