Times Of Swaziland: NETBALL NATIONAL TEAM INTENSIFIES PREPS

NETBALL NATIONAL TEAM INTENSIFIES PREPS
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Pholsile Hlophe on 04/07/2022 08:34:00


LOBAMBA – The national netball team has an interesting challenge ahead of the
continental qualifiers.
The Africa Netball World Cup Qualifiers will take place in Pretoria, South
Africa, from August 20-27 and practice matches are being played with local men
netball teams as part of the preparations. National team head coach Nhlanhla
‘Friction’ Mayisela said the male teams were the ideal challenge for the
national side, as they presented the aggression and agility which the ladies
were tasked to beat.
training
On top of their weekly training sessions held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at
KaLamvelase in Manzini, they played practice games with the forces’ male
netball teams on weekends. A fortnight ago, they went up against Umbutfo
Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) and lost 24-29. They suffered a second defeat in
the hands of their police male counterparts, Royal Eswatini Police Service
(REPS) who beat them 41-35. Goal shooter (GS) Nonkululeko Sihlongonyane was
carefully marked by goal defender (GD) player Brandon Dlamini and Nkabinde
Shabalala seized every scoring opportunity on the other end of the court.
“The boys are more aggressive than the ladies and we pit the ladies national
team against the male teams, so that they build on their resilience and agility.
We have only one month left to the qualifiers and we will keep pushing them hard
in training so that they are ready by August,” Mayisela said. The qualifying
teams will then take part in the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South
Africa, and this will be the first time this competition is played on African
soil. Eswatini will compete against countries like South Africa, Malawi,
Namibia, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda and Botswana in the
qualifiers. South Africa will qualify as hosts.