Proteas win, but podium dream suffers shipwreck

The Proteas initially did their best on Thursday afternoon to score as many goals as possible against Uganda.

Ine-Marí Venter and co were in the spot with 100% of their goal attempts until the 28th minute of the showdown and the South Africans enjoyed a half-time lead of 33 – 19.

The Proteas had to win their final World Cup group game in Cape Town by more than 60 goals to advance to the cup play-offs.

Yet the She Cranes suddenly caught fire after the break and South Africa’s defenders had to know their story to nip one attack after another in the bud.

When the final whistle finally blew, the home team did indeed win 52 – 50, but their dreams of a World Cup podium place suffered shipwreck.

They are now in action against Tonga later today.

“It’s a disappointing win against Uganda – I mean, we drew against New Zealand and that result felt like a win for us,” Bongi Msomi said.

Here’s how things end after the Preliminaries Stage two in Pool G ????

Both South Africa and Uganda will feature in the 5th/6th/7th/8th play-offs.#HereForHer | #NWC2023 pic.twitter.com/PKxDD2Ep2M

— SuperSport ???? (@SuperSportTV) August 3, 2023

The Protea captain is particularly upset because her team did not keep their foot on the accelerator.

“We would have loved to play in the semi-final. We knew that we had to be at our very best against Uganda and we wanted to win so badly. At half-time it felt like we still had a chance; the end of the game is very disappointing.”

However, she promised that the South Africans will continue to serve up good netball. After all, they are a team that fans can be proud of.

“Our next goal is to secure our ranking spot. Uganda just once again proved to everyone that they are a netball force to be reckoned with. We really wanted to have done better now than at the previous tournament in 2019.”

DID YOU KNOW: The South African Netball team is ranked 5th in the world.

Being top 5 in the world is undeniably extraordinary!#PutYourHandsUp #StandTall #NWC2023 #SparProteas #NetballWorldCup pic.twitter.com/O5i9yFwTlu

— Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (@SportArtsCultur) August 3, 2023