Larsson stars but Britain slump to another defeat

GREAT Britain's handball team slumped to a second straight loss against African champions Tunisia at the Marrane Cup in Paris.

INFLUENTIAL: Steven Larsson scores eight goals but Great Britain still lose to African champions Tunisia

However, the 23-33 scoreline was a major improvement with Steven Larsson, Great Britain's star man - contributing eight goals.

"It's been his first game for three weeks, so he didn't play the whole game," said assistant coach Bill Baillie. 

"But he oozes confidence, and when we took him off the other players were able to keep it together.

"We had a rough patch where Tunisia went from 16-13 to 22-13, but the difference between this game and last week was that we didn't lose our heads and we battled back well.

"We played much better than we did last week and it's been a real boost to our confidence."

The game also marked an impressive first cap for new-find Phillip Furley, a 27-year-old playmaker who plays for Bammental in Germany.

He made a big impact in both defence and attack, and helped stem the flow of Tunisian goals when GB were under the cosh. Furley ended the match with three goals, as did left back Martin Hare.

In yesterday's opening match of the tournament Tunisia beat Qatar 34-25, and Baillie added: "We're going out to beat Qatar tomorrow.

"Having seen their game against Tunisia we've compared the stats and we think they're a similar level to us, so obviously we want to beat them."