England U18s take home gold at Junior Women's EU Nations Cup

The England U18 women’s team went undefeated as they won gold at the EU Nations Junior Women’s Cup tournament in Brno, Czechia.

England scored a total of 80 goals and conceded just 39 on their way to an impressive five wins from five at the ‘Za Lužánkami’ pool.

The U18 team started with two strong performances on the opening day, defeating Sheffield 19-8 and convincingly getting past Switzerland 21-5.

That put them top of Group A ahead of their final match in the group, where they then faced Slovakia to decide who would take top spot.

Both teams came into the match full of confidence, but it was Nick Hume’s side who came out on top as England progressed in top spot after an 11-9 victory.

Amelie Perkins led the scoring with eight goals as she continued her fine 2024, which has included both senior and U19 European Championship appearances.

Her three goals in the third quarter alone helped England come from behind after a good first half saw the Slovakians lead 6-5 at the interval.

But in the closing stages, England won both final quarters to top the group and book a semi-final with Ukraine.

Fighting spirit

England had to come from behind in both the semi-final and the final on their way to gold.

Their fighting spirit was clear to see after a disappointing opening quarter against Ukraine left them 5-3 behind after the opening eight minutes.

Nick Hume’s side responded well defensively, only conceding a goal in each of the remaining three quarters to run out 13-8 winners.

Josephine Lamont-Tuskett top scored in the semi-final – with a hat trick – whilst Perkins, Harriet Bates and Elsie Graves each grabbed a brace as England booked a place in the final against hosts Czechia.

The final was a similar story with the hosts, buoyed by the home crowd, storming into a 4-2 lead after the opening period.

England once again bounced back though as they went on to a comfortable 16-9 victory.

Six goals in the second period turned the game on it’s head, with Perkins grabbing four whilst Lamont-Tuskett and Taylor put England into an 8-6 lead after the next eight minutes.

From then on England never looked back and asserted their dominance on the match, winning the final two quarters 4-1 and 4-2.

Perkins took her total to six, with Elsie Graves (two), Harriet Bates, Amelia Crompton, India Knights-Hume, Alice Berill, Jaspreet Gill and captain Lily Ross completed the England goalscorers.

The celebrations weren’t done there as Perkins’ form in front of her goal also saw her collect the tournament’s top goal scorer award with a staggering 29 goals in just five matches.

Sheffield and Hawks impress at high level

Two other British sides also took part in the tournament with the City of Sheffield bringing the England Sheffield side and the British Hawks which was made up of players from a number of clubs, including several from the City of Coventry.

The Sheffield side put in a strong performance at the competition, defeating two international sides on their way to sixth place overall.

They finished third in Group A after beating Switzerland 9-6 and losses to England and Slovakia.

Bouncing back in the 5-8 place semi-finals they ran out 11-7 victors over Scotland before narrowly losing out to in their second match with Switzerland in the fifth-place match (8-10).

The British Hawks meanwhile had a similar tournament as battled with Scotland throughout the tournament.

They defeated the 10-6 Scots in the group stage to secure third in Group B, following opening day defeats to Ukraine and Czechia.

That also put them in the 5-8 place semi-finals where they unfortunately lost out to Switzerland, which set up a rematch with Scotland in the seventh-place match.

In a close contest, the Hawks drew level at 11-11 with less than 15 seconds to go. However, Scotland fired in a winner just three seconds from time to avenge their earlier defeat and secure seventh spot.

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.