JAMAICA’s senior netball team will face world champions Australia in Game One of their three-Test 2011 Supreme Ventures Sunshine Series at the National Indoor Sports Centre (NISC) this evening at 7:30.

The teams will be using the match-ups to measure their level of preparation for July’s World Netball Championships (WNC) in Singapore.

The Jamaicans have one new and one returning face to their line-up — shooter Marsha Murphy and defender Kamieka Sherwood — who will join the experienced captain Simone Forbes, vice-captain Nadine Bryan, shooter Romelda Aiken, Sasher Gaye Henry, Jhaniele Fowler, Anna Kay Griffiths, Paula Thompson, Kimone Tulloch, Vanessa Walker, Nicole Aiken, Althea Byfield, Kasey Evering and Malysha Kelly.

The last time the Sunshine Girls faced Australia on home turf they levelled a two-Test series after a close 56-55 win in the second match, but team coach Connie Francis has no illusions about a repeat as she told the Observer the focus is on seeing where the team is ahead of the WNC. “This is a practise series that we have to get our 15 players an opportunity to showcase themselves before final selection in June. First of all we have to measure ourselves, so our aim right now is to play well,” she said.

Francis said the inclusion of Murphy and Sherwood was a positive one, adding that the chance to play Australia this early in the year was invaluable.

“I think they’re a very good addition to our squad. We’re very happy we get an opportunity to play right just after the festive season, but to play the top team right now, we’re very pleased… they are a very tough team, they are the top team, they have been playing extremely well for a long time,” she added.

The Diamonds swept Jamaica in a three-match series ‘Down Under’ last summer, but team manager Margaret Molina admitted the victories were against a weakened line-up and expects a bigger fight in the series.

“We understand that you didn’t have all your top players for that tour and we’re expecting a tougher challenge,” she said.

The Australians’ line-up features three fairly new players in centre court player Madison Browne, shooter Kate Beveridge, and defender Amy Steel who are on their first international tour.

The remainder of the squad, which includes players who were in Jamaica in 2009 are captain Sharelle McMahon, Natalie Von Bertouch, Rebecca Bulley, Catherine Cox, Susan Furhmann, Laura Getz, Kimerlee Green, Natalie Medhurst, and Lauren Nourse.

“Those new players coming in will get an opportunity in the series to show what they can do,” McMahon told the Observer.

She also emphasised the importance of this series: “After our season finishes in May there’s only a fairly short time for us to get ready for World Champs, so this is a really important series for us to continue building as a team towards that big tournament,” McMahon said.

She admitted that an extra-time loss to New Zealand in the gold medal match of the Commonwealth Games in India last October was disappointing and they hoped to have taken enough from that defeat to support their cause for 2011.

“It’s given us a bit of a re-focus for this season and none of us want to be back in that situation again after the World Championships, so we’ve all committed to doing everything we can to winning that tournament and everything that we do from now on is aimed towards that,” she stated.

Though Australia and New Zealand have always jostled for the top spot in world netball, with England and Jamaica battling for the third and fourth spots, Molina said the Sunshine Girls were high in the ranks as well.

“… On any one day or any one game, you never know. You can have an off-game or someone can have an off-day,” she reasoned.

The Australians travelled for almost a week to Jamaica for the series at much of their own cost and Molina said it was because of the level of importance they placed on competition with the Sunshine Girls.

“We think it’s good for the sport; we want Jamaica up there because if we don’t have those teams up there there’s no competition and you don’t want to play if there’s no competition and that’s one of the reasons we like to play in Jamaica,” she declared.