England left Cardiff today with one win from a brace of matches on the last day of the Under 16 Home Nations’ Tournament. Coincidentally, both finals were decided on penalty strokes – perhaps an unexpected outcome for the England girls, who had dominated the round-robin stage of the tournament and had previously beaten their opponents, Ireland, 4-1, in the preliminary stages. In fact Ireland had taken a 1-0 lead into the break, which they increased to 2-0 within seconds of the restart. England’s Sarah Haycroft found the net from a penalty corner soon after and ten minutes later Georgia Rawlinson put the sides on even terms. The score remained at 2-2 until full time and was finally decided on penalty strokes. Final score 5-4.
The boys’ story was very similar, with their opponents, Scotland, taking first blood from a penalty corner just before half-time. Ben Stoney was able to pull one back for England early in the second half, but Scotland found the net a second time from a penalty corner strike. Sevenoak’s George Torry scored England’s second with ten minutes left and the score after normal time was 2-2 and had to be decided on strokes. Unfortunately, Scotland prevailed winning the match 3-2.
UNDER 21 TRAINING MATCHES IN UTRECHT
It was shared honours for England and the Netherlands in this match, with England going into the break 3-1 up. The Dutch scored twice in open play in the second half, the final goal being scored in the 67th minute. Final score 3-3.
Yesterdays training match between the two sides had to be abandoned after 37 minutes with the Netherlands 1-0 ahead. Torrential rain made further play impossible.
