The rivalry between the Fiji Pearls and Tonga Tala continues, this time at the Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa with the two Pacific neighbours facing off in their opening matches.
The two sides, who are in pool A with Australia and Zimbabwe, go head-to-head on July 28 at Cape Town International Convention Centre. Fiji will than face Zimbabwe on July 29 and Australia the following day.
During the PacificAus Netball tournaments last year, Tonga took down traditional powerhouse Fiji 68-54 in the grand final. Four months later, they proved the result was not a fluke with another undefeated tournament at the Oceania Championships, securing qualification for the 2023 Netball World Cup in South Africa ahead of Fiji. Now, they’re the only Pacific team in the world’s top 10.
Netball Fiji specialist coach Yvette McCausland-Durie said it would be important for the Pearls to not get carried away emotionally when they face Tonga in South Africa.
“The pool’s tuff, isn’t it! We open with Tonga on opening day,” she said.
“I think what’s gonna be really important for us is this close rivalry, there’s always the team that kind of challenges you, the one that you’re closest with.
“So I know the history that’s been made for Fiji and Tonga and I want to make sure that we can put that emotionally aside and be really focused on the process that will require the right outcome.
“There will be different outcomes but winning will be the ultimate outcome. The other outcomes will certainly be about us having worked on a number of facets of the game, particularly our ball speed on attack, our accuracy on shot and our ability to turnover ball will be huge.”
Yesterday, Netball Fiji held its fifth Netball Academy Camp at the Vodafone Arena in Laucala Bay, Suva. The camp was attended by players, managers, coaches and technical officials.
