DESPITE running out relatively easy winners, Jamaica’s netball Head Coach Sasher-Gaye Henry-Wright believes some areas still need improvement.

The Sunshine Girls defeated South Africa 55-47 and took a 1-0 advantage in the three-Test Margaret Beckford Netball Series.

“I think we did perform well. I think we were pushed, and I think the girls actually maintained the discipline to follow through on a lot of areas that we worked on,” said Henry-Wright.

“I think, holistically as a team, we have achieved a few things that we wanted to achieve, but I think there’s still room for improvement in a lot of areas,” she noted.

“In terms of having Miss Shimona Nelson [Jok] drop back, I think sometimes we struggle in the passing, so there are areas that we really need to work on. Holistically, I think we need to do more work defensively — that’s from the attacking [end] straight into the defence,” Henry-Wright explained.

Jamaica, led by Player of the Match Simona Jok who had 38 goals from 39 attempts, were never in danger and dominated the game after the first quarter ended 12-12. The Sunshine Girls never looked back, and led 29-23; 42-35 and 55-47.

South Africa’s goal shooter Rolene Struetker led the way for the visitors, scoring 17 from 18 attempts; Elmere Van Der Bere netted 18 from 20 attempts; and Kamagelo Maseko scored eight goals.

South Africa Head Coach Jenny Van Dyke said it was a hard-fought encounter where “nobody let up anything”.

“Even though the scoreline says what it says, it is not a true reflection of all the team’s play,” she noted.

“First up, congratulations to the Sunshine Girls. Great match for them. Now, you know, I’m quite pleased with the team’s performance. The past two encounters against Jamaica, we lost by 18 or 19 goals every time. Today, we only lost by eight,” said Van Dyke.

“To me, that’s something I can work with and it’s definitely something that we can fix. Everything that we felt that could be wrong, went wrong today,” she added.

But she remains confident that South Africa will get it right. “It’s fixable at the end of the day — [just] one or two plans that we need to tweak and change,” reasoned Van Dyke.

She continued: “What a fantastic venue to play but what a noisy venue! And it’s something that they need to get used to. Next time around, we’ll be used to it and it will be definitely something that they’ll manage better.”

In the curtain-raiser the South African Under-21 team dismissed the Jamaican team 61-31, with Giada Prinsloo getting 44 goals from 48 attempts.

Kellian Hunter responded for Jamaica with 16 goals from 20 attempts and Nickiesha Powell had 10 goals from 11 attempts.

The game was close in the first quarter, with South Africa holding a two-goal advantage leading 13-11. But they turned up the heat and ran out easy winners after leading 29-21 and 47-25 at the half-time and third-period intervals, respectively.

The series is set to continue on Wednesday at National Indoor Sports Centre.

Jamaica’s Shamera Sterling-Humphrey (centre) gets to the ball ahead of South Africa’s Rolene Streutker (left) as Kamagelo Maseko looks on during the three-match series opener on Saturday.

HENRY-WRIGHT… we have achieved a few things that we wanted to achieve, but I think there’s still room for improvement