Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho netball senior national team was the most humiliated side at the recent 2019 Africa Netball Cup played in Cape Town, South Africa from October 18-22.
Poor performance haunted the Mountain Kingdom outfit from the onset as the team lost all its games played. Lesotho became the only country that finished the
tournament without winning even a single game. Lesotho started on a low note, humiliated and outclassed by the neighbors-South Africa by 116-10 in the first game of the tournament.
In their second game, Lesotho went down 24-74 to Kenya before being thrashed 24-98 by Uganda. . Zimbabwe also joined in the party and defeated Lesotho by 22-79.
On Monday Lesotho suffered another loss as they lost 32-89 to Malawi, miserably ending their journey yesterday with a loss of 32-68 to Zambia. Talking
to Informative Sport from Cape Town, one of the team’s assistant coaches Tumelo Sefali said she believes the girls tried their best. “From our first game against South Africa to our last game we have seen a lot of
improvement,” said Sefali. Team Lesotho was formed by young players, most of whom were part of the under 20 national team that competed at the 2018 African Union Sports Council- (AUSC)
Region 5 held in Botswana. The team that competed in the Africa Netball Cup had few senior experienced players being; Nthabiseng Phokojoe, ‘Makhotso Maetso and ‘Malintša Khanyetsi.
According to Sefali lack of experience also contributed to the poor performance of the team. “We are also disadvantaged by the shortfall in height. We need to go
back and scout tall players for defending and few for scoring. Speed-wise we are good. Our problem lies in the circles where we have to defend against tall shooters and where we have to score against tall
defenders,” mentioned Sefali. Sefali however feels they have something positive to bring home from the games, citing that the young players have gained ample experience to help
them at the Under 21 World Cup Qualifiers next year and during the Under 20 Region 5 Games to be hosted by Lesotho. Team Lesotho is expected to return home today.
Meanwhile one of the local netball coaches Neo Orpen believes it was not a good idea to put the young and less experienced players under such pressure to compete against countries that competed in the Netball World Cup held
in Liverpool, England recently. He said the competition was way above these young players level of competition. “Lesotho has many experienced senior players, those who could have done better in that tournament,” added Orpen.
Team Lesotho from Africa Netball Cup;
Matšeliso Toloane, Nthabiseng Phokojoe, ‘Makhotso Maetso, Moliehi Moerane, Reitumetse November, Thandokazi Sekoati, ‘Malintša Khanyetsi, Matšeliso Maino, Limpho Makepe, ‘Mamokete Mohlouoa, Mampiti Morai, and Rethabile Makoae.
