Carn Brea Storm's young players did the club proud when they took on Wales Under-15s in a friendly at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff.

Following an invite at Christmas to play the National squad, Storm were determined to enjoy the experience and everyone was in high spirits despite the 5 am start.

Arriving at the impressive Welsh Institute of Sport at 9:45am the squad had plenty of time to settle into the venue and take in the surroundings of the main hall where only the night before the Celtic Dragons lost to the Yorkshire Jets in a Fiat Superleague game.

Storm were missing their regular circle defensive combination of Rebecca Pearse (unavailable) and Evie-Mai Hagger (injured) so started with Stacey Bradley at Goal Keeper and Beth Thomas at Goal Defence.

Holly Filkins was at Wing Defence, Martha Hilliard at Centre, Hollie Coles at Wing Attack with the shooting partnership of Rebecca Hocking at Goal Attack and Laura Butler at Goal Shooter.

Storm scored first and the opening quarter was goal for goal until the final four minutes when Wales pulled out a five goal lead to take the period 16-11.

Determined to give the whole squad the experience of playing against a very strong national side, Head Coach David White made some changes at quarter time with 12 year old Lucy Brigly coming on at Goal Keeper, Bradley moving to Goal Defence, Thomas to Wing Attack and Coles to the bench.

The home side took control of the quarter to extend their lead to 30-19 at the half-time break.

Reverting to the line up of the first quarter Storm started to put some good play together but were forced to call an injury time after shooter Laura Butler landed awkwardly and needed treatment on her right leg.

She continued and Storm didn't let the break affect them winning the quarter 16-11 to trail 41-35 at three quarter time.

Laura Budd replaced Coles for the final quarter but an unfortunate fall immediately after the first centre pass forced her off court injured after just a minutes play.

Storm looked to close the gap but Wales held firm to take the game 55-46 despite a tremendous effort from the Hurricanes squad.

White was full of praise for the way the girls performed; "I thought we did a terrific job and really held our own against a tough Wales team. We gave it a good go and the girls played very well putting some nice netball together. They are a very good team, really fast and played well together so we're delighted we managed to give them such a close game."

Louisa-Jayne Daniell, Head Coach of the Wales team also complimented the Storm players; "It was a great game, we really enjoyed it and it was the toughest match we've had."

The game was watched by a fair sized crowd who made themselves heard throughout but in the stands was someone who was watching more intently than others. Melissa Hyndman is the Wales senior Head Coach and Coach of the Superleague team Celtic Dragons and she was an interested observer.

After the game she had a chat with Storm coach David White and also the playing squad. She said; "You did very well throughout the game. David and I have been talking about the talent pathway and there is certainly some talent in your team, well done!"

Storm took a coach load of supporters to the game and White said it was a great day for the club; "Everyone had a terrific time on the journey and also when watching the game. We've got tremendous supporters anyway so we knew they would enjoy themselves which they did but the players, as always, did the club proud with their behaviour off court and their performance during the match. I'm extremely proud of every one of them."

After the match the two squads got together for a meal and a return game has already been confirmed for early October in Cornwall.

"We're delighted that Louisa-Jayne and Welsh Netball invited us up to Cardiff to play and we'd like to say a big thank you to them," said White. "We're also thrilled that they wanted to arrange a return fixture. We've got a date set in the diary for early October so it will be great to get them down to Carn Brea and show them some Cornish hospitality."