South Africa’s vice-captain (and also SPAR Protea player) Karla Mostert in action against Zimbabwean Goal Attack Beaulah Mupambisi
CAPETOWN – South Africa overpowered Zimbabwe with a 110-12 victory in their Group A match at the World University Netball Championship in Cape Town on Tuesday.
The Zimbabweans lacked the wherewithal to cope with the superior skills and height of the South Africans. The hosts maintained possession for most of the match and coach Dorette Badenhorst blamed the 12 goals conceded on a “lack of concentration.” She said it was difficult to set goals for a match which is so one-sided, but it was still necessary to do so. “It’s always hard to play a team like that who had no structure,” Badenhorst said. “When the score is so big, you can pass the ball from anywhere to your goal shooter. “But as soon as you play against a stronger team, you can’t do it. “We can’t afford a lapse in concentration because the quarterfinal will be against a stronger side, so we need to maintain our focus.”
Late entrants into the competition, the Zimbabweans were in disarray after their coach was turned back at the border. They played without a game plan and, at the breaks, the substitutes were reluctant to come off the bench. Their captain and goal keeper, Prudence Goreraza, said the team were feeling a little bit down but they would pick themselves up again for their match against Ireland on Wednesday. “It was very tough against South Africa because they are all very tall and we are a short team. “We’re hoping to do better against Ireland because they are also one of the shorter teams. “We still believe we can win our games and go into each game with a positive attitude.”
South Africa’s SA player (and also SPAR Protea) Bongiwe Msomi in action in the first match of the day when SA took on Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s head of delegation, Elijah Tapatapa, said they were still hoping a coach would fly into Cape Town late on Tuesday but the team is managing without well enough in the meantime. “We did all our preparations at home so we just have to try different plans here and my job is to keep psyching the girls and keep up their morale.”
On the rare occasion the Zimbabweans had ball-in-hand, they threw wildly into the goal area, giving shooter Caroline Musomwa little opportunity to score. Credit to the South Africans as they did not let up on the pressure and their defence was excellent. “We had a tough game yesterday against Ireland so today we tried to correct our mistakes and stick to our game plan,” said Protea and university centre Bongiwe Msomi. “Yesterday was our first game together, so we were still trying to figure out our strengths but today we were able to try different alternatives and they worked well.”
SA meet the US in their last pool game on Wednesday and Msomi said they were expecting “more of the same” after their northern neighbours beat the US by one goal on Monday.
For live streaming of the matches, please visit http://www.livestream.com/rugbyafricatv
Today’s Results
South Africa bt Zimbabwe 110 – 12
Jamaica bt Uganda 44-39
Ireland bt USA 67 – 16
Great Britain bt Namibia 62 – 33
(Source: Sapa, Jenny Bernstein – Photos: Barry Lamprecht / Image SA)
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