2008 European Championship Finals

England vs. Wales
England 4 Wales 11

The final of the European Championship found an unexpected England verses an experienced Wales.The sides had already met in their opening match to the championships in which Wales had beaten England 12-3.

Physio Mike Gosling had managed to get the entire England Squad in shape for the final match – a boast few team had to offer. The Welsh looked confident in warm up, the English girls looked ready.

The game started in a disappointing fashion. The girls looked tired, second to the ball and less confident as they had in previous games. The score slipped away to 4-0 to the Welsh. Nicholls called her time outs and had stern words with her young squad. England had been down in previous games and clawed their to prevail; hope was not lost.

However, the goals kept slipping away from the England Squad. At half time the score was 7-1. Nicholls attempted to rally her troops.  Captains Wade and Ward kept their team hopeful.

The second half saw superb performances from  Tor Burrows and Alice Bruynseels, defending gallantly to prevent Welsh players testing out Ward. Kirsten Lafferty and Leah Templeman were running their legs off, but still the team could not find the electrifying click that they had achieved in previous games.

The score at the final whistle was 11-4; the Welsh celebrated.  England’s heads were down, not due to the loss, but because they knew they had played so much better in previous matches. However, what this team needed to realised was, in spite of the mistakes in the final match, they had surpassed so many expectations.

It could have been gold, but silver was so much better than so many people anticipated.

Alex Nicholls and Rebecca Roberts-Gawen would like, at this point, to pass on their compliments to a team that progressed in every game through the championships. This team was such a great bunch of girls who really clicked on and off the pitch. A silver medal was the least they deserved.