Netball Day 3

We had another great day at the netball. First up was a very close and tough game between Fiji and Trinidad & Tobago which Fiji unexpectedly lost.

Next up was Samoa against Sri Lanka, a game that Samoa had to win if they were to have any chance of making the quarterfinals. We met up with all the other Samoan supporters, all decked out in our blue Samoa shirts, to cheer the team on. It turned out to be a much closer and tense match than most of us were expecting. Sri Lanka had a very tall, skinny shooter that the Samoans struggled to shut down - the height mis-match between her and the Samoan defenders was quite funny to see. In the end the Samoan team managed to hang on for the win 57 - 53.

Our Samoan cheer squad must have been doing something right, we caught the attention of the Sky TV camera crew and they recorded a "Talofa" cheer from us. Then after the game the two of us were interviewed by a reporter from one of the local newspapers.

After our media commitments were finished our next game was NZ against Wales. The Silver Ferns came out firing and poor old Wales were a bit shell-shocked, behind 28-2 after the first quarter. As expected the Ferns went on to score an easy win 91 - 21.

After the game the Silver Ferns were signing autographs and we managed to get the entire team to sign a Netball World Championship shirt. They were all pretty relaxed and happy to chat a bit. We learnt that Laura Langman has got her crucial supply of crumpets sorted out, according to Irene van Dyk there are so many crumpets that they can't eat them all. Irene also sends a hug out to Dad. Paula Griffin's tattoo up her arm is a quote that inspires her. Casey Williams was hungry and reckoned that it was time for dinner and Jolene Henry and Temepara George weren't completely satisfied with the game.

There have also been plenty of stories floating around about Australian coach Norma Plummer. She seems to be a total control freak, paranoid about everything and full of conspiracy theories, usually about how New Zealand is trying to manipulate things to their advantage or how Australia have been disadvantaged. She even complained that the Silver Ferns were smiling and laughing too much during their game!