England’s netball squad headed to New Zealand at the beginning of October for Vitality Roses three Tests against New Zealand, but without head coach Jess Thirlby, who was unable to travel with them due to a positive COVID-19 test.
BBC Sport reports that the test series will mark the Roses’ first competitive matches since January, and pitches them against New Zealand’s Silver Ferns, the current world champions.
The Roses arrived early in the month to allow time for New Zealand’s strict quarantine period and process. Thirlby says she has no symptoms of the coronavirus, and that it ‘stings’ to miss out on the Tests, but she trusts Kat Ratnapala and her assistant Colette Thomson, the coaches on the ground, to make the right decisions during live play.
England co-captain Laura Malcolm told BBC Sport it is not “ideal” to be without the Roses’ head coach but Ratnapala and Thomson have made sure the “extra challenge has not hit the squad too hard”, and she was hoping for a high-tech solution to bring Thirlby court-side.
“I am hoping for some sort of Star Wars hologram,” she joked.
The Roses have their Netball World Cup captain Serena Guthrie back alongside England’s most-capped player Jade Clarke. At the other end of the experience spectrum, Imogen Allison is poised to gain her first cap and six other players have arrived in New Zealand having made 10 international appearances or fewer.
England’s Vitality Roses’ three Tests against New Zealand will be streamed on YouTube, as well as being live on Sky Sports, on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from 6 am.
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