"It was a good trip, and it was exactly what we needed"€ said Lara-Bercial. "We found out where we are, and we know what need to do to move on, so it was certainly useful."€ÂGB went down 75-44 in their first game against hosts Holland, before losing 82-56 against the same opposition a day later, with several players "€Â" and Lara-Bercial "€Â" suffering from a stomach bug. The tour was completed with a narrow 63-62 loss against a Canadian Universities All-Star team, and the Britain coach believes his side improved throughout the short tour:"We did better as the week progressed, despite the problems with the sickness. "We had a couple of players that stood out, but at this stage we are concentrating on the team as a whole and not highlighting individuals. "We were without three players who will join up with us. Mrashi Karumba, Verity Peets and Kashmere Joseph are three top quality players, and they"ll really help us. We were good last week, but we"ll be better with those three."€ The British team will face the Mali senior national team while in France, and Lara-Bercial is excited to be facing the African nation: "They are in the Olympics and they have a couple of players in the WNBA, so they are a pretty good team and it will be a steep learning curve for the team."€ÂBritain took an 11-player squad to Holland, but two of those players will not be join them in France; Kara Dougall, who has been released, while Charlotte Stoddart joins up with the England under-18 squad.

Lara-Bercial was assistant coach for the women"s senior team last season, helping them gain promotion to the European Championship B Division, and he"s looking forward to the new challenge: "I hope it doesn"t sound cheesy, but I"m happy to be involved in whatever capacity is best for the team. We"ve got a great structure, and in Andrea [Congreaves] and Ben [Rush] I couldn"t have asked for better assistants. "Andrea really wants to coach, she doesn"t just want to be an ex-player. It"s a great job, and we believe we have six or seven girls who have a serious chance of playing in the 2012 Olympics, so it"s really exciting."€ÂBritain travel to France on Friday 4 July before returning to Aldersshot on Monday July 7. They make the trip to Poland two days later, with the European Championships B Division commencing on Friday 11 July.