Singapore secure hard-fought win over Canada in netball Nations Cup

SINGAPORE – They were coming up against an unranked Canadian team, but world No. 26 Singapore were not taking their Mirxes Nations Cup netball clash against the North American side lightly.

And for good reason. On Tuesday, the hosts were made to slog for their 50-44 victory by a physical Canada side who had already beaten world No. 20 Sri Lanka 50-46 on Sunday.

After their win at the OCBC Arena, Singapore coach Annette Bishop hailed her charges for surviving the test. She said: “There’s always going to be tough fights from all the teams here.

“I’m really proud of the way our girls kept chugging away and working through that, because we actually sometimes do struggle against a physical (team), so that was a lot better.

“I believe we managed to have some very good patches.”

The visitors, who included tall players like 1.82m defender Amonda Francis and 1.83m attacker Sarah Binns, bossed the start and went into a 9-4 lead.

However, the hosts fought back to level matters at 11-11 with less than three minutes left, before taking a 16-11 lead at the end of the opening 15 minutes.

Returning to the court with an unchanged line-up, Singapore looked more confident.

They scored five consecutive goals to extend their lead to 21-11 as they limited Canada’s opportunities.

Things slowed down after Bishop made some substitutions, but the team comfortably saw out the first half with a 32-20 advantage.

But, as Canada got used to the pace of Singapore’s play, they caused trouble for the home team, outscoring them in the third (10-9) and fourth (14-9) quarters. But Singapore did enough to fend off a comeback from the Canadians and secure their second win in three games.

Singapore co-captain Khor Ting Fang believes the team’s experience at the July 28-Aug 6 World Cup has helped prepare them for more physical opponents like Canada, with many of their players coming from a basketball background.

She said: “We always say netball is a non-contact sport, but there definitely will be some contact along the way – not unfair ones, but just fair, challenging, contesting of the ball and that’s just something we have to adjust to.

“We’ve had the experience going against bigger, stronger and taller bodies, and we just take it along the way as part of the game.”

It has not been an easy journey for the Canadians.

The Nations Cup is their first international competition in three years owing to Covid-19 restrictions, which led to the team dropping out of the world rankings.

As of Dec 2, 2019, Canada were ranked 32nd.

Jill McIntosh, Canada’s stand-in coach for the Nations Cup, said: “It’s not easy for Canada because they don’t play fast teams.

“They play slower teams and they don’t play a lot because it’s expensive for them and a lot of these players are self-funded, so it’s very hard for them.

“This tournament will get them some sort of ranking because they haven’t played for such a long time, so one of the objective was to come here and to get a ranking. They’ll come away with some ranking which is great.”