Singapore fall 52-50 to Papua New Guinea in netball Nations Cup opener

SINGAPORE - Singapore opened their Mirxes Nations Cup campaign at the OCBC Arena on Sunday with a shock 52-50 loss to world No. 36 Papua New Guinea, who are ranked 10 rungs below the Republic.

The Papuans, who had an 85 per cent conversion rate from 61 goal attempts, lived up to their “dark horse” label and avenged their 56-45 defeat by Singapore at April’s PacificAus Sports Netball Series in Australia.

Singapore coach Annette Bishop said: “It was just a few silly errors throughout the game that cost us and we need to ensure we minimise our errors.

“We knew they had a young team and would be a bit of a dark horse because they brought in some (Australia-based) players we haven’t seen before.”

The Papuans have been boosted by the addition of six players who are based in Australia. Most of them ply their trade in Queensland’s Hart Sapphire Series, a third-tier netball competition.

They did not participate in April’s defeat by Singapore due to contractual obligations with their clubs, according to Papua New Guinea centre Maddison Siyvia, who plays for ACU Brisbane North Cougars.

Siyvia, 22, was making her debut for the team. She said: “It’s a great step up and really challenges my game. We didn’t give up. We had a great score but there’s room for improvement for the next game.”

In front of about 600 spectators, Singapore started on the front foot reeling off three points in quick succession before they were pegged back to 12-12 in a tightly contested first quarter. The Papuans then pulled away, holding leads of 29-24 and 42-35 in the second and third periods respectively.

With their backs to the wall, the home crowd roared the Singaporean players back to life in the fourth quarter. Singapore scored seven of the first eight points courtesy of conversions from co-captain Toh Kai Wei and Amandeep Chahal, eventually levelling the scores at 44-44.

But at 46 apiece with five minutes left, Chahal – unguarded and right below the net – missed a golden opportunity to put Singapore in front, allowing the momentum to swing back to the Papuans, who saw out the match.

Chahal, who converted 16 of her 22 goal attempts, said: “In this week-long campaign, you cannot keep that (miss) on the back of your mind. You just have to keep pushing on because there are a lot more games left and you can still fight back and get us to the final.”

Bishop added: “We did have a chance to take the lead but we made our own errors. For Papua New Guinea, they fought really well and disrupted our play, so credit to them as well.

“We’ll look at the video analysis. Yeah, we’ve had a loss. Tomorrow’s another day and we just come back even stronger.”

One bright spot was the perfect shooting of Lee Pei Shan, who returned from more than a year out to score 13 from 13.

The Papuans’ victory is a testament to the players’ hard work in training, said their coach Annie Iamo. She added: “Today was a tough match and when they came back, the narrow score was a bit scary. But we knew that everything would fall into place.

“To me, Singapore is one of the top teams at the moment. If we can beat them, we should be able to beat everybody else.”

In the other matches, unranked Canada upset world No. 20 Sri Lanka 50-46, while Singapore A, a developmental side, lost just 53-50 to the 19th-ranked Cook Islands. Singapore A players had only 23 caps to Cook Islands’ 173 and yet battled them to a narrow defeat.

On Monday, Singapore will face Cook Islands (7pm), with Singapore A meeting Sri Lanka (3pm) and Canada taking on Papua New Guinea (5pm).