The England Senior Team has won this years Tourcoing tournament undefeated and things are looking good for a strong showing at the World’s.

This morning, with England having already qualified for the finals, the team defeated Fontenay RHC in their final Group match in what Coach Carlos Amaral says was “our best performance of the tournament!”

England played a restricted man to man within their own half of the rink and, with the exception of a well played opposition counter attack goal, the defence did not allow a single shot to touch the goalkeeper, Ian Smith, in the first half!

“The players took this match very seriously” said Carlos, “the result is a credit to them.”

What made this 3-1 victory extra special was the presence of ‘ring in’s’ from the St Omer team that came to fortify England’s opponent and yet England where convincing winners with Mark Waddingham, Jez I’anson and Darrel Pearce each scoring superb goals.

Having grown in confidence from their undefeated run, a motivated England faced a significantly reinforced Tourcoing in the final this afternoon.

“They scored against us in the first 30 seconds and then again a few minutes later!” said Coach Amaral “we where all surprised so I called a time out to settle things and change our plans.”

England soon swung the balance of the match back to them, against a very strong opponent, by changing their defence to a three quarter rink man to man (still in the first half!!) which they kept going for the remainder of the match.

With just 6 minutes to go, and still 2-0 down in a thriller, England came back with 3 successive goals which where established by great team plays using intensive passing that broke Tourcoing dogged defence to win the match 3-2.

Scorers in this come from behind victory where Darell Pearce, Jez I’anson and Neil Austin who each finish the team moves with sensational shots to the corners of the net.

“This tournament was a great opportunity for us to build in confidence and the teams spirit and motivation are at an all time high!” Coach Amaral told PRH “we have more work to do, but the I am very pleased.”

To add to this victory, and resurgence in English Roller Hockey, the team where presented not only with the Winners trophy but also the ‘Best Offence’ trophy and ‘Best Defence’ trophy, something long time supporters of England should smile about!

Well done to the Players and their Coach!!!

More info:
Reporter: Kos Galtos