GARY LEMKE in Maseru
Team SA’s netballers shook off the early nerves before muscling their way to the gold medal at the Region 5 Youth Games at the Maseru Club with a 33-26 win over Malawi in the final.
It certainly wasn’t all plain sailing or pretty for coach Precious Mthembu’s team, who had beaten the same opponents earlier in the competition, 42-27. Here, on a day when on-court temperatures reached 40 deg C, the youthful South Africans found themselves up against a determined Malawi.
In fact, Mthembu, a former Proteas senior player herself, admitted afterwards that while she wasn’t surprised by Malawi’s fast start, it had left her looking for answers to solve the puzzle. The Malawians had jumped into a 7-2 lead before Team SA managed to regroup and turn things around, edging the first quarter 8-7.
This match was a lot more physical than their previous encounter and Malawi also squandered a number of goals at the net. It’s not stretching things to suggest that had they converted a high percentage of their goal attempts, the entire scoreline would have been considerably closer.
Still, Team SA can reflect on a job well done as they closed out their competition with five wins from as many matches, with victories over Zambia (39-14), Lesotho (57-22), Malawi (42-27) and Botswana (58-14) leading up to this game.
Things settled down in the second quarter for Team SA as they eased into a 19-12 advantage. “Let’s reset, start a new game. You’re not tired, so treat this as starting again,” Mtehmbu told her team at the half-time break.
However, the Malawians wouldn’t go away. Despite giving away plenty in terms of height on both attack and defence, they hung in admirably and in fact the last two quarters were shared 14-all. Both teams scored nine points in the third quarter and five points in the final quarter.
“I knew they’d come back strongly after we beat them the other day. That’s the way the seniors bounce back as well, and I had plenty first-hand experience of that as a player. They’re good at playing the ball patiently, and we struggled with the ball in hand early on,” Mthembu said.
“We made a lot of unnecessary errors which obviously didn’t help. We made stepping errors as well and at this level you will get punished for that. But, the players are all young and they will go back home having learned plenty from the week. They will slot back into their clubs with a lot of new knowledge and experience.
“It took us two quarters to really get ahead and even after that Malawi didn’t go away. All credit to them for the match that they played.”
In beating Botswana on Tuesday, Team SA had worn black armbands in memory of the players and official killed in a car accident at the weekend while on their way to the Interprovincial. In the final here that was again top of mind.
“That was really tragic and we have been praying for the families of those affected,” Mthembu said. “We spoke about it in our team talk going into the final and everyone was playing in memory of those who lost their lives and for their families.”
The gold medal also signals the first international success for Mthembu as a coach. She knows there will be tougher assignments than the one she was faced with in Lesotho, but she has the presence and composure, as well as a wealth of playing experience, to suggest that she’s going to be around for a long time and celebrate a lot more successes.
Amber Marshall won the award for top goal shooter, with a conversion rate of 84 percent.
Photo: Roger Sedres