Gauteng derby in Spar Netball Champs final

The Spar Senior National Netball Championships final is set to be contested between Tshwane and Johannesburg in what will be a re-match of the Gauteng derby.

Tshwane edged Mangaung 30-29 in the semi-final at the University of North West in Potchefstroom on Friday, while Johannesburg defeated Dr. Kenneth Kaunda 39 -22.

After withdrawing from the competition due to Covid-19 cases last year, Tshwane will be looking to bounce back and retain the crown they previously won five times in a row.

Tshwane, who beat Johannesburg 34-32 in the round-robin phase on Tuesday, boast an unbeaten run of seven matches in the competition but coach Jenny Van Dyk says it will count for nothing if they lose the final on Saturday at 9:30am.

"At the end of the day, you need to beat the best to be the best and, to me, the word unbeaten is a word that I'm very content with and one that I strive towards," said Van Dyk.

"For me, as a coach, with a lot of different teams, we have managed to play tournaments undefeated, so it's not something influencing me at all, I know it can be done - we've done it plenty of times. In fact, it's a word that really inspires me to get that win tomorrow."

Meanwhile, Johannesburg coach Elsje Jordaan says her team has nothing to lose and everything to gain, with the pressure solely on favourites and five-time winners Tshwane. 

"It's our first final, they've been in a final how many times, so I also said to the girls that we have absolutely nothing to lose because we're not defending anything, we can actually just gain gold," said Jordaan.

"So, there's no pressure on us. We don't see it like that and we're just going go out there to play hard and have fun, and there's really some good individual brilliance in our team and to see them out there doing their thing on court, as a coach, I'm super proud and we're really looking forward to tomorrow."

By Charles Baloyi