The fourth day of the Nations Cup saw world number 12 Northern Ireland continue their impeccable winning streak, as they demolished Nations Cup debutants Chinese Taipei. 

Right from the get go, the European powerhouse took the game to Chinese Taipei, with their mix of quick offensive play and aggressive defending. Northern Irish GA Kyla Bowman, scored 10 of 10 attempts in the first quarter as they tripled the minnow’s score to end the first quarter, 18-6. 

In the second quarter, Northern Ireland put Chinese Taipei to the sword as their clinical finishing gave them a 19-7 lead for the quarter. Despite Chinese Taipei’s attempts to tightened their defense the Northern Irish showed no mercy as they methodically picked away at the opposition’s defensive frailties pulling further away with a 37 – 13 lead. 

Despite making massive changes to five members in the third quarter, the Northern Irish continued their remarkable feat, posting a quarter score of 21-4 against their Asian counterparts. Goal shooter Jenna Bowman made impressive swift passes, catching her opponents off-guard before sinking her fourteenth and final goal of the third quarter. 

The Northern Irish were relentless in their pursuit of a wider goal difference, as started the final quarter with an 8-1 run as Kyla Bowman was reinstated as GS helping her team cruise to a comfortable 74-21 win. 

In addition to the pleasing performance the Northern Irish managed to hand a first start and cap to Sinead Redmond.

Highlights
• The game’s top scorer was Northern Ireland’s Kyla Bowman, who scored an impressive 35 goals during the match 
• Second top scorer was Jenna Bowman, who finished the match with a 71% shooting record scoring 34 out of 48. Overall, Northern Ireland had a shooting record of 71% while Chinese Taipei finished the game with a shooting record of 68%. 
• Sinead Redmond earned her first cap for Northern Ireland

Score
Northern Ireland vs Chinese Taipei
Q1: 18 – 6
Q2: 37 – 13 ( 19 – 7)
Q3: 58 – 17 (21 – 4)
Q4: 74 – 21 (16 – 4)

Quote from Head Coaches

Julie Kimber, Northern Ireland Head Coach
Every single player took to the court as we tried a few combinations and rested a few players. We stuck to the game plan and stuck to our targets. Sinead Redmond got her first cap today, I think she has settled in very well – we’ve done a lot of training with her and it was a strong performance, she came on and did her job, did what she was asked of, it was a fantastic performance for her first cap. 
We’ve done a change around in positions today to see how things can go, it’s going to be a lot more physical against Papua New Guinea and it’s going to be a little harder in the circle but we’re really up for the challenge. Today’s performance shows every combination on the court works.

Goh Seck Tuck, Chinese Taipei Head Coach
The team had a game plan but we are looking to work more on the basics. As you can see, this is an international platform, and we are playing against the world’s top, 17, 16, 15, it is really not easy and Northern Ireland is ranked the highest at top 12 in this competition. We need to brush up on our basics and we are trying to work on every single player, in the offensive and defensive positions. Experience plays a big role and we have to keep building on that. 
Up next, we will be playing against Botswana and physically they are much faster so we have to keep going back to basics to make sure our flow is there for every attack and defense. Back home, we do not have many tournaments, there are only three competitions in a year and that is not enough opportunities to improve so this is a good platform for the players to improve game after game.

Quote from Team Captain

Gemma Gibney, Northern Ireland Captain
Yesterday we had a very slow start and the main thing today was to get off to a good start, which we did and we’re happy with that. We then built every quarter on our target score difference so we met our targets which were great. 
Papua New Guinea is going to be really tough opposition as they have played very well so far, we’re going to look at what they do and focus on what we’ll do to combat it. 
Every match is a test match here so we can’t afford to slip off the pedal or anything so we are going to be going in full force for both games.