Scotland U21 to play Germany

Scotland’s U21 women challenge European Champions Germany 1-3 November at LLZ sports complex in Cologne, Germany as a benchmark for their preparations for the European Championships next year.

Manager Sheila Gray said: “Playing Germany, a top world team, will test the girls’ fitness and game play. It will show them the standards they’ll be up against at the European Championships in 2010. This way, they’ll know what they have to hit and, importantly, have enough time to do it.”

Olympian Rhona Simpson will coach the troops as the ex GB great moved up with players from the U18 squad last year. Gray added: “This camp will give Rhona, as new head coach, another chance to see players after our first camp against Ulster in September. Despite the matches being uncapped, players will get quality tournament experience as play will be intense.”

25 players are currently in the squad with 19 travelling to Cologne. The squad is still considered to be in down time as the official international season starts in March. But Simpson and staff want to be ahead of the game and identify strengths and weaknesses now to confirm their programme for 2010.

“This is our third year for this camp and it comes at an important stage of developing our team. The squad is a combination of U21 players from last year who are still eligible and U18s that have moved up, so we’re really looking to mould them together and find areas of focus.”

The Scots play Germany: Sunday, 1 November at 17:30; Monday, 2 November at 17:30; Tuesday, 3 November at 11:00 in Cologne.