Saturday, 9 December 2023

Widnes Wild Players In GB Call Ups

Rhys Edwards in action for the Wild against Deeside (Photo by Ste Cunningham / Shots By Ste)

Widnes Wild NIHL team players Rhys Edwards and Kyle Carruth have been named in the Great Britain Under 18 squad to play two challenge matches against France next week in Sheffield. The matches have been arranged to help with final GB selection for the Under 18 World Championships which will be held in Poland next year.

Rhys Edwards was the Wild’s second highest scorer in the Moralee Division last season, in what was his first season playing at that level, but has missed much of this season due to injury.

Kyle Carruth joined the Wild this season on a 2-way deal with his home club Solway Sharks.  He has previously played with GB Under 16s and also played with the Under 18s in this year’s World Championships in Serbia back in April. 

GB U18 Head Coach Sean Easton said: “We have changed our prep up slightly this year with fewer training camps and to make the Christmas camp more challenging, we have brought France in to play.”

“For a lot of the players at a World Championship, the first game at a tournament is their first experience of playing international hockey and normally that’s the first game of the tournament - which we have lost two years running now.”

“These games will see give them the experience of playing an international team and over the three days, give them insight for the World Championship formation with morning training and afternoon games. These matches against France will help to make our team selections where we normally have to use training sessions. We can use game situations to make our selections.”

The Team GB Under 18s play France U18s at iceSheffield on Thursday 14th December (3pm face-off), as well as Friday 15th December (2pm) and admission is free for all spectators.