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Baby Proteas coach Precious Mthembu believes her team struggled somewhat with maintaining their style of play despite a 64-33 win over Malawi in their third Pool D match at the 2025 Netball World Youth Cup.
The African rivals came into this match on the back of two wins respectively, with the Proteas reigning supreme at the Tercentenary Sports Hall on Tuesday.
Speaking during her post match presser, Mthembu said she is happy her team finally got it right against a more physical opponent.
"A tough game today against Malawi, it was very untidy after a very slow start from us, we struggled to settle into our own rhythm – something we almost expected agianst Malawi's physicality, which really interrupted how we display our structure on the court," said Mthembu.
"We couldn't get into our own style of play, we took too long, but we adjusted and we were able to get our own control and plan back on how we wanted to continue with the game.
"Besides the really rough start, I think the team really showed determination and we were able to secure a solid win at the end."
Mthembu says their next clash against Fiji this evening will require them to focus on starting strong and trying to remain consistent under pressure.
"I think the scoreboard will really say a lot – the match really showed that we have to play games like this to improve on different areas," she added.
"We need to focus on starting really strongly and move quicker when we play such a physical game under pressure, and other than that a very valuable lesson for us is to build on securing a good start and prepare for tougher challenges ahead of us."
