2024 has been a fantastic year for our senior international men.
Wales’ senior men have had an impressive year. we witnessed two victorious international campaigns against Scotland and Austria alongside a fantastic European Qualifier campaign which saw a number of players achieve impressive milestones.
Across the year, seven young players were awarded their first senior international caps with further milestones including Owain Dolan Gray collecting his 150th international cap and Alf Dinnie celebrating his 50th cap for Wales.
Senior Men’s captain Ben Francis summarised the year by commenting:
“It’s been a very positive year leading the senior men’s group. It’s been great seeing younger players join the squad, get their first experience of international hockey and put in big performances in test series wins. I believe we have set ourselves up well for what is going to be an exciting 2025.
From a personal perspective it is an honour and a privilege to captain the senior men, something you dream of as a child growing up playing hockey in Wales.”
Similarly, the U21s had a great year of development, with quality test series against England, a fantastic Tri Nations event against Ireland and Scotland and their European Championships in Switzerland alongside many training camps.
Our Wales National Age Group Boys also had a large variety of activity this year, with a new coaching group it was a great opportunity for them to build foundations. Our U18s competed against Ulster at Easter and England in May. They then went head to head with some top hockey nations in the summer including Holland, Spain and Ireland. Challenges which will have stretched and developed them in preparations for the 2025 U18 EuroHockey Championships II.
Our U16 players got a first taste of international hockey with the new 5s format, a test series against Switzerland at Easter was followed by U16 EuroHockey Championships 5s in the summer. Another great opportunity to expose our players to international hockey and tournament experience.
The success of our male players also extended beyond our Welsh borders with four senior players making appearances for the Great Britain Squad. Toby Reynolds-Cotterill secured more GB caps at the FIH Pro League, Gareth Furlong officially made the centralised squad and joined his teammates Jacob Draper and Rupert Shipperley at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Furthermore, Fred Newbold and Owen Sutton secured their places in the GB Elite Development Programme.
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