What a performance from the Fiji Pearls in their first outing against the Tongan Tala.
Fiji settled well and took the Tongans by surprise in that first quarter leading 11-16, Tonga took out the second (16-12) third quarter (14-8); and the fourth quarter (16-15).
The stats showed that Fiji had more feeds than Tonga (92-70), less penalty counts (61-69), equal intercepts (10-10), and had more possession 54 percent.
If only they had turned possessions into goals. But still a commendable effort indeed. Let’s take the positives from this performance and that is, Fiji has narrowed the margin against the Tala from 16 (68-52) about 3 months ago, to 5 this time around (56-51); and at the Netball World Cup too.
What worked for Fiji? Basic netball. Clean and short passes. Making themselves available to the ball, guts not to be intimidated by some of the world’s best known players (in former Diamonds and Silver Fern), and a great shooting combo of Mali Rusivakulla and Una Rauluni.
What didn’t work for Fiji? Rushed passes; aerial balls; height and physique disadvantage, footwork calls, critical decision making under pressure; and of course two or three unfair calls made against them.
Our coaches Una Rokoura, Yvette McCausland-Durie (NZ) and Catherine Fellows (Aus) would have had that team talk to the girls about what they could do better and less off.
By the time this edition would be available to Fijians, our Pearls would have played their second game against Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe team would be so different from the Tala.
They outsize our girls in all physical sense of the word; and are tough and ruthless, the Diamonds had a dose of these physicality yesterday.
Our girls would need to play smart and skillful netball against Zimbabwe and capitalize on what worked well for them against the Tala.
More importantly, they would need to believe in themselves and give it their best shot until the final whistle. Let’s Go the Pearls.
