Proud skipper Cathy Rogers praised the British team for their first World Championship title of 2024 with a convincing victory over Paris-bound South Africa in Doha.
A stunning 14-5 victory saw Nick Buller's side finish third in Group D and secure a place in the top 12 at the World Championships for the first time in more than a decade.
A great overall performance with a hat-trick from Toula Falvey, two goals from Rodgers, Katie Brown and Lily Turner, and goals from Katie Cutler, Annie Clapperton, Lotte van Wingerden, Brooke Taffazoli and Amelia Peters. concluded.
Player of the Match Rodgers said:
“I feel like the team's performance was great, to be able to come out here and put in that strong performance. I'm really proud of the girls.”
“It's been the craziest six months. It's been a wild journey from being the last team in the European Qualifiers to being here as World Champions.”
South Africa, who have already qualified for the 2024 Olympics, launched the first attack of the match but were then blown away by a merciless British side.
They led 5-2 at the end of the first quarter and extended their advantage to 9-2 at the halftime interval thanks to two of the four power-play goals scored during the game.
Falvey scored a hat-trick in the third quarter as England opened up an 11-goal cushion, and although South Africa won 2-0 in the final quarter, it could not dampen the British team's momentum.
big deal
The victory confirmed that Britain had achieved their first goal of the competition, and Falvey said he was looking forward to the rest of the competition.
“This was an important game for us,” Falvey said. “Coming into the tournament, we knew what was at stake.
“We had two tough games against Canada and Italy, but it was really big for South Africa to finish third in their group and move into the top 12 in the world.
“The last time GB competed at the worlds they were 13th in Barcelona. Breaking that was our first goal for this tournament and we achieved that.
“We're just going to move forward from now on. We really want to get into this top 12 and play against bigger teams and show them what we've got.
“We set a few different goals for the tournament and this was our first.
“We want to challenge the 9-on-10 game. We want to think about what else we can do and show them what we have.
“We have some good players on this team, we play as a team, and we're really excited about the future.”
The British team will face Group C runners-up either Australia or Hungary in the Round of 16 on Saturday, February 10th.
