SA Earn Quarter-Final Berth

Some critics may have written off South Africa as a challenger for the world
title, or even the semi-finals, but their 56-36 win over Barbados at the New World Netball World
Championships at the Trusts Stadium, Auckland
showed they have plenty of potential to make an impact.

Once
again South Africa
started slowly. In fact, they trailed at the end of the first quarter, albeit
by one goal, 11-12, as the flamboyant Barbadians threw themselves around the
court. The game hit top gear when South Africa
over-ran the Barbados
side in the second quarter with 20 goals to their opponents’ six, to lead 31-18
at the half time break.

Things
slowed down in the third period with South Africa
adding 11 goals to Barbados’
nine. In the final quarter South Africa
managed to score 14 times, while Barbados again grabbed nine goals.

At
1.92m Sindisiwe Gumede was a valuable resource at goal shoot for South Africa, improving on her performance in
the previous game against Malaysia.
In defence goal keep Adele Niemand and Barbados shooter Laurel Browne were
virtually locked together for most of the match, such was Niemand’s physical
and close marking.

Overall
South Africa
looked pleased with the result and their quiet improvement as they prepare for
more serious tests in the playoff stage of the tournament.

"We
worked as a unit today," said South African coach, Burta de Kock. "we started
slowly, but it came together. Our shooters were much better than yesterday."

De
Kock’s sentiments were echoed by her vice-captain Karin Venter who came on in
the final quarter. "All the team performed well. We are going up. We have to
work on ball possession. We have to score more…that’s it," she said.

If
South Africa want to finish
top of Pool D, they will need to lift their performance again when they play England
in their final round-robin match on Tuesday.

But
having placed second in the Pool D rankings, they are assured of a
quarter-finals berth against either the top- or second-placed Pool A finisher,
a group which includes hosts New Zealand currently in top position, Malawi and
Wales on two points each and Botswana without a win in two matches.