Africa-Press – South-Africa. The 2023 Spar Netball National Championships is set for a thrilling final between defending champions Johannesburg and Mangaung, who have turned heads in the competition.
The two sides have confirmed their spots in the climax that will take place at Hoërskool Rustenburg on Saturday. The school with excellent netball facilities has been the host of the tournament since Monday.
Apart from the fierce competition on the court, teams also had to deal with searing heat for most of the tournament.
Johannesburg, who made it to the final without losing a match, defeated a gallant Cape Winelands 58-45 in the semis on Friday.
Mangaung produced a brilliant performance to beat a strong Dr Kenneth Kaunda 53-34 in the second semifinal. Mangaung are the only side that were able to match Johannesburg in this tournament as their fixture in the round-robin format ended in a 49-all draw.
Mangaung’s coach Martha Mosoahle-Samm said they are aware that Johannesburg has the experience of playing big games but take confidence from the fact that they excelled in their earlier encounter.
“It’s going to be a big one because they can play big matches but the fact that we were five goals ahead in the last three minutes when we played them, we will take that with us to the final,” Mosoahle-Samm said.
“We realise that we were in control of the entire 55 minutes, and we learnt from our mistakes, and we are taking with us the fact that we can dominate them for that long.”
Johannesburg coach Dr Elsje Jordaan said ensuring a good start in all their games and excellent squad management has been crucial to their success so far.
“We said we wanted a good start and it’s important to want a good start,” Jordaan said. “I wanted to give everybody a run and you can only do that if the seven that start give you that good start. I was very happy with that aspect of the game because it allowed us to run some fresh legs and all 12 played, which is good for me because all of them participated the whole week.”
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