Great Britain have started their European Championships defence in scintillating form with wins over Poland (57-32) and Ireland (65-27) on the opening two days of the tournament.
Coach Paul Shaw has been able to give all of his squad minutes on the court in both games as the side prepare for their final Group B match of the campaign against Denmark, who are ranked third in Europe.
Denmark have also been in good form this week, beating Ireland 57-42 on the opening day before seeing off a spirited Poland team 52-38. Whoever wins in the match between GB and Denmark tomorrow will top the group and are likely to face the winners of either France or Germany who are battling for second spot in Group A.
Ollie Mangion (pictured above), one of the new faces in Shaw’s squad thinks that the side are well up for the challenge of Denmark tomorrow: “I think we are well prepared for the game, we have trained hard over the last few months for games against the stronger teams in this tournament and hopefully that will show on court.”
Mangion, who plays for Canterbury and only started playing the sport in 2014 says that even he can’t believe his progression into the national team: “For me it feels like jumping into a fire. I am still learning the ropes and seeing how everything works. I have really enjoyed the experience of being around these high level players and learning from them and hopefully that will make me a better player.”
Assistant Coach Darren Matthews (pictured above) thinks that Denmark will be a tough game when the two teams go wheel-to-wheel at 2pm (UK time): “Denmark have some very good high point players who are very dominant on court.
“It is all about taking one game at a time and that is what we have been trying to do. These last two games have prepared us for the Denmark game, we have used different line ups, tried to see how the players work with each other and see how the patterns work.”
Watch the team live via the following link:
//sportdeutschland.tv/rollstuhlrugby/iwrf-rollstuhlrugby-europameisterschaft-2017
Picture credit: Karol Malec
