England U18s head to Czechia for Junior Women's EU Nations Cup

The final of three EU Nations tournaments for Swim England’s water polo squads gets underway tomorrow as England’s U18 women take part in the Junior Women’s EU Nations Cup.

Nick Hume’s young side head to Brno, Czechia for the eight-team competition as they continue their preparation for the U18 European Championships next year.

The 14-strong squad features a number of players with international experience, including Amelie Perkins and Lily Ross who were a part of Great Britain’s squad for the European U19 Championships earlier this year.

They helped the British team to ninth place in that event and will be hoping to lead this squad to another strong finish throughout the three-day competition in Brno.

England have been drawn in Group A where they will face Slovakia, Switzerland and a City of Sheffield side that will give more British players the opportunity to impress against international opposition.

England’s first match will be against Sheffield at 8:30am (UK time) on Friday morning before they face Switzerland at 3:30pm to round out the opening day.

On Saturday they face Slovakia at 9:40am to complete the group stage, where they’ll be looking to secure a top two finish to put themselves into the semi-finals and a guaranteed medal match.

The semi-finals will take place on Saturday evening with the matches for the final placings and medals being held on Sunday.

Commenting ahead of the competition, Swim England Water Polo Programme Lead, Craig Figes, believes this event is a really exciting one for the group.

He said: “This tournament is a really exciting one for the junior women as they begin their build up to the European Championships in 2025.

“It gives the coaching staff the opportunity to watch many of their players compete under international conditions, which will help the players progress for future tournaments.

“We wish them the best of luck for the event and hope it’s the start of a period of success for this group.”

If you want to watch each of matches you can follow the live stream on the Czech Water Polo YouTube channel whilst all the results from the event will be available here.

You can see the full England squad for the event below.