For the first time since 2013, England’s Vitality Roses defeated Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls in a series of netball competitions, bolstering the English side’s confidence ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
After a first, highly dramatic game that saw an initially sluggish England come back to win by over ten goals, the second game was far more of a rout of the Sunshine Girls, taking an insurmountable lead in the three-game series.
Despite the skilled stars of Jamaica’s defence, which included a tremendous rejection by Shamera Sterling early in the first quarter, by the end of the first quarter, the Roses were leading 21-13 thanks to the tremendous work of first-game super-sub Eleanor Cardwell.
It looked initially like the second quarter would be significantly different, particularly when Jo Harten was substituted for Helen Housby due to the impressive goalkeeper work of Shamera Sterling.
However, once the two goal-attackers found their form, Jamaica struggled to find an answer, and as a result made over twice the number of unforced errors as the Roses, who extended what had become a 16-point lead to 20 by the final quarter.
Manager Jess Thirlby regularly rotated her team, taking some of the players that had struggled in the early parts of the first game a place in the game, which ultimately ended with an emphatic statement victory for the Roses 66-47.
This means that along with a series win over netball superpower New Zealand, England has beaten two of the top 4 teams in world netball in emphatic fashion, and are third in the world rankings behind only the Australia Diamonds and the New Zealand Silver Ferns.