Britain's men's water polo head coach Cristian Iordache believes his side will gain valuable lessons from London 2012, despite watching them fall to defeat in their opening group game 13-4 against Romania.
Iordache’s inexperienced team fell to a 13-4 defeat against Romania in Team GB’s first Olympic outing in the sport since Melbourne 1956.
And Iordache admitted Britain are on a steep learning curve as his side prepare to battle against the three medallists from Beijing 2008 – Serbia, USA and Hungary – who were all drawn in the same group.
“We need more time and games at this level,” said the Romanian after seeing his side outplayed by his more experienced countrymen.
“The Olympics are a great opportunity to show ourselves, but we need to focus on our team and not the other ones. We don’t even have to look at the scoreboard during the play.”
Team GB created a number of decent scoring opportunities but failed to capitalise as the Romanians, and the impressive Nicolae Diaconu, proved more clinical in front of goal.