Sunshine Girls will be ready for England — Reynolds
NATIONAL head coach Minneth Reynolds says the Sunshine Girls will be mentally and physically ready for England as both teams are set to square off in a three-test series scheduled for January 10, 11 and 13 at the National Indoor Sports Centre (NISC) in Kingston.
Both teams will be using the series as part of their build-up to the Netball World Cup to be held in Sydney, Australia in August 2015. England are ranked at number three, while Jamaica are at four.
“The preparations building up to this series have been going well so far. We didn’t have much training done in November, but all of this month (December) the girls have been doing a lot of training as we want to be ready for the English. They are a very good team and we want to be on top of our games,” Reynolds told the Jamaica Observer.
The English side is at full strength and will be looking to avenge their loss to Jamaica in the bronze medal match at the Commonwealth Games last August.
The England team is coming off a high, having closed out the year by winning a two-test series against fifth-ranked Malawi recently, but Reynolds said the Girls are confident they can get the job done.
“The Girls are very confident at the moment as they believe in themselves that they can beat England. All they need to do is to go out there and execute everything. Go out on the court and execute in the attacking and defence departments,” Reynolds said.
“It is not a one-man game, but a team; team effort will do it. We have played a lot of games with England as both teams know what it takes to beat the other team. The greatest thing is that the Girls have belief,” she added.
The Jamaican team will be named on January 7, 2015. The English will arrive in the island this weekend, but will be without top player Serena Guthrie, who sustained an injury at the Fast5 tournament in November.
England squad — Jade Clarke (co-captain), Pamela Cookey (co-captain), Ama Agbeze, Sara Bayman, Eboni Beckford-Chambers, Sam Cook, Kadeen Corbin, Sasha Corbin, Rachel Dunn, Stacey Francis, Tamsin Greenway, Jo Harten, Laura Malcolm, Geva Mentor.
