The national under-21 netball team and Japan squad pose for a photo before their South Korea Invitational Netball tournament match at the Jeonju City Multipurpose Hall yesterday. Picture: Courtesy of Brunei Netball Association
IT WAS a good start for the national under-21 netball team at the South Korea Invitational Netball tournament as they won their first two games at the Jeonju City Multipurpose Hall yesterday.
The Royal Bees started their campaign on a high note, thrashing Japan 57-8 before cruising past host South Korea 62-5 in their second game at the August 27-31 tournament. National coach Thilaka Jinadasa was pleased with the victories but warned her players not to get carried away as they will face tougher oppositions — Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong today.
“Both games today was not as competitive as we expected and it seemed that the teams (Japan and South Korea) are very new to the game. Nevertheless it is a good start for us to move forward in this tournament,” said Jinadasa in an interview with The Brunei Times yesterday.
“The game against Hong Kong tomorrow (today) will be the toughest game among all as they will field a few players who competed at the Asian Netball Championship (ANC) and no doubt this game will be our main challenge. “Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei have tall players (goal scorer and goal keeper) at both ends and they also have players who can move very fast in mid court… but I still think that our players have more netball skills and experience than Chinese Taipei players.”
Brunei will meet Chinese Taipei at 9am before meeting Hong Kong in their fourth match at 4.30pm. “Nevertheless today’s wins gave us more confidence to move strongly further in the tournament and I applaud the players’ for their good effort today,” continued the Sri Lankan. “I can see that in this competition, our individual shooting averages are coming up compared to the one during the ANC earlier this month.
“But I still want them to improve their accuracy on team shooting average because that's one area that we need to be more focused on and plan if we want to win this tournament.
“The other area that we are also still working on is on our centre passes to score without committing any turnovers,” the coach added.
