Last weeks European Schoolboys Championship in St Omer France was an exciting tournament that keenly demonstrated the sharp improvement in the quality of Roller Hockey outside of Spain and Portugal. The German team performed an upset with the strongest man-to-man defence of the championship to beat Italy 2-1 and to acquit themselves well with a 3-0 loss to a very strong Portuguese team, earning a place in the finals. England, who had worked extremely hard in the run up to the competition, proved to be a capable team that seemed intimidated by the speed and intensity of their opponents. “You can tell the players all you like about how it’s going to be, but there is no substitute for experience” said England Coach, Kos Galtos, “It became clear early in the Championship that our players just don’t have the match experience in hard games against strong, technical, opponents for them to have the confidence and intensity required at this level.”

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Reporter: Kos Galtos