Britain 'heading in right direction'

Britain entered a men's water polo team at an Olympics for the first time since Melbourne 1956 at London 2012, battling valiantly but losing all five of their games in the capital.

The team travelled to Tbilisi in Georgia for the first round of the Euro 2014 qualifiers and lost 12-3 to the host nation first up before recovering to beat Poland 11-3 a day later.

Britain then dispatched the Czech Republic 17-4 before drawing 5-5 with an experienced Slovakian team in their final game of the tournament to finish third behind their opponents and Georgia.

And Figes, who captained the British team at London 2012, was encouraged by how they grew into the tournament in Georgia.

"After a very disappointing start in our first game against Georgia, we played better and better throughout the tournament," said Figes. "We finished with a very good performance against a strong and experienced Slovakian team.

"If we build on our last performance for the next round then we can beat any team in the qualification pool and have a good chance of progressing to the 2014 Europeans."