At the start of July, I went away with the Wales U16 boys and girls to their first European 5s tournament in Croatia.

For the players, this was their first time playing in an official EuroHockey tournament, and for some of the staff, including myself, it was our first experience of a European Hockey tournament setup.

It was very professional, with lots of rules and regulations which needed to be strictly followed. Both the girls and boys played fantastically, and they all carried themselves in a very professional manner. Some of the teams we played included Switzerland, Ukraine, Poland and Turkey to name a few.

The girls had a terrific start with an 11-0 win, and the boys had a battling first game to start off their tournament. Emotions were very high in all the games, and two, in particular, stood out for me as I was standing on the sideline with my head in my hands. One particularly tough game for the girls was against Croatia, when they were dominating the whole game when suddenly Croatia levelled the score line late on. Worse was to come – with 10 seconds left, they hit the ball from the halfway line and it went it (this is allowed in 5s, as the areas are different to 11 aside pitches).

One for the boys, was against Slovakia, when the score was tied at the end of the match. This meant they had to go to a shoot-out (kind of like a shuffles in the 11 aside game). It was so intense standing on the pitch arm-in-arm as a team. It went all the way to sudden death, with our last player going to take his shot and needing to score in order for us to win. He scored, and the relief and joy the team shared was something I have not experienced before.

The tournament was an amazing experience for players, parents, and staff. We all learned so much from it, and it gave us a real insight into the professional standards and expectations of everyone at these events.

Miss Tyler