Alicia Scholes: Young London Pulse squad using ‘brutal’ conversations to get results

England Roses wing attack Alicia Scholes believes the “passion” of the young group of players at London Pulse will spur them on to big things in the Super League season.

Speaking on the Sky Sports Netball: Off The Court podcast, Scholes, who is the daughter of Manchester United legend Paul Scholes, opened up on how the young squad at Pulse are driving each other this season using a ‘sink or swim’ attitude.

With one of the youngest squads in the Netball Super League, the fourth-placed side are relying on high standards and “brutal” conversations to get results.

“I think the main thing for us is that there is no room for being inexperienced and young because we are all in the same boat,” Scholes said.

“When I had my first year at Thunder, you were in the most comfortable environment and you were surrounded by people who had played for years, so there was room to be new and fresh and make mistakes.

“But for us at Pulse, you can’t look around and think ‘I am nervous, I am new, I am inexperienced, she can help me’, because we are all in the same boat.

“Without realising, that has been massive for us.

“It is so brutal but we all just take it from each other. You have to take it off everyone because everyone is giving it and we have such high expectations of each other, there is no room to be young or new.

“There was a tiff in training the other day and I was joking to my dad about it, saying it is so intense people are actually arguing and he was like ‘that is how it should be’.

“It just shows so much passion and everybody wants to win so badly.”

Pulse got off to a bad start to the season with a tough 56-40 loss to Manchester Thunder, with 16 unforced errors coming from the London side.

However, they have bounced back with a massive 53-52 win over 2023 champions Loughborough Lightning, which Scholes believes will help them set the tone for the season and show that they are a team to be feared.

“I think we definitely discussed in training that, after we had started the season, that game was going to be massive in how we carried on,” she added.

“It was almost like we needed to prove to ourselves that we are still good enough and we are very much contending with the top teams.

“I think the first game caught us off guard a bit. I don’t mean we weren’t prepared but we just weren’t awake yet and we weren’t ready for how physical that first game was going to be.

“It is almost like we sort of needed that, a wake-up call, then the Loughborough game, it was like we had a kick up the butt.

“We really just had to prove to ourselves that we are competing and if we can take Loughborough, it will set the tone for the rest of the season that we are a team to be feared.”

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