Netball World Cup: Tracey Neville's England assessed ahead of crucial match
Thursday 13 August 2015 12:37, UK
Team Bath head coach and former international Jess Thirlby assesses England's performance against Australia and Wales as Tracey Neville's Roses prepare for the qualification stage of the Netball World Cup.
Over the last two days we've seen two very contrasting performances from England's Roses. But that is as to be expected when matching up against the current world champions and then conversely the world No 8, home nation rivals Wales.
First up were the wounded Diamonds who, having suffered their first defeat in 21 games, were determined not to limp into this eagerly anticipated match-up.
The Australians knew they would have to put to bed their disappointing performance against the Silver Ferns, if they were to overcome an England side buoyant from their impressive win against Jamaica's Sunshine Girls.
With much conjecture over whether or not the Aussies would enter their previous game versus fierce rivals New Zealand with their strongest line-up, coach Lisa Alexander was not afforded any such luxury in the aftermath of defeat, and clearly meant business with Diamond regulars being handed the bibs to get a job done against England.
With many talking about England as real title contenders, not least former Aussie great Liz Ellis, maybe for the first time in a while Alexander had to confront some nerves - at least, you’d like to think so.
Tracey Neville revealed a line-up with arguably a few surprises, but deserving nonetheless. Stacey Francis was rewarded for some strong performances with a starting WD bib and Serena Guthrie was tasked with the WA role, not for the first time in the tournament.
Not afraid to try new solutions to the old challenge of taking on the Aussies, Neville would have felt confident by what she had seen from both in previous games.
But then, taking on the Aussies is a whole other ball game and despite their best efforts Francis was sacrificed early in the second quarter to make way for Tamsin Greenway at WA who, in turn, bumped Guthrie back into where she is best, at WD.
Despite England only trailing by three at the quarter break, the narrow margin in some ways flattered the Roses a little, as they had struggled to get any grip on the opening stanza of the game.
It appeared that the Aussies had started the better, and England were being starved of opportunities at goal. They were becoming increasingly dependent on the defensive line to win ball back; a dangerous place to find yourself. However, with a lot of netball still to play England would be sure to get stuck in going into quarter two.
The same seven got the nod from Neville to re-enter the game but it wasn’t long before the coach called time on some players. Despite reshuffling the team early in the second quarter the performance remained relatively unchanged, and it would continue to be a frustrating.
The optimists in us all will of course pull on the positives, not least Serena Guthrie’s performances so far in the competition and again in this game, but by their own standards the Roses would not have been happy with a display that never really looked like threatening the result.
Notably, Guthrie is the only England defender that appears in the top 10 athletes for the total number of interceptions so far and it's this absence of our other fantastic defenders in Geva Mentor, Sonia Mkoloma and Stacey Francis that might be a surprise for those of us that marvel at their ability to steal ball off any team.
We are yet to see the best of Mentor, who may or may not be firing on all cylinders with an ongoing debate about her knee niggles often dominating the match commentary. If she has more to come then teams need to watch out and wouldn’t it be great to see her trademark turnovers; going back and up against the towering Goal Shooter powerhouses, outwitting her opponents with superb positioning and being a constant threat to go hunting outside the circle.
The absence of the team’s captain in Mentor and vice-captain Pam Cookey at critical times, so far notably the second half of the Jamaica tussle and then again Mentors’ exit at half-time versus the Aussies, shows the depth Neville feels she has in her squad. But there’s no doubt that on arrival at this, the biggest stage in netball, many would have expected to see more of these favoured England regulars. Encouragingly there appears to be more to come from this side and what better a time for it to arrive than at the business end of the tournament.
The commitment to a more complete and consistent performance appeared to have resurfaced in time for Wednesday's clash against Wales.
With a much needed bounce-back performance and no doubt a shopping list of work-ons from head coach Tracey Neville, England enjoyed a much more emphatic win over their home nations' rivals. It’s easy to assume this would be the case, but in past World Cups we haven’t always been the most clinical in the lesser games compared to our opponents, who ruthlessly practise and prepare for their bigger games throughout these 60-minute opportunities.
A standout player for me was Jo Harten. Ever the perfectionist, Jo looked like she was on a mission and notched up another healthy 97% at goal, backing up her equally impressive stats against the Aussies just 24 hours earlier, showing that she is more than capable of producing the goods when needed.
The new format has allowed England to test and be tested with no real consequences to their progression into the tournament's final stages. With the competition wide open and the world's No 1, 3 and 4 all suffering defeats, it becomes increasingly difficult to predict any clear front-runners.
Even New Zealand, who remain unbeaten after an impressive recovery against Jamaica yesterday, were only afforded a relatively conservative eight goal win over Malawi earlier today.
Whilst South Africa are next up for England it’s hard not to begin to look ahead at the mouthwatering encounter against New Zealand on Saturday….one game at a time.
