Stingers Put Team GB to the Sword

Despite the roaring home crowd, Australia has punished Great Britain with a 16-3 win in the women’s water polo – their highest ever winning margin in an Olympics.

The more favoured team leading into tonight’s battle with the Brits, the Australians came out firing, knowing that the home crowd advantage and Britain’s recent surge in form could see the game go either way.

After a succession of turnovers and subtle shots, Australia scored in the fourth minute after Brits goalie Rosie Morris was caught out of position and the ball floated in off the touch of Sophie Smith.

The Aussies quickly added another goal with a nice net to Ash Southern, the 19-year-old young gun of the Stingers team.

Despite being on the receiving end of some slightly ambiguous foul calls, Southern had a big game, scoring three goals from four attempts.

“We stuck to the game plan and everything turned out well, so I’m really happy with that,” Southern said. “It’s pretty amazing (playing at the Olympics). This is one my first major tournaments so hopefully I can just keep improving.”

After the early onslaught, GB’s Clare Gibson-Byrne attempted to get back in the game with a big swim. Picking up a foul on Australian Kate Gynther along the way, her shot was stopped in goal by Stingers veteran Alicia McCormack.

Shortly after, Briton Fiona McCann received a 20-second exclusion for a foul and Southern took the most of the opportunity to convert, scoring her second goal of the game.

With just a minute to go in the first quarter, GB’s Chloe Wilcox cleared a goal just over McCormack’s right shoulder to bring the score to 3-1.

An early British exclusion in the second quarter gave way for the Aussies to extend their lead, bringing them up to 4-1 and shortly afterwards, great defence by Southern provide a catalyst that paid dividends as the Aussie turnover turned into a stunning goal for centre forward Gemma Beadsworth.

A huge knock by Britain’s Fran Leighton saw Australia grab a penalty shot at goal and Rowie Webster made the most of the opportunity to get another point on the board, cleaning up the goal to bring Australia to 6-1 and starting a scoring crusade for the 24-year-old that would see her end the match with five goals from seven attempts.

In the second half, the Australian team well and truly ran away with the ball, making the most of some early momentum to dominate play, and the scoreboard.

Bronwen Knox committed a penalty foul just under mid-way through the third quarter which set up a penalty shot for the Brits, which they were successfully able to convert, but the goal would be their last.

Taking control back for her team, captain Kate Gynther responded with a quick shot at goal and a scoring spree soon followed.

A strong display of teamwork and strategy from the Australia team saw them put together a sequence of plays that time after time saw them find the back of the net, ending with 16 goals and an impressive 51.6 per cent goal rate.

“The crowd was roaring,” Webster said. “It was awesome to pay in a full stadium – it was like The Ashes in the water.”

“They wanted to come out and prove they are one of the top teams and they put up a good fight, we just had to stick to our game plan and we’ve been together a lot longer so that worked to our advantage.”

Coach Greg McFadden was pleased with his team’s performance, but knows that the hard work is yet to come when the Stingers face Russia on Friday.

“The girls played really well as a team,” McFadden said. “Their whole game was excellent. There are always things to work on, but we definitely played better than we did against Italy. Our defence was so strong tonight.”

The Stingers squad featured WAIS athletes Gemma Beadsworth and Glencora Ralph.