Captain Craig Figes admits Great Britain’s water polo side don’t know what to expect from their opponents as they begin the quest to qualify for the 2014 LEN European Championships.
In what will be their first competitive match since London 2012, Britain will take on hosts Georgia today (Thursday April 4) in qualification Group A in Tbilisi.
It will be the first of four games in three days, with Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia also lying in wait for Figes and co.
While the gruelling schedule might test the fitness of his troops, Figes claims the pre-tournament camp held in Barcelona at the end of March will stand them in good stead.
But he concedes the results may prove unpredictable given the lack of games against the other hopefuls.
“It’s difficult to predict the results, lots of teams are at different stages,” said Figes. “Georgia has lost a lot of experienced players recently, and we haven’t played Poland or Czech Republic for around five years so we don’t know how we compare at the moment.
“We’ll be playing four games in three days, so it’s a tough schedule but we will do our best and put in 100 per cent and hopefully come away with some good results.
“The programme has been very much reduced but we’re looking forward to getting back into the water and playing together again.
“There has been a little bit more flexibility now as people are working full-time or have university commitments, some of the guys are training and playing full-time but it’s good to be back with the team.
“We’ve played two training matches per day (in Barcelona) with additional training too before we headed off to Georgia so this will help us to get back into the swing of things.”
© Sportsbeat 2013