Proteas dominate Northern Ireland in 3-test netball series

South Africa proved too strong for Northern Ireland in the opening test of the SPAR Netball Challenge at the Good Hope Centre on Monday night, winning by 61 goals to 37.

The exciting young player, Bongiwe Msomi, who came on at the end of the first quarter, had an outstanding game, and others to shine included player of the match, Amanda Mynhardt, and goal shooter, Chrisna Bootha, who achieved 80 per cent success, scoring 41 goals from 51 attempts.

“They were very physical, and that took us by surprise,” said Northern Ireland captain, Gemma Gibney. “They were stronger and faster than we were, and we were a bit heavy-legged, because seven players in our team had played in the World University Netball Championships last week.

Proteas captain, Amanda Mynhardt, said she was pleased with the team’s performance, although she believed they could do even better. “We made a number of unforced errors and we will be working on those tomorrow,” she said. “Northern Ireland are like little Jack Russell terriers – they are on you the whole time. We can never be complacent against them, but we will learn from our mistakes tonight.”

Coach Elize Kotze said she was very happy that she had been able to ring the changes and give every member of the squad a game. “We have enough depth and versatility to be able to do that,” she said. “We started the match with most of the team that beat Jamaica, but I had the luxury of being able to bring on replacements.  I don’t like to be too predictable, and the team may look very different tomorrow.”

Article taken from NSA website

The second match was played at 19:00 on Tuesday, 10 July, and the third at 18:00 on Wednesday, 11 July.

The South Africa u21 team also played a three-test series against England during the course of the SPAR Netball Challenge. This team included two Tuks 1 players, Shadine van der Merwe and Izette Lubbe.

Final results were as follows:

Day 1
South Africa bt Northern Ireland 61-37

England u21 bt South African u21 37-48.

Day 2
South Africa bt Northern Ireland 66-42

South Africa u21 bt England u21 56-31

Day 3
South Africa bt Northern Ireland 58-52

England u21 bt South Africa u21 55-44

Overall test score:
South Africa bt Northern Ireland 3-0

England u21 bt South African u21 2-0