Jaguars pounce in Premier League opening weekend

THE Gauteng Jaguars stormed through the opening weekend of the Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League unbeaten and look as dominant as ever, pulling off a 51-43 win over the Southern Stings yesterday.

As predicted, the much-anticipated showdown started out as a closely fought clash.

The teams were neck-and-neck in the first quarter, exchanging the lead on numerous occasions and reaching the first break with just one goal in it – the Stings leading 11-10 at that point.

The team from the Western Cape held onto that one-goal advantage heading into half time 26-25 up.

Then a new game plan from the Jaguars kicked into gear and it showed on the scoreboard with the defending champions finishing a quarter ahead for the first time at the end of the third, on 37-34.

Four unanswered goals at the start of the fourth meant the Jaguars opened up that small gap significantly before the Stings could respond. It seemed there was no coming back from that, with the Jaguars increasing their advantage to eventually win it by eight goals.

Meanwhile, the North West Flames claimed their first win of the weekend.

Last year’s runners-up bounced back from a loss to the Stings on Saturday, with a 61-39 victory over the Limpopo Baobabs.

In the final game of the opening round, the Eastern Cape Aloes slumped to their second loss of the weekend, while the Gauteng Fireballs claimed their second victory.

The Fireballs, who finished in third spot last year under coach Elsje Jordaan’s guidance, dominated from start to finish to eventually take it 53-28.

Aloes coach Des Neville said: “We were hoping our players would have settled after yesterday’s game and some of the combinations did come through quite strongly today.

“We tried a few new things and some of those did pay off, but it’s just a matter of trying to keep that going for the whole game.

“We’ve got pockets of brilliance, but too many lulls and too many lows so if we can sort that out, I think we’ll go forward from here.”