Five Nations Championships 2025: Day one round-up

Cameron Hook top-scored with 14 points as Scotland secured a 25-20, 25-23, 25-21 straight sets win over Northern Ireland in the opening game, whilst hosts England eased to a 25-10, 25-18, 25-20 victory over Ireland. 

After taking a 3-0 lead in the opening set, it all looked to be going Scotland’s way, but they were unable to shake Northern Ireland off, with the result probably being a little harsh on the Irish who competed well throughout. They will now look to get off the mark when they face England in their next match tomorrow morning. 

Host nation England, meanwhile, took the opening set against Ireland relatively comfortably, with the second and third sets being much tighter affairs as the English utilised their squad, but they still proved too strong. 

England’s Ben Lucas, said, “We're happy with the result but there were things we could have improved on. 

“There were a lot of errors on our side, but we’ve got a new team and a lot of younger guys who are still trying to figure out those connections, but by the end of this tournament we should be flying high and getting the good links together,” continued Ben. 

“I think it’s just being clinical on those balls, and we need to make sure we are perfect. 

“Free balls, every single time we need to be putting the ball away, we can’t be over-passing the free ball like I did, we need to make everything the best we can, because we need to dictate the whole game. 

“If we let the other team do it, that’s when you get beaten.” 

Looking ahead to tomorrow's clash against Northern Ireland, Ben admitted that their opening defeat to the Scots may not be a good thing for his side. 

“It doesn’t really help us in a sense [NI losing to Scotland] because we don’t really know what to expect [from Northern Ireland]. 

“We’ve had someone watching them, to see what they’re going to do tomorrow, but they’re a tough team. 

“They’ve beaten Scotland previously, and Scotland always give us a tough game, but if we play well, and do the right things, then hopefully we should win.”

In the corresponding women’s fixtures that followed, Scotland were comfortable 25-11, 25-18, 17-25, 25-10 winners over Northern Ireland, whilst England also needed four sets to see off Ireland, triumphing 25-13, 20-25, 25-12, 25-16. 

After trading the opening two sets, hosts England pulled away from Ireland in the third and fourth sets to seal an opening night victory. 

England captain, Molly Van Essen said: “We learned a lot [from Ireland], we showed what we can do, we got a lot of good service runs in there, which is something as a team we want to be good at. 

“It was a shame to drop a set, but it gave us some lessons to be learnt. There were a lot of positives to take away from the game.” 

Looking ahead to England’s next match against Northern Ireland tomorrow morning, Molly is expecting a similar challenge to that posed by Ireland. 

“We expect them to be hustling in defence and take us to long rallies,” she said. 

“I expect them to play a similar game, so for us, it’s focussing on ourselves and controlling the amount of errors we make and keeping them as low as possible.” 

Scotland, meanwhile, looked in total control in the opening two sets of their victory over the Irish, but a stirring comeback from Zara Bolton’s team saw Northern Ireland take the third set. However, that only saw the Scots go up a gear to dominate set four and take the three points. 

Holly Scott, who played a key role in Gail Wilson’s side’s win, said: "I think we slipped a bit in the third set, but we brought it back, and hopefully we can carry that energy into the games tomorrow and keep going on this strong line.” 

Holly is new to international volleyball but is under no illusions that there are no easy games. 

“I’m expecting a tough challenge [against Ireland] but I think we can carry good energy into tomorrow and hopefully get the win,” she said. 

“We just need to keep the energy up like we did in that match and if we do we can win [tomorrow].” 

The round-robin stages for both the men and the women conclude tomorrow, with Ireland v Scotland and England v Northern Ireland taking place in the morning, whilst the afternoon sees the all-Ireland derbies, before England’s teams take on their Scottish counterparts. 

Article by Andy Durrant. Images by Keeran Marquis.