First game I’ve watched of the tournament, some initial notes:
1. Good shape, both teams. Both teams are holding their formation well too…
2. The crowd makes a different noise, there is no singing yet, and rather than the rising roar of the men’s crowd when play accelerates towards the goal, there is a rising shrill scream, reminiscent of the women’s swimming gala, or netball match.
3. there is some excellent skill on display and at least one or two crunching tackles.
4. The teams do look small and verging on slightly lost on the wide expanse of pitch. I can see why in some quarters there are calls to reduce the pitch size by 15% and make the ball commensurately smaller and lighter along with the goals, but that would probably be impractical.