Norma Plummer talks to her team during a break The Proteas beat Uganda but it wasn’t enough to get them to the Netball World Cup South semi-finals. Photo: Armand Hough/African News Agency (ANA)
What a difference a day can make ... Yesterday the hope that the Proteas would be booking their place in the semi-finals of the Netball World Cup was a dream many thought would become a reality.
But it was just not meant to be ...
The home team got a tight 52-50 victory over Uganda earlier this evening at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The victory wasn’t enough to seal their place in the last four of the competition, something that seemed a marginally possible this time last night after their epic 48-all draw against New Zealand.
It was never going to be an easy task for South Africa to complete as they needed to score 64 goals more than Uganda in order for them reach the semi-finals..
Coach Norma Plummer says although her team won’t be in the semi-finals she is proud of how far they have come.
“At no time did I promise that we’d be taking a gold medal, it was the President of Netball South Africa (Cecilia Molokwane) promised that.”
I’m realistic all the time. Coming here after three camps and you playing against world champions and are playing at a much lower level from what we have come up against.“
“I am totally proud about those performances. If you can come up and play in the lower grade and compete at that level and get wins and match it that to me shows a team that is growing.”
A visibly disappointed Bongi Msomi says the loss is a bitter pill to swallow, but they have to ensure they keep their fifth place in the world rankings.
“It was a disappointing win today. Yesterday we drew and it felt like we won, but today at half time we came back really strong. We had a good lead and to actually maintain what we have done, it was quite disappointing to see ourselves let it go.”
🗣️ "South Africans have been beautiful, since day one they've been backing us."#SPARProteas captain Bongi Msomi reflects on their two-point win over Uganda but says the team can play a lot better.#HereForHer | #NWC2023
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) August 3, 2023
“We would have loved to be in the semi final, when we went in to today’s game, we thought we’d just give it a crack and see how far we can go with it, and at half-time it felt like we had a chance and at this stage it’s quite disappointing.”
:We must focus on keeping our ranking, because Uganda is really good and if we going to come up against them again, they going to come at us really hard.“
The Proteas will now take on Tonga at 6pm on Friday, with the winner contesting the 5/6th playoff match on Sunday at 11am.
@AliciaPillay56
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