Sunshine Girls praised for aggressive victory against England

National netball coach Connie Francis has heaped praises on Jamaica's netball team following their aggressive display which earned them a series leveling 52-45 victory over England in the second test at the National Indoor Sports Complex on Friday night.

After Wednesday's 53-42 loss, the Sunshine Girls showed great mental strength to recover to beat the world's number four ranked England much to the delight of Francis.

“They have outdone themselves and that is the aim to get these girls some real quality competition and to see what they have learned and what they can do when you put everything together and they showed it [Friday]  night,” she said.

After a 13-all first quarter, Jamaica pulled away to lead 31-23 at half time and 39-34 at the end of the third quarter.

Romelda Aiken, with 38 goals from 45 attempts and captain Simone Forbes, 13 from 15, led the girls to victory.

Pamela Cookey with 27 goals and Jo Harten with 18 were the scorers for England.

Meanwhile, Francis says the coaching staff has decided on the final 12 players, who will represent Jamaica at the Commonwealth Games in October in India.

“We know who the 12 are, this week I have made one adjustment to the final 12 and we have tested in the game [Friday] night and we see that it worked for us fantastic. So the final 12 should be coming out sometime next week,” she said.