England's Vitality Roses well beaten by South Africa in netball series decider

England fell to a 65-50 defeat against South Africa in their series decider in Johannesburg on Sunday.

The Vitality Roses had bounced back from a loss in the series opener to win game two by a dozen points, but the hosts raced into an early lead on Sunday at Ellis Park Arena and didn't let up.

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With the series on the line, it was the SPAR Proteas who settled first as they put 16 goals past Jaz Brown, who had re-entered the starting seven at goal keeper on her first overseas international tour, by the end of the opening quarter.

After having a key impact in the Vitality Roses' 49-61 victory in game two, Amy Carter was handed the start at centre with Jess Shaw moving to wing attack and Lois Pearson going to goal attack.

Coach Jess Thirlby made some changes to try and counter the hosts' seven-point lead, by bringing on the experienced Helen Housby at goal shooter, but South Africa continued to push ahead to lead by 10 goals in the second quarter.

The Vitality Roses were forced to be patient in their attacking play, with South Africa capitalising on every England error and NIC Leeds Rhinos' new signing Sanmarie Visser making her presence felt as the hosts raced to a 36-21 half-time lead.

Eleanor Cardwell was introduced at goal shooter at the start of the second half as Thirlby bemoaned a lack of "smarts" in the first half.

Razia Quashie also came on on at goal keeper for her first appearance of the series, and England edged the third quarter 17-16 but it wasn't enough to make a dent in South Africa's advantage.

The home side were relentless in the final quarter as they sealed the game and the series, registering an 86 per cent goal percentage on 76 attempts.

Williams: 'We weren't good enough right from the start'

Reflecting at full time, Vitality Roses captain Fran Williams, who was awarded Defender of the Series, said: "We're really disappointed with how we showed up today. We weren't good enough right from the start of the game. Credit to the Proteas, they were better than us today in defence and attack and we're going to have to go away and really look at how we showed up on the second day.

"We got caught in between jobs a bit in defence and in our attack end, I feel like their defenders were all over us and we didn't stand up to the physicality. We're probably not used to missing as many shots as we have and we've spoken about that as a team on this tour. That's not an excuse, we had moments to be able to still get ourselves back in that game and we just weren't clinical enough then when we were turning ball over."

Head coach Jess Thirlby said the early start for the hosts proved pivotal.

"In the first half they [South Africa] grew in confidence in their attacking unit and were able to find Elmeré [van der Berg] relatively easily in the back space," she said.

"There were a few loose balls, a few opportunities that maybe we could've built a little bit more of a foothold from earlier on, but we didn't look ourselves. On the driving ball, they got great depth on us and then isolated us a little bit inside the circle and that's credit to them because they broke our structures and broke our connection early.

"It's a hard one and it hurts but I also respect and give credit to the standard of the performance from the Proteas today."

The two sides will next meet this summer at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where they will play each other in the pool stages of the competition.

With no more international action before then, the Vitality Roses will now return to their clubs for their respective 2026 domestic campaigns with the Netball Super League starting on February 21 at the Netball Super Cup and the Suncorp Super Netball League beginning on March 14.

England in South Africa - results and fixtures

• Match one - South Africa 52-48 England
• Match two - South Africa 49-61 England
• Match three - South Africa 65-50 England