Players from the Fijian team netball team and their coach, who are in town for next week’s FairPrice Foundation Nations Cup, took time out of their training schedule today to hold a special clinic for 11 netball players from the Singapore Sports School at Kallang Netball Centre.

Having touched-down in Singapore on Tuesday, fresh from competing in the Fast Net competition in Liverpool, England; the national players were thrilled to meet some local netballers and share their experiences and demonstrate some of their skills.

They opened the one hour clinic with a question and answer session where they discussed their training regime, how netball operates in their homeland, and their personal highlights of their playing career.

The then went onto the court and worked with smaller groups on their shooting, defensive and midcourt skills, giving the Sports School students the opportunity to learn from very experienced and multi-capped players.

With five new players in the Fijian squad since the 2011 Missions Foods World Netball Championships (WNC) which were played in Singapore, Coach Una Rokoura is very thankful for the opportunity her team has to play in Singapore for the FairPrice Foundation Nations Cup (5-11 December).

She said, “We have a wonderful relationship with Netball Singapore and are very grateful for the chance to play in the Nations Cup. They look after us so well and we are ready for a very tough tournament next week.

“We will be playing Namibia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia for the first time so we must be prepared for some tough matches and do our best to maintain our world ranking and aim to win the competition.”

Fiji are familiar with the team from Papua New Guinea as they compete in the Pacific Netball Series and met Singapore in the WNC (Fiji winning in extra time) but each team has a fresh look following the expected changes after the sport’s biggest competition.

Captain Mere Rabuka said, “We are not underestimating any team in the Nations Cup. We are the highest ranked side but every tournament the teams change and we know they will all want to beat us. Singapore will be especially tough as we know they will want to bounce back from our close match in July.”

Fiji continue their preparations for their opening match on Monday against Malaysia with a warm-up game against the Singapore Open squad this evening (Thursday) and then against the 21&U squad on Saturday.

Fijian Players: Mere Rabuka (Capt); Vaiti Wagatabu; Maria Bereso
Coach: Una Rokoura

[NB: no match scores or reports will be issued for the warm-up games]

Netball Singapore
1 December 2011