AFTER impressing in test two of their series with Australia and ultimately winning that match, things went far from to plan for England on Wednesday night, and were completely outclassed by Australia in Bendigo.

Reflecting on what transpired on court post-match, England coach Jess Thirlby said it felt different to the first test.

“I thought we kept ourselves with a foothold in it going into half-time. I think we were six down at that point,” she said.

“Less frustrations, more kind of demanding us to just do what we said we were going to do because we kind of anticipated the Diamonds would come out, move the ball back at that kind of pace and speed that they enjoy doing.

“The wing attack to goal shooter links, we know to come to expect the goal shooter exits, and I think we just weren’t putting ourselves between that early enough, quick enough. “We were a little bit reactive defensively, and then if we’re on the back of them, it’s too easy to see a Garbin.

“I think we kind of like played to their strengths a little bit earlier on a bit slow to kind of catch up in that space where the other day we had great impact off that centre past D so we were slowing them down, still had opportunities sending them back off of some of their centre pass defence, but not quite as connected as we wanted to be … so I think there’s lots to be super positive about but ultimately, the swing today was Aussie Diamond centre pass attack went back up.”

Reflecting on the series as a whole, Thirlby praised some of her less experienced faces in her squad. One of those was shooter Olivia Tchine, who Thirlby said she was “really, really proud” of how she played.

“She’s such a character away from the court,” Thirlby said. “You wouldn’t believe it when game face comes on, and I think she’s most probably pleasantly surprised us all with how mature she’s gone about her business in three back-to-back games.”

Thirlby was also really excited that Jessica Shaw and Lois Pearson were able to debut in the series, noting that the pair were able to adapt to international netball much quicker than she did back in her day.

“It’s amazing, really,” she said. “I think it shows huge progress for any England team, but the modern England team, to bed in debutants, as I say, under these conditions against the world number one, and for them to have arrived basically on the first game.

“I think is a huge shift. It definitely wasn’t like that when I played it took me most probably a lifetime to find a performance like that. I think it is a real measure of they’ve watched these girls do it before. “Of course, we want to try and make more of a habit of these wins against the world number one and two.

“But I think they’ve shown a real maturity and it gives us something really great to springboard off and hopefully accelerate the team’s development in progress now as we close in towards 2027.”