England suffer defeat to world champions New Zealand in Nations Cup opener
Jess Thirlby, England’s head coach, insists suffering a comprehensive 16-goal defeat against New Zealand in the first home game of her reign is no major concern, as she looks to “build a team for the future”.
Faced with a number of her most senior players taking a rest from international duty, Thirlby used all 12 of her largely inexperienced squad in their Nations Cup opener against the world champions in Nottingham on Sunday.
A scrappy first half saw the Kiwis gain a slender three-goal lead but England’s problems mounted soon after the break, with the deficit growing steadily on the way to a 64-48 defeat. Although honest about her team’s mistakes, Thirlby said the result was not as negative as it might appear.
She said: “We just ran 12 players out there. I could be criticised for not rolling subs if I hadn’t done that, so I’m proud that we did that.
“We’ve actually exposed 27 players to an England senior dress since July and I think that’s a brilliant stat so early on in this cycle. In the short term, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
“I’m really proud that we’re exposing players and we’re trying to do so in a way that builds for the future, while trying to contest games in the here and now.
“We fronted up against the world champions and it doesn’t define what we can do in the rest of the competition. Maybe we will meet them again [in the final] on Sunday. That would be great, because we think we can do a bit better.”
There is no small merit to Thirlby’s argument. Only five of the 12 players who featured at the World Cup are available for selection and mistakes are to be expected.
Yet it is a similar position for her New Zealand counterpart, Noeline Taurua, who is without her four most senior players for this competition and still managed to rotate her shooting combinations each quarter while easing to victory.
The introduction of goal shooter George Fisher off the England bench before half-time appeared to spark an upturn in fortunes for the hosts, after New Zealand had gained an early eight-goal advantage, but the mistakes soon mounted as the Kiwis repeatedly carved a route through centre court.
Be it footwork issues, intercepted passes or unsuccessful feeds into the shooting circle, England’s error count only grew as the match wore on. A dreadful third quarter saw the lead extended to 10 goals, by which time the game was all but over.
“For all 12 to take to the court against the world champions will bode well both through the Nations Cup and beyond it,” Thirlby said.
“If we hadn’t made so many errors, I think we could have come off the better of the two at half-time. We’re up against the world champions and I thought the first half was good. Second half we made too many errors and we were a bit slow on the uptake of some things we were doing tactically.”
England’s hopes of making the Nations Cup final will be dealt a major blow if they fail to beat South Africa in Birmingham on Wednesday. South Africa lost their opening match 59-54 against Jamaica.
