Ugandan wing defence Irene Mirembe’s face says it all, as the team put up a great fight against Jamaica in the second match of the day
CAPETOWN – In a physical match against the Jamaican University team, the Ugandan’s put up quite a fight. Considering that there are a number of Sunshine Girls – who are ranked 4th in the world – in the Jamaican squad, a different score was expected. The Jamaicans only led by one goal after the first quarter (11/10), and by three after the second (23/20). After a pep-talk by coach Paula Daley Morris at half time, the team regrouped and broke away with a final third quarter score of 38/29. Despite the Ugandan team pocketing another 10 goals in the last quarter, the Jamaican’s proved their strength and took the game at 44/39.
Following the closely contested match between Jamaica and Uganda, was the predictable Ireland vs. USA match. Considering that Ireland put up a good fight against South Africa yesterday, losing to them by 10 goals in a 57/47 score), it was expected that they would beat the new kids on the block, USA, by quite a margin. The final score however, was not reflective of the girls in green attempts at goal, where only 67 goals were conceded out of 112 attempts. USA only managed to get 28 attempts at goal, of which 16 counted. Ireland coach Elaine McLaughlin said that she was glad to win against USA; “they play an unconventional style which became increasingly difficult as the game wore on.”
Despite Great Britain being the third ranked netball country in the world, Namibia did not allow the University side to overrule them. After a slow first quarter where Great Britain overshadowed the Namibian team by 16 goals to 5, the Namibians came back fighting and scored 10 goals to Great Britain’s 9 in the second quarter. However, they just weren’t strong enough, and Great Britain took the match with a strong third quarter and a final score of 62/33. Great Britain’s coach Colette Thompson wasn’t surprised that the Namibians had fought hard; “I think that all African netball nations have brilliant ball handling abilities, they just lack international experience. But exposure like today will help them grow from strength to strength.” Namibian coach Manuel Tjivera was content with the score, acknowledging that he had given all his players some game time, but put their goal difference down to a lack of concentration.”
(Source: OC)
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