A dejected Proteas vice-captain Karla Pretorius said they are very disappointed after their loss to Uganda in the fifth-place playoff at the Netball World Cup.
The home team suffered a narrow to defeat 46-49 defeat to Uganda who are now the top-ranked team in Africa.
The Proteas will move down a ranking place to sixth after the defeat, something the team were hoping to avoid ahead of the game.
It was the second time the two sides came up against each at the Netball World Cup, the first meeting saw the Proteas seal narrow win, but Sunday’s match didn’t go their way.
South Africa found themselves behind on many occasions in the match, as the ‘She-Cranes’ dominated with their possession. Something Norma Plummer’s team came to regret at the end.
A visibly disheartened Pretorius said the defeat is a hard one to accept.
“We are very disappointed with our result, it comes back to us, we didn’t play the way we wanted to and they put us under a lot of pressure,” she said.
“Against a team like this you don’t win a lot of balls, you need to make sure you capitalise on this and we didn’t do that. It’s very disappointing because we really wanted that win.”
Plummer says netball possession-based sport and it’s in this area her team lacked a bit of cohesion.
“Congratulations to Uganda they kept possession of the ball ... I thought we wasted too many (opportunities), we weren’t penetrating enough in the first halfand you can’t afford to lose those sort of balls.”
“The game is possession and that’s where you win it, but they took it to us and they deserve the win.”
This is set to be the last World Cup for the likes of Pretorius and captain Bongi Msomi, who have both cemented themselves as stalwarts of the game.
@AliciaPillay56