Scotland head to South Africa

Scottish Thistles look to build on their Netball World Cup (NWC) preparations as they take part in a 4 match test series in South Africa later this month.

Head coach, Tamsin Greenway explains;

“We’ve been invited over by South Africa to play in the Diamond Challenge which is a 3-nation competition. It is a great opportunity for us to go over there and get some tough test matches under our belt, especially in a world cup year.”

“Other than South Africa It’s been a while since we’ve played against some of the other African nations in a competitive environment. It’ll be great to get some gauge of where we sit amongst them and how we match up tactically.”

“We’re still waiting on the final fixtures so it’s hard to say exactly what we want but depending on the teams I’d like us to be able to come home with a win. At this point in time it’s not the be-all and end-all for us. What we need to be able to do is go at these teams, adapt quickly, and learn valuable lessons.”

Karen Atkinson, Performance Director at Netball Scotland will be joining the squad in South Africa adds;

“Having a system and a competition program that the players can thrive in, push each other and want to go even further is the aim at Netball Scotland.”

Commenting on what Scottish Thistles hope to achieve in the SPAR Diamond challenge, Greenway states;

“Success for us is another step up from the World Cup qualifiers in terms of adding to our style of play, we are constantly building on our structure, our process, so if we can maintain the good bits from WCQ and add the next steps I’ll be very happy.”

Final fixtures together with streaming details will be made available soon.