Great Britain captain Lynn McCafferty believes her team can still mount a challenge in their European Championship group in spite of losing their first two matches.

The GB team lost 30-20 away to Austria and were then humbled by former world champions France 42-16 at Crystal Palace last weekend.

Scot McCafferty admits lessons were learned against the powerful French.

“We were obviously trying to give them as
much back and it’s hard to sustain it because we are still developing," she said.

"We will get fitter, stronger and better as time goes on.

“This match wasn’t about us coming out and saying ‘we can shock everyone and win’.

"It was about seeing how far we have come and how far away from France we are and what we can do about it.

“We are looking at developing further before the return match in France in May - we are in this competition to compete, not to make up the numbers.”