Girls in spotlight - Jamaica, Australia start shooting with focus on World Champs

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

The National Indoor Sports Centre will be buzzing with excitement this evening when Jamaica's Sunshine Girls battle the world's number one team, Australia in the opening match of their three-Test Supreme Ventures Sunshine Series, starting at 7 p.m.

The Jamaicans, who are ranked fourth in the world, have played the Australians twice inside the last year.

They were beaten 3-0 in an away series Down Under last August, after rebounding strongly in a two-Test here in October, 2009 to rally from a game down to draw 1-1.

The Connie Francis-coached side, which includes some of the world's best players in captain and goal attack Simone Forbes, ace goal shooter Romelda Aiken, centre Nadine Bryan and defenders Kasey Evering and Althea Byfield, is full of confidence going into today's game.

"They are confident of doing well," said Francis. "They know that it is important for us to play hard and compete for every minute of each game.

"They are all on trial and they would like to impress the selectors, including our technical director (Jill McIntosh), who is not here with us but will be getting all the feedback about the performance of the players."

Francis added: "The aim right now is to improve our netball and if we can get a win or two that will be a major plus for us.

"This is a series that we will use to help us to move our netball and to give us a solid chance come later on in the year to win the World Championships. We are in the rectifying stage because one of the things that we have to look at is how well we control the tempo of the game," said Francis.

The Jamaican coach said that playing at home will definitely give her team an advantage, but they will have to slow down the Australians' fast-tempo game and capitalise off each interception that they make.

"It is very difficult to beat them at their pace because we don't play at that pace in Jamaica ... the only time we play a fast-tempo game is when we go up against the likes of Australia, New Zealand and England," Francis pointed out.

She also said that the girls have worked very hard in practice to improve their fitness, which has oftentimes let them down against the top teams in the world.

"This is a major problem and that has caused us a lot of heartaches in the past," Francis said. "And so what we plan also on doing is to rotate our players ... we are going to get fresh legs in early and as soon as we see something not going well, we'll take somebody out and give them a breather."

Meanwhile, Francis' opposite number, Norma Plummer, is oozing with confidence entering today's encounter.

"We are confident because we always go out and play to win every game," said Plummer.

"We are expecting the series to be very tough for us because I know that Connie will be testing the waters and we are also testing the waters too and so it is an opportunity for both coaches to make sure that they get the correct depth by the time we get to the World Champs."

Plummer added: "Connie (Francis) is pulling out a few new players and so this gives us a chance to have a look at your depth, which I think is going to be healthy for us because you have some very good athletes.

"We have three players that were unable to tour and it is giving me an opportunity to run some younger players and to see how they stand up before we make our final selection for the World Champs," Plummer noted.

TEAMS:

Jamaica (from): Simone Forbes (captain), Kasey Evering, Althea Byfield, Romelda Aiken, Ann-Kay Griffith, Paula Thompson, Nadine Bryan, Sasher-Gaye Henry, Malysha Kelly, Kimone Tulloch, Jhanelle Fowler, Vanessa Walker, Marsha Murphy, Kameika Sherwood, Nicole Aiken.

Australia (from):Sharelle McMahon (captain), Natalie von Bertouch, Kate Beveridge, Madison Browne, Rebecca Bulley, Catherine Cox, Susan Fuhrmann, Laura Geitz, Kimberlee Green, Natalie Medhurst, Lauren Nourse, and Amy Steel.