18 January 2022, London – The SPAR Proteas faced off with World Champions the Silver Ferns on day three of the 2022 Netball Quad Series. These two teams come into this game without a win in the tournament to date. They both lost against England and Australia, respectively.
Dorette Badenhorst started the game with the same team that played Australia two days ago. Both teams started off terribly slow and South Africa committed a few errors in the opening minutes of the quarter and coach Badenhorst made an early substitution as early as the eighth minute, Sigrid Burger came in for Lefebre Rademan, The Silver Ferns took the quarter 15-9.
Nicola Smith made her second appearance of the tournament right at the start of the second quarter replacing Zanele Vimbela at Goal Defence. It was the Silver Ferns that continued with their dominance and won the quarter 16-10. The final score at the end of the second quarter.
The Championship quarter saw the introduction of Tshina Mdau at Wing Defence. The combination of Burger and Venter in attack worked in South Africa’s favour even though it was laced with some minor errors. Reyneke made her return on court in the place of Mdau at Wing Defence. Silver Ferns continued with their dominance and won the quarter 43-28.
South Africa really wanted to come back and take the game to New Zealand and somehow turn it around. Rademan made her way back into the match in the place of Sigi Burger. Time on the bench seems to have given Rademan some time to reflect as she came back stronger and more clinical.
The SPAR Proteas had never won a quarter during this tournament, and they broke that duck in the last quarter and took it 16-11. It was never meant to be though as New Zealand came out tops winning the match 54-43. Both teams square off against each other again tomorrow for the third place playoff.
SPAR Proteas Head Coach said “We started very slowly as compared to how we wanted to start playing. We really had to grind hard for the first three quarters of the match, and we did very well in the last quarter. I will admit that we have a long way to go in terms of readiness. We are playing against players who are playing in professional leagues so we need to make sure that our players who play locally should get more game time and get them on par with their international counterparts.”
New Zealand Starting VII:
GK: Sulu Fitzpatrick; GD: Phoenix Karaka; C: Shannon Saunders; WA: Gina Crampton; WD: Karin Burger; GA: Maia Wilson; GS: Grace Nweke
South Africa Starting VII:
GS: Ine-Mari Venter; GA: Lefebre Rademan; WA: Izette Griesel; C: Bongiwe Msomi; WD: Monique Reyneke; GD: Zanele Vimbela; GK: Phumza Maweni
South Africa will take on New Zealand on Wednesday 19 January 2022 at 19:30 CAT. The match will be televised on SuperSport Action (SS210)
Score Breakdown
Q1 SPAR Proteas 9 – 15 New Zealand
Q2 SPAR Proteas 19 – 31 New Zealand
Q3 SPAR Proteas 28 – 43 New Zealand
Q4 SPAR Proteas 43 – 54 New Zealand
Photo Credit: England Netball / Ben Lumley Photo (@englandnetball @benlumleyphoto)
