Helen Housby stars as England beat Wales in Merthyr
Sunday 12 July 2015 21:22, UK
Manchester Thunder’s Helen Housby played a starring role by scoring 24 goals in England’s 65-31 friendly win over Wales at Merthyr Leisure Centre.
The 20-year-old goal shooter ended with a 92.3 per cent success rate with 24 goals from 26 shots as Tracey Neville’s side started their countdown to next month’s World Cup in Australia with a confidence-boosting success.
Wales, ranked eighth in the world, were highly competitive in the opening quarter and trailed by only four goals at 11-15.
But by half-time the English advantage had grown to 13 thanks mainly to the accuracy of Housby and Pamela Cookey, who scored with 17 of their 19 shots in the second quarter.
Housby was replaced by Rachel Dunn in the third quarter, but returned to shoot 11 out of 11 in the final quarter to steer England to a comfortable victory.
England head coach Tracey Neville was pleased to have given all her players a work-out after six days in camp and she was full of praise for the Welsh effort.
“Congratulations to Wales, we didn’t really know what to expect, but they started very well against us and went hard all the way. They have certainly come on from the last time we met them,” said Neville.
“My team has made major strides ever since they came together and it was good to get everyone out on court. Now it is just a case of adding some finesse to our game.”
England are drawn with Jamaica, Samoa and Scotland in Pool B in Australia and kick-off their World Cup campaign against the Scots on August 7, the same day as Wales open up against Fiji.
