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Wales Off The Mark At World Cup, But Nia Jones Urges Improvement

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Nia Jones believes Wales can add to their first victory at the Netball World Cup in South Africa.

Skipper Jones and her team earned their first victory in their third match at the tournament when they beat Sri Lanka, 68-56.

After defeats to South Africa and Jamaica, Wales got off the mark, although Jones admitted: “I think it took us a little bit too long to get into the game.

“We spoke beforehand about having to be on our best to beat this Sri Lankan team, they were undoubtedly going to improve as the tournament went along and of course they’ve got really accurate target shooters in there and we’re not the tallest of teams, so we had to be creative with the strategies that we won ball with today.

“We will undoubtedly have to be better than we were today tomorrow against New Zealand, but I’ve got confidence we can be.”

With both Wales and Sri Lanka chasing a first victory in Cape Town, there was plenty to play for when the two sides went head-to-head in their final Group C clash on Sunday.

On the line was a place in the second stage of the preliminaries with only the top three teams in each pool progressing, and it was the Welsh Feathers who got the job done.

While the Sri Lankans stayed within striking distance for much of the opening quarter, some great intercepts from the Welsh ensured they edged ahead, taking a six-goal advantage into the first break.

The tallest player in the tournament 2.06m Tharjini Sivalingam came on at goal shooter after the main break and made all the difference, with the Sri Lankans producing their highest-scoring quarter.

But, a 10-goal gap by the end of the period proved too much to close and with goal shooter Georgia Rowe completing a near-flawless performance in the Wales circle with 49 goals from 50 attempts, the Feathers wrapped up the crucial 68-56 victory.

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