Izzy Dean admitted a calm approach was key as the women’s water polo team held on to record their first victory of the 2015 European Games. Despite defeats to Greece, Germany and the Netherlands, Team GB went into Monday’s in confident mood of learning from their previous mistakes.

It started off well as Otter Mhairi Nurthen got the first goal of the game inside seven minutes before the girls finished the first quarter 4-2 up. GB continued to lead at the half-way point too with two goals from Otter Katherine Rogers plus a second for Nurthen taking the score out to 7-3. Both Nurthen and Rogers completed their hat-tricks in the third quarter but Israel were not prepared to roll over and suddenly the pressure was on coach Nick Buller’s team with the scores at 11-9 to Team GB with four and a half minutes to play.

Thankfully two Grace Rowland efforts, the latter completing her own hat-trick, gave Team GB some breathing space as they ran out eventual 13-9 winners.

"We're really happy to win but we did make it a little bit harder than it could have been,” said Dean. “We rushed our shots a bit in some moments but obviously to get a win is really exciting for us.