The World Youth Qualifying Finals today

World Youth Netball Championships

Match 3

England 58 v Cook Islands 31

England U21 returned to the court today, having enjoyed a day off, a combination of spending time with the local school that have adopted England, and light training to prepare for the next challenges in the World Youth Championships.

Both teams had been unbeaten in the pool phase up until todays match, so the winner was likely to come out as pool winners, with the loser still remaining on track to qualify second, and remain in the hunt for the top places in the final standing (The top 2 in each pool are guaranteed to finish in the top 8 of the event, but can all still play through to the final)

England started the match with the following team:

Jo Harten (GS), Monique Wood (GA), Sarah Jane O Sullivan (WA), Serena Guthrie (C), Stacey Francis (WD), Sam Perry (GD), Eboni Beckford Chambers (GK).

It was the Cook Islands that came out fastest out of the blocks, taking an early lead (1 to 3), England struggled to settle in the atmosphere and against the strong defence of the Cook Islands a few missed passes, leading to dropped balls also handed possession back to the hosts, but in the middle of the quarter, England started to establish better control, and after scoring 6 on the bounce moved ahead to lead at quarter time 13 to 8. The game was being played fast, with England showing great ball speed, perhaps on the odd occasion just too much for each other. Continuing the approach adopted in the early stage of this tournament, co coaches Anna Mayes and Jess Garland made changes at quarter time, with Rosie Allison coming on at GS, with Jo Harten dropping back to GA. Rosie immediately again showed the calm and composed shooting presence we saw in her previous outing in the event, and with Jo Harten working hard outside the circle, the main shooting responsibilities rested with Rosie for a while.

The pattern continued into the second half, with England unchanged. Some electric interceptions and turnovers, particularly from Guthrie and Beckford Chambers, but the final pass sometimes going astray, and meaning the move then broke down. Some of the ball speed and progression down the court was fantastic, and when it worked it had the wow factor. England though will probably reflect that it didnt work quite enough to be satisfied over all, but still the lead increased again to 42 to 25 at 3 quarter time.

The final quarter saw more changes, with Ella Clark joining at GA, allowing Jo Haren to move back to GS. Lindsay Keable took over at GK, with Beckford Chambers moving forward to replace Perry at GD. The work rate remained very high from England. Francis, Guthrie and O Sullivan putting themselves about effectively in the midcourt, and holding their own with the Cook Island players. With two Cook Island players needed to be replaced due to injury during the quarter and Clark and Harten moving very fluidly in attack, the flood gates almost opened, and England ran out victors 58 to 31.

Co Coach Anna Mayes said afterwards: This game was a good opportunity to play a pressure game, the host team, in front of a large crowd. Both teams contested really well throughout the game, but we need to show a greater degree of composure at times and in all quarters of the match, otherwise the great passages of play are let down. I was really pleased to see the impact that players are having coming off the bench, that shows the depth and the options that we have which could be vital at the later stages of this tournament.

In summary, a good job done again by this young team, but they also know that when the pressure steps up later in the event, the composure will have to be greater, and the errors reduced.