The four sides are taking part in a week-long festival in Cardiff which culminates in Wales taking on USA at Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday. Netherlands will play Scotland in the curtain-raiser in the double header.
“We got together on Saturday at Cardiff University as a squad of 29 players,” said Lillicrap. “We’ve had three training days into a festival day where everyone had an opportunity to play. We played every nation on Monday with 30-minute games with Scotland, USA and the Netherlands.
“We played the Netherlands first, drew against them, beat Scotland and lost to USA, so a mixture of results but a huge learning experience for us all involved.
“Upon reflection the girls probably haven’t played for three months games wise so it is the start of the new season for us. This week is really valuable in terms for the girls having an intense training camp to develop, learn, review and perform. We hope it gives them the tools to kick on away from our environment and see their individiausl performance enhance in the college leagues this year.
“This week is a huge positive in terms of development really which puts us in much better stead for the 12 months ahead.”
While performance is the objective for the Under 18s, Lillicrap said her side will review the loss to USA to ensure they are fully prepared for the challenge ahead – this is all part of the learning and development.
“It’s a good opportunity for us, we lost against them but the girls will get to review that game and look to what we can put in place for the weekend so that the week we are going through is invaluable for them.
“Even though we are focusing on development we are all competitive people being sports people and the girls will want to finish on a high and do well against USA on Saturday.
“It’s always nice to win at the same time even though that isn’t what we are focussing on I’m sure the girls will want to finish on a high.”
