A FLARE-up of an old elbow injury prevented Ryley Batt from having the impact he would have liked at last month’s Japan Para Wheelchair Rugby Championships.

As a result, Batt felt he let the Australians down as they finished the Tri-Nations in third position.

“It didn’t all go smoothly for me to be honest so that was a bit disappointing when you’re meant to step up and lead your country,” Batt said.

The elbow injury was a recurrence of an old one he suffered seven years ago.

“I’ve got bits of broken bone floating around in my joint which fortunately hasn’t been a problem for about seven years since I had surgery,” he said.

“Unfortunately the broken bone is floating around in there and it got stuck in the joint.

“It’s like putting something into a hinged door; it just won’t open and close.

“My elbow got that swollen, I couldn’t move my arm at all and there was no point playing because I would have been worse than other players out there.”

The Port Macquarie product was injured early in the championships as the Steelers suffered six losses from seven games.

He only made it onto the court for the first two days.

“A couple of those losses were very narrow where we could possibly have won, but we also put ourselves in a situation where we would have struggled to win,” he said.

Fortunately for the Steelers, the friendly tri-series doesn’t affect their current status as the number one team in the world.

Batt, however, sees things differently.

“For us, we’re all picturing that we’re not the best in the world and I’m going to say we’re not at the moment,” he said.

“So it’s a good reality check for us and we can now put in even harder work.”

The 28-year-old said the Steelers were now more motivated to improve ahead of next year’s world championships in Sydney.

“When you’ve been at the top for so long and winning all these tournaments it is very easy to fall behind and let these other teams catch you,” he said.

“That’s happening at the moment.

“If we won every game in Japan we wouldn’t be saying ‘we need to work on this’ because a lot of people would be getting complacent.

“For us, having a loss makes us think a lot more and makes us drive more for a win in the world champs next year.

“It’s a reality check for us.”

Batt and the Australians will now prepare for another friendly tournament in Sydney in August.

New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria will test themselves against Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

“It’s almost the Australian side split into three teams which will be good for us,” Batt said.

It will be a test event for next year’s world championships at the venue.