England women’s defence of their Rabo
EuroHockey Championship title begins tomorrow in Amsterdam as a feast of hockey
begins!
Both our women and men’s sides have
travelled to the Netherlands for the championships which will be contested
between the 19 and 27 August live on BT Sport.
England’s Nic White is missing from the
squad through injury but here she previews England women’s opening fixture in
Pool B against Ireland! You can read more from Nic on here website at http://nicolawhitehockey.co.uk.
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The girls will be eager to get underway
after being at the preparation camp since Monday.
It doesn’t seem that long, but when you
travel to competition the majority of work has all been done so you just want
to get playing. Although, the week leading up to competition is a tapering
phase so the lighter load does come with a warm welcome to refresh the legs!
It will be a tough opening game as Ireland
are a very hard working team and they bring a lot of flight and desire to all
their matches. They aren’t afraid of the big games and play with confidence,
looking to break lines with their quick and skillful players in midfield. They
won’t interchange as much as other nations but like to link up with each other
and enjoy the attacks.
We recently played them in the World League
semi finals, which we narrowly won 3-2. Some players to look out for are Nikki
Daly, Shirley McCay and their captain Katie Mullan.
England will certainly need to be wary of
their key players and be disciplined in defence, however the opportunity for us
when we get the ball on the attack will be exciting. We have an incredibly fast
midfield and forward unit that are creative and can eliminate lines meaning we
can get in behind the defence.
We will need to balance this part of our
game with good elements of control too, if we are poor with the ball and the play
becomes disjointed and so called “Ping-Pong” this will kindly play into the
Irish hands and make the game more of a struggle and a battle.
I back our varied game, tactical awareness
and team understanding and this game will be a great challenge for us to show
this.
To watch the game you can tune into BT Sport 3 at 1.30pm GMT, the girls would love your support and you really
make a difference. GOOD LUCK GIRLS!!