Brunei lost 20-56 in Wednesday's exposure match against Singaporean club Sneakers but have gained invaluable experience and knowledge from the defeat.
National netball coach Thilaka Jinadasa said that the loss to the top Division 1 team in Singapore was an eye opener for her squad. She told The Brunei Times that the landslide defeat was mainly due to Brunei's struggles on the offensive end. "It was a very tough game but it was the shooters and attacking players' lack in confidence to drive forward that led to the loss with a big margin," Jinadasa said during a phone interview.
"We got 35 attempts for shooting but only 20 goals were successfully converted. "It's very important to maintain a shooting average of at least 75-85 per cent in this level of competition to stay in the game but Brunei's shooting percentage average was very low yesterday.
"It was a good eye opener for the Bruneians to know how important it is to stay focused at all times. How important it is to make strong drives towards the ball, the importance of communication and the advantage of strong and sharp passing," said Jinadasa.
Although they had problems in the offensive department, Jinadasa felt that her defenders played a fairly balanced game and kept focused throughout the match. Unfortunately, they were unable to bring the ball to the goal the majority of the time.
The coach added that her players got caught in the Sneakers' game plan and found it difficult to overcome it. "Those are the main technical errors I have identified during the games so far, which we will focus more on when we come back during the training before the (Sept 7-14 9th Asian Netball Championship)," she said.
"Anyway, it was a good experience. They were not that tall and big compared to the last two games we played against the Singapore Under-17 and Under-19 teams, but very experienced with a few former national players," added Jinadasa.
Their most recent match saw them fall 33-66 to a mix of the Under-21 and senior team yesterday. Despite the loss, Jinadasa commented that her players did a much better job compared to their clash against the Sneakers. They won their first game against the Under-17 side with a 42-37 win on Monday before being edged 37-41 by the Under-19 side on Tuesday.
The national squad will play their final game against the Singapore Sports School open team today.
