England’s netball team made history last night when they achieved their first ever series win over world champions Australia, with a 51-49 victory at Wembley Arena.
With one match still to play in Birmingham on Sunday the home side, who are ranked number three in the world, will be looking to make it a clean sweep with wins in Bath and now London under their belt. Before this series, England had only ever beaten Australia twice, so to secure two consecutive wins and an overall series win is a real landmark for the side.
Over 7,000 fans in a sold out Wembley Arena cheered the home side to victory in a fiercely competitive and physical encounter. It was incredibly tight for the whole match, with neither side able to forge a strong lead.
As expected Australia made England work for every goal right from the first centre pass, when an England miss gave the visitors a quick lead. Sticking very tight to England, it seemed Australia’s tactic was to give them no room for manoeuvre, which led to a first quarter riddled with contact. But it was working for them, as they finished the first quarter with a four goal buffer, at 11-15.
Head coach Anna Mayes swapped Stacey Francis for Ama Agbeze, and for the first half of the second quarter England struggled to find any flow as once again the match was littered with penalties. But as the quarter neared its end England finally managed to find their rhythm and the goal tally started to climb, levelling at 25-25 with two minutes left on the clock. A rare missed opportunity from Jo Harten meant England failed to take the lead and it was Australia who had edged ahead at the half time whistle 26-27.
Mayes brought Sasha Corbin off replacing her with sister Kadeen who took the GS bib, Harten moved into GA with Captain Pamela Cookey moving to WA. The switches seemed to have the desired effect as England was able to turnover passes and edge ahead with a three goal lead. An injury time out called when Australia’s Madison Browne lost her footing could have taken the swing out of the home side’s momentum, but they came back immediately with another goal much to the delight of the very loud crowd.
But England were soon reminded why Australia are the world champions as they constantly battled back not allowing England’s lead to run away from them, and a 36-36 score line just before the third quarter whistle truly represented how tense this encounter was. But a great turnover from the England defence and some sharp shooting at the other end saw England go in to the break three points clear at 40-37.
England led for most of the last quarter, but it was far from a sure win, as Australia came within two goals of the home side as the final seconds ticked down.
As the England squad flooded the court, the crowd could hardly believe that they had just witnessed history being made. It was a huge night for netball, and as all the attention now turns to Birmingham England will be hoping to make it a 3-0 series win.
Louise Hudson, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
Image credit: Backpage images
