Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls Head Coach Connie Francis rued her team’s lack of fitness, which she believes resulted in their 62-73 defeat to England’s Vitality Roses in the opening game of their three-Test series at Manchester’s AO Arena on Wednesday.

The Jamaicans enjoyed a comfortable 10-point lead at one point early in the opening quarter, but gradually lost their shape throughout, which allowed the Roses to claw their way back into the contest and later stamp their class with a ruthless final-quarter display.

That left a bitter taste in Francis’s mouth.

“It’s a really tough loss, but it’s something we just have to try and correct. We made some simple mistakes, and to be honest, I thought England were more match-ready than us,” Francis told the Jamaica Observer shortly after the contest.

“We were only able to play half of the game because some of the girls got winded and we started to rack up some unforced errors. So as the Roses made changes to strengthen their defensive line-up, we made changes simply because some of our players were just tired,” she added with the disappointment evident in her tone.

The Sunshine Girls came out firing at the start with a series of neat court transitions through to goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler, which propelled them to a 19-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.

But Jess Thirlby’s Roses, led by Jo Harten and Helen Housby, worked hard in the fast-paced encounter to ensure they remained in contention as they briskly cut Jamaica’s lead to three goals by half-time, following another lively quarter in which they began to show a few signs of nerves.

With the Commonwealth Games silver medallist losing momentum, the Roses took advantage to close the gap to 34-31.

The tide turned England’s way midway through the third quarter with the home side moving ahead and building a slight cushion, leading 49-47 in a roller-coaster ride heading into the final quarter.

And from there it became a matter of by how far the number three-ranked Roses would win as Natalie Metcalf, Harten, and Housby toyed with the number-four ranked Jamaican defence to add to their tally and close out an emphatic win.

With the teams set to meet again on Saturday and Sunday at the Copper Box Arena in London, Francis is hoping her team can work out the kinks and rebound.

“We had to take out Nicole Rochester because we had to monitor her injury. I thought her being out of the game really affected us, and England got away because I felt that she was marshalling that mid-court and we lost her,” Francis assessed.