In their penultimate game of the Quad Series, England lost 57-35 to an unbeaten Australian side in Tauranga on Sunday. England will be looking to end on a win as they face South Africa in their final match of the series on Thursday.
The world champion side proved too strong for Anna Mayes’ England side, with the Diamonds restricting England to single figure scoring in three of the four quarters.
Neither team started particularly tightly, with a scrappy first quarter from both sides. While England struggled in the mid court, finding it tricky to feed the ball through to their shooters; Australia’s shooters had a few uncharacteristic misses. The quarter ended 12-7 in Australia’s favour.
The second quarter kicked off with contact penalties for each side, demonstrating the passion on court that you have come to expect when these two sides play.
Despite some solid play from England’s mid court players, they were struggling to find Pamela Cookey or Jo Harten in the shooting circle. Thanks to some top class play by Madison Brown and Natalie von Bertouch the Diamonds were able to race further in to the lead, ending the second quarter 29-16.
In an attempt to get her team back into the game, Mayes brought on Rosie Allison for Sasha Corbin. The young player took on the position of GS while Harten switched to GA and Cookey moved to WA, for the second time in this series. Sara Bayman and Serena Guthrie also switched roles in centre court, as did Eboni Beckford-Chambers and Ama Agbeze in defence, in an attempt to stem the flow of Australian goals. But the Diamonds were unstoppable, with a 100% shot rate in the third quarter, stretching their lead to 46-25.
While England looked strong in the final quarter, refusing to give up against this in-form Australian side, the Diamonds proved to be simply too good for them notching up their second win over England in this series.
Louise Hudson, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
