Girls, England full of confidence

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

BRIMMING with confidence, Jamaica Sunshine Girls will battle England in the first match of their two-Test National Commercial Bank (NCB) Sunshine Series, at the National Indoor Sports Complex today, starting at 7:30 p.m.

The Jamaicans, who are ranked fourth in the world, one place behind the English, are coming off a disastrous tour Down Under, where they lost both Test series 3-0 and 2-0, respectively, to Australia and New Zealand.

However, the Connie Francis-coached squad has been boosted with the return of the experienced trio - captain Simone Forbes, Kasey Evering and Althea Byfield - who all missed the recent tour.

"The Down Under tour and this home series are different in the sense that we have a lot of different and experienced players in our squad now," Francis said. "The good thing is that we are playing at home and we will have our home crowd behind us for the girls and I don't see why we can't win because they are very confident."

She added: "In every third of the court we are very strong in numbers. Going into Australia it was different because we didn't have so many experienced players throughout the court," Francis said.

Having said that, Francis noted that the English team is very good all-round and Jamaica will have to play very hard to beat them.

"I am always very wary of our opponents because I have played with them and I know that they are very confident in their strengths and in their beliefs, and even when we defeat them they remain a very confident bunch," Francis said.

England's coach, Maggie Jackson, is also oozing confidence ahead of today's encounter against the Jamaicans.

"We anticipate that we are going to win, but we are going to have to contest a physical style of play and we are going to have to make sure that we are coming out with that ball," said Jackson. "We also have to make sure that we attack the Jamaicans from the opening whistle."

The English defeated Business House Netball League champions Scotiabank 'A' 35-26 in their warm-up game on Monday night at G.C. Foster College in St Catherine, but Jackson said they must lift their game.

"I think we can certainly beat the Jamaicans but we have to play consistently," she said. "We have to really raise the bar and not turn over the ball because we know where they have their strengths and weaknesses.

"We have beaten them when they came over to England and we have also beaten them in crucial games, but I know it will be difficult for us to beat them at home," she pointed out.

England will rest their hopes in the hands of the experienced Pamela Cookey, co-captains Karen Atkinson and Sonia Mkoloma, along with Rachel Dunn, who was inspirational in their win over Scotia.

Jamaica's full squad is: Kasey Evering, Simone Forbes, Althea Byfield, Romelda Aiken, Ann-Kay Griffith, Paula Thompson, Nadine Bryan, Sasher-Gaye Henry, Georgia Gordon, Malysha Kelly, Kimone Tulloch and Jhanelle Fowler.