Southland A men into the top eight

Southland A have qualified for the top-eight crossover matches at the NZ men’s netball championships in Invercargill.

They bounced back from a 53-17 loss to the highly fancied Christchurch A side yesterday morning, with a morale boosting 41-24 victory over Dunedin, to book the home team a top-four spot in Pool B at Stadium Southland.

Christchurch A boast an impressive total of 18 titles from previous tournaments and showed why they will be one of the teams to beat at the 2017 event with some dynamic high tempo play against the Southland A team.

The southerners backed up their one win and two losses from the opening day of the four-day national tournament.

The top-eight crossover matches take place at 11.30am today, with Southland A hunting for a spot in the semifinals against an opponent from the other pool, which gets decided this morning.

The Southland B team battled in pool play in two tough games yesterday.

They lost their morning match against defending champions North Harbour Open 46-12, before going down against the Australian Reserve team 35-11.

The B side face Cook Strait today at 9am as they chase their first win of the competition before the competition splits into playoff rounds.

The championships features 18 teams, including three Australian sides and some age group combinations.