YOUNG ROSES DOMINATE AT NETBALL EUROPE

Roses Pathway Head Coach sees her charges sweep all before them.

Across five games at the European Netball Division 1 Finals in Belfast, the Young England U17s squad triumphed to take the title thanks to a series of commanding performances that culminated in a demolition of Scotland in the final.

It was a true team performance. Four returning players – Sascha Dale, Neve Wright, Gracie Smith, and Shannon Mahlik, who captained the side – had been part of the cohort that won the title in 2024, while a freshened-up squad saw eight athletes gain their first caps at U17 level.

With responsibilities shared across the squad, the young Roses powered past the UAE with a dominant 92-19 victory, before dispatching Wales (89-16) and then, in back-to-back wins, Northern Ireland (81-15 and 66-16).

The final against Scotland began tightly before the young Roses ran away from their opponents, eventually taking the match by a score of 60-25.

For Roses Pathway Head Coach, Sonia Mkoloma, the tournament showcased some of the best young talents in the English game on a stage that will only help them further down the line, while the fact that the squad were firm favourites going into the tournament brought its own pressure.

“We were expected to win and I think in a way that’s a good thing. We have to enjoy winning, we have to set the standard of winning. Overall the team displayed outstanding skill, teamwork, and determination.”

Preparation was key to the team’s success. Targets were clearly set, and then a lot of work done behind the scenes, including extensive video analysis, to ensure that the girls were in the best place to perform. And while winning is a tonic, at this stage in the players’ development, every experience informs their knowledge of the game. “I’m always about: where can we make those little improvements, both as an individual, as a unit or as a team? For the girls, yes we are going to win, but actually, every time you play you see something different and you get different learnings.”

For Mkoloma, it’s all vital experience for her charges. “I sit in a pathway space, so my aim is to get them in and give them exposure and then move them up the pathway. It was a nice mix of new girls into the squad, and actually to be fair, to all the girls that came in, they were all there on merit.”

Though the age-range was broad, the cohort were all very much there based on performance. “These were players that were performing well at NPL and tournaments. So actually, they were deserving. It just so happened that a lot of them were younger, but that wasn’t our initial intention. I was just looking for the best 12 players from our point of view that were in England in that age group to compete.”

Captain Mahlik was thrilled with how the team stood up. “At the start of the week, we came up with four words to describe how we wanted to represent in the red dress, which were ‘mighty’, ‘tenacious’, ‘gifted’ and ‘proud’. We showed all of these in each game and reached our goals and targets.”