Netball World Cup website – Day 3 - A second half-fight back from 13th in the world ranked Samoa was not enough, as third ranked England remain undefeated with a 85-34 win.
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The English team topped Pool B and set up a show-down against Australia within the Qualification Rounds.
English Coach Tracey Neville again used this match as a chance to look at her midcourt options in wing attack, with Serena Guthrie getting the start. Her pace and quick change of direction set the tone for the England attack line, who used good angles around the circle to create plenty of space for their shooters.
Samoa took time to settle but once they adjusted their game play to the long limbs of the English defence, they found better passage to goal as Nicolette Tato began to find space around the edge of the circle to feed their shooters.
Samoa made one change to their midcourt to start the second quarter with a switch in their midcourt. The move appeared to suit pocket-rocket Brooke Williams, whose cut and drive at WA allowed her to find good space on the circle edge to feed 20-year old goal shooter Betty Tuipulotu (8/10).
Opportunities were scarce however, with Geva Mentor and Sonia Mkoloma shutting down any free space and creating plenty of opportunities which were converted at the other end.
The English shooting circle continued to move cleanly, however Samoan goal keeper Jennifer Naoupu was quick to attack on any loose aerial feeds. Helen Housby (26/29) adjusted quickly, adding strong drives out of the circle to create an opening for her shooting partner.
Samoa jumped out of the blocks in the second half after both coaches used the second half to empty their benches. The introduction of Sanita T’o (7/9) at goal attack added pace to the Samoan front-line and her creative playmaking opened space for goal shooter Auteletoa Tanimo (17/18) to add four quick goals to open the second half. Samoa doubled their score in the quarter, but were not able to outscore the English Roses who found direct access to goal through Jo Harten (30/35).
Samoa introduced Natalie Jones to wing defence for the final quarter in an attempt to contain English wing attack Tamsin Greenway.
But had little impact as Greenway appeared to have the ball on the string as she dominated the centre pass and circle feeds. Continued pressure from Jade Clarke and Sara Bayman in the midcourt stifled the Samoan’s drive to see England surge again in the final quarter to secure another big win, 85-32.
Bayman acknowledged her side needed to adjust quicker to the half-time changes in the next phase of the competition.
“They really quickened up their attack end in the second half; I think it caught us by surprise a little bit. We were a bit slow out of the blocks at half time and we had to fix up in that last quarter, but we will take the video and have a look at it because it was a bit of a New Zealand style so when we come up against them later we will try and fix what went wrong.”
Bayman believed it was a case of working smarter, not faster, when things were getting tough.
“It’s a long tournament with eight games in ten days and we said “we need to start making the ball do the work, we can’t keep running our legs like this. So we tried to get our ball speed quickened up, get some flat ball into shooters and get some easy goals rather than working as hard as we were.”
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