Proteas made to sweat for their win
Scoreline undermines SA President’s XII effort
In what is likely to be their toughest encounter of the Diamond Challenge, the Spar Proteas netball team still managed to run out 62-35 winners over the SA President’s XII in Polokwane yesterday.
The Proteas took to the court with the unusual combination of Lenize Potgieter at goal attack and Sigi Burger at goal shooter once again as coach Norma Plummer continues to prepare her players for all sorts of scenarios.
And the structure seemed to work well as the national side sped to an 18-5 lead at the first break.
As the President’s XII – a team made up largely of rising junior players – found their feet, they managed to put up some stiff defence, meaning the difference in goals scored in the second quarter was just four.
The fourth quarter was the best for the youngsters, who managed to match the national side’s 13 goals scored.
“I would definitely say I’m happy. The win on the board is what we wanted today,” said Proteas captain Bongi Msomi afterwards. “We obviously still have a few things that we want to work on.
“I think today we did have some great passages of play but we let it slip away a little bit. That is part of the game though – learning how to get out of that and carry on going back to the game plan.”
The President’s XII will next play Zimbabwe, while the Proteas’ next assignment is against Zambia today.
Msomi explained that her side won’t be taking that challenge lightly.
“Zambia is really amazing. They pushed the President’s XII when they played against them so we can’t underestimate them or anyone else here because we don’t know the players or the way they play,” Msomi said.