DRAGONS GIVE LIGHTNING A SHOCK
9th January 2009 - Welsh Netball
For the Celtic Dragons, the second half of the Co-operative Netball Superleague season started with a Home, LIVE televised fixture against Loughborough Lightning. The match did not disappoint the 300+ spectators at the Welsh Institute of Sport or those watching live on SKY television.
Loughborough Lightning won a very competitive match 37 – 27, but the Dragons have much to be pleased about. Lightning have only lost once this season and sit second in the League having only lost to the undefeated Team Bath squad. They have also been winning matches by considerable margins and defeated Dragons 68 – 23 when the two teams met back in November.
The Celtic Dragons had been working hard on retaining possession and converting to goal under the guidance of Coach, Sue Gaudion. The talented and experienced Lightning squad looked as if they were going to prevent the Dragons from doing this, scoring 7 goals without reply. The Dragons started with Chrissy Munro at Shooter, Chrissy having returned to Superleague action after being out for 3 months with a foot injury. The GS took time to settle and she and GA, Cara Lea Moseley also took a little time to adjust to the close marking and physicality of the Lightning defence. At the other end of the court, Lindsay Keable at GK, Sara Hale at GD and Steph Williams at WD worked tirelessly to restrict the movement of the Lightning attack, taking some outstanding interceptions and forcing errors from the Lightning team. Steph Essex at Centre kept pace with the experienced and clever movement of Loughborough player/Coach, Olivia Murphy.
After 7 minutes, another turnover from Lindsay Keable was taken to the Dragon’s shooting circle where WA Sarah Leach found Chrissy Munro under the post and Dragons put their first goal on the scoreboard. The remainder of the first quarter saw both teams effect some key interceptions and turnovers with only 5 more goals being scored. Lightning left the court 10 – 3 ahead after the first fifteen minutes.
The Celtic Dragons Coach made one change, introducing Amanda Trounce at WA. The all-court defence continued for Dragons and, once again, it brought dividends. The circle defence of Keable and Hale frustrated Loughborough’s England GS taking 8 clean interceptions and making it increasingly more difficult for Lightning to feed their shooters. The circle defenders were more than ably supported by all of their team mates but the Dragons’ WD and C also made it difficult for Lightning to get the ball to the edge of their attacking circle.
At the other end of the court, the Dragons attack settled and the ball was not only finding the shooters, but was being converted. An even 15 minutes saw Lightning win the quarter 10 – 7 going in 20 – 10 ahead at half time. The quarter had again seen some excellent defence from the Celtic Dragons with the all-court pressure leading to more interceptions from the Dragons’ circle defence.
Loughborough brought on Welsh International, Becky James, at GS for the 3rd quarter. Dragons scored two quick goals, one from a turnover by Williams at WD before James sank her first goal for Lightning from the circle edge. Dragons outscored Lightning 5 – 3 in the first 6 minutes of the quarter before Lightning scored 5 goals without response. In the previous encounter, Loughborough had run away with the 3rd quarter, but Dragons were not going to let this happen. Outscoring their opponents 5 – 4 in the last 5 minutes of the quarter, Dragons lost an enthralling 15 minutes 11 – 9 and had restricted Lightning to 30 goals for the first 3 quarters.
Celtic Dragons reintroduced Sarah Leach at C and Shenaide Boucher at GA for the last quarter with Cara Lea Moseley moving to GS . Blucher had returned to the Dragons having taken the first half of the Superleague season off. The team defence continued in the same manner with Lightning being pressured into errors. The attack continued to evade their markers getting the ball to the circle edge and accurately feeding the two shooters. The crowd, who had been incredibly vocal and supportive of the Dragons throughout, pushed the team on and were rewarded with some enthralling play. Dragons maintained the pressure and won the quarter 8 – 6 leaving Lightning as overall winners 37 – 27.
Coach, Sue Gaudion, was pleased with the performance. “The team proved tonight that it can do things more consistently and that is no mean feat against one of the top sides in the Superleague. I thought our team defence was excellent and the performance of the circle defence in particular was outstanding. It was good to have Chrissy and Shenaide back. As a team, we still need to work on converting more turnover ball. Hopefully, this is an indication of how we are going to play through the second half of the season. The game against Mavericks on Sunday will be an immediate measure of this”.
Captain, Sara Hale was also pleased with the way the team played. She said “we started to do the things we have talked about doing all season and it was positive we did it throughout the sixty minutes.” Sara also received the “Player of the Match” award but felt it was on behalf of the defence. “I think we combined well as a team today and the Player of the Match award is a reflection of what we all achieved, but especially the circle defence. Lindsay and I work hard as individuals but also as a unit so I am happy the efforts of the Dragons were noted and rewarded today”.
Assistant Coach and National Performance Director, Iain Root, commented “the team played well today. There is still room for improvement but I hope the players can take confidence from their performance and replicate it in future matches. The team hit their performance targets in terms of rebounds, attempts at goal and restricting Lightning’s attempts so can take heart from this. The crowd was fantastic and really helped the team. Hopefully, we can have a crowd like this for all our future home games!”
Dragons have little time to recover as they play Mavericks at 5 p.m. on Sunday 11 January at the Welsh Institute of Sport. Expectations will be high following the Lightning match, so hopefully, there will be a substantial crowd to spur the Dragons on ….
Chrissy Munro GS GS GS -
Cara Lea Moseley GA GA GA GS
Shenaide Blucher - - - GA
Carlie Ennis - - - -
Sarah Leach WA - - C
Amanda Trounce - WA WA WA
Stephanie Essex C C C -
Suzie Drane - - - -
Sian Carrington - - - -
Stephanie Williams WD WD WD WD
Sara Hale GD GD GD GD
Lindsay Keable GK GK GK GK
Score: 3 – 10; 10 – 20; 19 – 31; 27 – 37
Quarter Scores: 3 – 10; 7 – 10; 9 – 11; 8 – 6
Shooting Stats:
Chrissy Munro 10/21 = 48%
Cara Lea Moseley 15/26 = 58%
Shenaide Blucher 2/2 = 100%
Team: 27/49 = 55%
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