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All to play for in final netball test as England bounce back to beat SA

football31 January 2026 18:21
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The SPAR Proteas were brought back down to earth after their thrilling opening victory of the SPAR Challenge netball series, losing the second test to England 49-61 at the Ellis Park Arena in the City of Johannesburg on Saturday night.

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Ahead of the series, SPAR Proteas coach Jenny van Dyk spoke about building depth in the squad ahead of July’s Commonwealth Games and the 2027 Netball World Cup.

And it was with that in mind that she rang in the changes for the second test, with just three of the starting seven from Thursday’s opening victory against England starting the second match.

The opening minutes of Saturday’s showdown were tight as expected, before the home side made one of their hard-earned turnovers count, eventually edging in front to 10-7.

But inaccurate passing cost them, allowing England to claw their way back with four unanswered goals in quick succession to level matters at 13-13 by the end of the first quarter.

Like on Thursday, Van Dyk stuck with the starting seven to begin the second quarter. Some excellent defence and good composure saw the South Africans building well.

They regained the lead and stretched it to seven goals at one point, also thanks to some inaccurate shooting from the English, much to the delight of the exuberant capacity crowd.

There was concern as SA captain Khanyisa Chawane left the court with a dislocated shoulder, but, having had to deal with the problem numerous times before, she was able to return to the court after treatment. Her absence did change the momentum, however.

In the meantime, mistakes had started to creep in for the South Africans, who threw away possession and struggled with passes into the circle, thanks to some excellent English defence.

That once again allowed England back into the game in the final minutes of the quarter, with the South Africans’ lead whittled down to just one goal, on 27-26, by the halftime break.

Rolene Streutker was brought on at goal shooter at the start of the third period, while Elmeré van der Berg was moved to goal attack, and Sanmarie Visser came on at goal defence as Jamie Golob moved to wing defence.

The visitors took the lead for the first time in the match at the start of the third quarter – which was also their strongest in the previous test.

And while the South Africans came back at them, the standard of play was far from what it had been in the first half, while the changes England coach Jess Thirlby had made clicked right away.

There was a massive cheer when goal defence Thulisile Maduna replaced Visser for her first international cap, while Nozipho Ntshangase replaced Smith.

But it was a tough introduction as the South Africans could only manage nine goals in the quarter, despite Van Dyk bringing Maseko back on to replace Van der Berg at goal attack, to slip to 36-44 by the break.

Determined to turn things around in the series, the English put their foot down in the final quarter, producing a slick passage of play to surge ahead and seal the 49-61 win.

KEPT SA DEFENCE GUESSING

Speaking after the match, Coach Van Dyk explained that the team only have 120 more minutes of match preparation before the start of the Commonwealth Games.

“We knew with that first win secured, and the plan of what we want to do for tomorrow’s match secured, today was our only opportunity to test these players… so to me, I take full responsibility for the result of this match but I’m happy that I got to see all the players and that we’re now in a situation where tomorrow we play in a final.”

Captain Chawane commented on the crowd. “They were amazing. From our side it was heartsore to have disappointed them like that. The energy that they brought, every time we scored that goal, it brought all the energy that we needed, but we didn’t follow that through and that is quite disappointing.

“So the real hard conversation needs to be had, not to pamper everyone, but to get everyone ready for tomorrow.”

Speaking about what made the difference for her side on Saturday, Thirlby said: “I think we were much smarter today with ways in which we kept the South African defence guessing more. More players to cover, more decisions. We moved the ball better today, opened up some cleaner lines, and tried to stay out of the contest.

“They're prolific once they get depth and speed on us. But I thought we put pressure on higher for longer today and put more of us ahead of the ball.”

The third and final test to decide the series takes place at Ellis Park Arena on Sunday at 4pm.

Meanwhile, earlier on Thursday afternoon, the South African national men’s netball team went down to the visiting Australian side.

Following their opening victory on Thursday, the Aussie Kelpies took the second match 38-62.

© BLD Communications

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