Netball Proteas aim to bounce back against Australia
The Spar Proteas will be looking for their first win of the 2022 Netball Quad Series when they take on Australia at the Copper Box Arena in London on Sunday afternoon (4pm).
The South Africans started the competition with a heavy 71-47 defeat to hosts England on Saturday, where they were dominated by the experienced Vitality Roses in all the quarters.
Against England, coach Dorette Badenhorst started the match with Ine-Mari Venter, Lefebre Rademan, captain Bongiwe Msomi, Izette Griesel, Khanyisa Chawane, Monique Reyneke and Phumza Maweni but they did not have a good start.
As they were lagging, Badenhorst made a number of positional changes by introducing Zanele Vimbela in goal defence and Monique Reyneke moving to wing defence.
Vimbela was making her long-awaited return to the national team after she suffered a career-threatening anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury during the Telkom Netball League (TNL) in 2020.
In other changes, Simone Rabie was introduced in defence, Tshina Mdau in midcourt and Sigrid Burger in attack but they could not influence the match in the favour of the Proteas.
After their opening match defeat, Badenhorst promised a better game against the Australian Diamonds, who beat New Zealand 53-39 in the other match that was played on Saturday.
“Well done to England on a great win and brilliant netball,” said Badenhorst.
“I think on our end we made too many mistakes, we need to keep our own possession and do better next time.
“We need to go back to the basics and do better.
“I can promise you a better game tomorrow [Sunday].
“We had a few players that have not played at this level and it was good to see them take to court and play as well as they did,” added Badenhorst.