Scotland are off the mark at the Netball World Cup
Sunday 9 August 2015 14:36, UK
Scotland won a bruising encounter against Samoa for their first Netball World Cup win.
The Thistles ran out 47-36 winners in an aggressive match with plenty of big knocks, with Fiona Themann recovering from early treatment to largely shut out her Samoan opponents.
Samoan led by a goal heading into the first break but sloppy errors helped Scotland find a way back into the match, with Goal Attack Lynsey Gallagher taking particular advantage.
The physicality of the Samoans began to backfire towards the end of the second quarter, as their high penalty count gifted Scotland a 23-22 lead before half-time.
Lesley MacDonald's reintroduction in the final period, combining with Gallagher, extended Scotland's lead to a margin that Samoa couldn't contend with.
In Pool B after two matches each, Scotland are now level on two points with Jamaica - they trail England who have four, while Samoa are yet to register a point.
MacDonald said: "We know where England and Jamaica are in the world rankings, so we knew Samoa was the one [game] we wanted to absolutely nail and we did that today."
Uganda upset the seventh ranked Fiji for a 61-40 win despite conceding an average of 10cm in height.
The She Cranes' Racheal Nanyonga pushed them into an early lead before joining forces with Peace Proscovia to confirm a 10-goal half-time lead. They held their nerve after the break to condemn Fiji to a surprise defeat in Pool D.
"I think there was a combined effort right from the defenders to mid of field and the shooters," Proscovia said. "All of us worked so hard.”
South Africa earned an impressive 69-21 win over Singapore in Pool C, where Malawi also thrashed Sri Lanka 101-18.
