Hosts book their spot in FairPrice Foundation Nations Cup final tomorrow

Singapore opened proceedings on the final day of round-robin matches in the FairPrice Foundation Nations Cup against local rivals Malaysia and ground out a 35-42 win to book a place in tomorrow’s final against Fiji.

After an unsettled start, Singapore settled a little and finished the first quarter a whisker in front (10-11). It was end to end action in the second quarter with Malaysia taking back the one goal advantage to level the scoring (21-21).

Malaysia have improved throughout the week and tonight put in their best performance so far against the hosts, disrupting their rhythm with their physical and determined play. They will face Namibia tomorrow in a fight for third place at 3pm.

In the third quarter Singapore looked stronger on the counter-attack with some great interceptions from the Co-Captains in defence (Lin Qingyi and Jean Ng) and took a six goal advantage into the final period. The return of the experienced Premila Hirubalan for today’s match added options in mid-court and the buffer they created proved decisive in the end.

Again, only one goal separated the sides in the final period (8-9) but Singapore had done enough to continue their advantage over Malaysia –the last time they lost to them was in the 2001 South East Asian Games.

Malaysian Captain, Yati Akhtar Mahtar was pleased with her teams’ determination on court. She said, “I am satisfied with my players, they all played well and gave a good fight to Singapore. We lost but I think we gave our best.

“Our shooters were against quite tough defenders and our main shooter was injured so we played with our back-up shooters but we still played well. Tomorrow we want to win our game.”

Singapore Co-Captain Jean Ng was delighted to notch-up another victory over their rivals. She said, “You can always expect tough matches with our neighbours. Since 2001 we’ve never lost and we didn’t want to lose today. It was very physical, they go for every ball so you have to be hard and take the knocks.”

Premila Hirubalan added, “I had exams yesterday morning so I am pleased to be with the team now. The girls have been playing really well and I expect a good fight tomorrow. We’ve been quite close to Fiji in the World Championships and even on Thursday so we expect to be in the competition and even to win.”

Coach, Kate Carpenter summarised, “We didn’t underestimate Malaysia; they were in the match all the way to the end. It was a defensive game for Singapore which kept us in touch and won us the match. Our attacking end wasn’t so good today.

“We need to improve significantly for the final tomorrow. We have experience of playing Fiji so there are areas we can improve on and we’ve done our analysis. We can watch them against Namibia tonight and look at the things we can capitalise from and get a better performance tomorrow.”

Looking at the competition as a whole she added, “So far so good but we’re very aware that we are now in a final. When you are in finals you go out to win. We didn’t give a target at the beginning of the week so the week has progressed really well. We haven’t made a final for a few years at Nations Cup so we’re focused on going for it.”

Second on court was Papua New Guinea (PNG) against Sri Lanka with the ‘Pepes’ getting a morale-boosting 80-70 win ahead of a re-match tomorrow for fifth place in the competition.

PNG’s confidence has taken a real-knock this week with three key players going out injured and some close matches going against them, but they picked themselves up playing hard and with flair

Sri Lanka on the other hand has always viewed this as a training tour and despite failing to win a match, they’ve been happy with the performances of a young team and the experience they’re gaining. The feeding of balls into goal 209cm shooter Tharjini Sivalignam was more effective today keeping them in the game throughout.

PNG Coach Pole Kassman was pleased the girls were back to winning ways. She said, “The girls played very well, they implemented what we trained for this morning so I am happy with that.

“We had to stop the ball in the middle of court because when it gets beyond there, there’s not much you can do.”

Focusing on their own shooting circle and the loss of their first choice shooter, she continued, “Marie [Ottio] has really improved and re-gathered her confidence and I am really glad for her.

“We will go out fighting again tomorrow and we know we can beat them. The girls are playing with more confidence now.”

Vice Captain Maleta Roberts gave her thoughts on the week. She said, “It’s been extremely tough, you don’t take any team lightly and it’s been hard adjusting with the injuries we have had. I did feel tired in the last part of the game but we took our time and got the win. We needed that: for the team, for our country.

“We’re all in the team for a reason; we’re all as talented as each other to be here so if someone gets injured there is someone to step up to the plate. So if we stick to our role we are going to get somewhere. We trust each other and that’s how you get through it.

“This week hasn’t gone as well as we planned. We definitely thought we’d beat Singapore and Malaysia. We didn’t expect to lose any match but those two in particular. We were fit and ready for the tournament and had worked really hard but just little things put us down and we didn’t keep that consistency.”

Fiji stayed on top this evening with a 37-60 over Namibia but they didn’t have it all their own way. With 17 places separating them in the world rankings (7 and 24 respectively), the performance of the African nation was very impressive – attacking and defending with grit and determination and winning the final quarter 13 goals to 10. A similar match physically, they maintained the tempo throughout and made the Fijians work for victory number five of the week.

Una Rokoura, Coach of the winning Fiji side said, “We watched Namibia and we knew they were going to be very physical. Trying to work around their bodies was our aim. We were very consistent in the first three quarters and again in that last quarter we took a dive with our subs coming in. Namibia came out really wanting to win that quarter, that feels like a win for them and it’s really disappointing. We gave it away; they stumbled so that is something for us to really look at. It doesn’t matter if we’re undefeated up until tonight, it is tomorrow that counts and we’re expecting a hard fight from Singapore in the final.”

Marcha Myburgh, Coach of Namibia is delighted to make it into the 3^rd-4^th final tomorrow. She said, “Not sure whether to be relieved or happy. It was quite close. I didn’t even realise we won the last quarter- I am elated. That’s wonderful.

“Fiji are a very good team. I am very glad for my girls, they played a hard game. It’s our first time playing Fiji and they are the world number sevens so it was a great game for us.

“Malaysia was a close game this week. We are hoping to play the game tomorrow from the first ball. We’ve played them, we know what they’re up to and hopefully we can do something. To finish third, for the country it would be a huge thing and beyond all expectations.”

With such close matches all week, it came down to goal difference to determine who made it into the 3^rd-4^th placing match tomorrow.

The finals kick off at 1pm with Sri Lanka against PNG, followed by Malaysia versus Namibia at 3pm (Namibia squeezed out a 44-42 win on Tuesday). The highlight of the competition comes at 5pm when Singapore bid for their third Nations Cup title (2006 & 2007 winners) against the powerful and undefeated Fiji. 

Netball Singapore
10 December 2011