ENGLAND secured its first test series win over Jamaica since 2013, following the Roses’ back-to-back wins over the past week for the Roses Reunited Series. Across four quarters of netball, England outscored Jamaica by 27 goals (65-38). Whilst the Sunshine Girls were competitive throughout different stages, the Roses proved too clinical, and according to game two Player of the Match Natalie Haythornthwaite, the credit has to equally go to the coaches as well as the players.

>> ENGLAND vs. JAMAICA MATCH REPORT: GAME ONE

>> ENGLAND vs. JAMAICA MATCH REPORT: GAME TWO

Haythornthwaite starred across three quarters of game two out of wing defence, backing up an impressive first game last week. Eleanor Cardwell won Player of the Match for her impact coming on late in the second term of game one. Previously Shamera Sterling and Kadie-Ann Dehaney had controlled the flow in there against the more experienced goalers in Jo Harten and Helen Housby.

Haythornthwaite said the team was still determined to iron out issues that plagued the Roses in the first half despite the runaway win in the second half of game one, and really come out firing in game two. That worked, as in the blink of an eye England was 9-2 up, and by half-time, led by 16 goals. When asked post-match in her interview with Sky Sports what it meant to be able to control play in the first half, Haythornthwaite said the team was determined to build on game one lessons.

“We were able to respond like that, credit to Jamaica, they really came out firing,” Haythornthwaite said. (Coach) Jess Thirlby wanted us to put out a 60-minute performance and she spoke a lot about improving on the performance from test one to test two, and I think we showed that today. There’s still lots of patches for us to work on, but happy all-round with the majority of tonight.”

Each of the Roses thirds seemed to click, with Eboni Usoro-Brown and Layla Guscoth in defence, Haythornthwaite, Serena Guthrie and Beth Cobden in midcourt, and Cardwell and Harten in attack. The former NSW Swifts midcourter said the result was work that the team had put in at training.

“We’ve been so lucky in training, obviously we’re so gifted with our coaching team,” Haythornthwaite said. “They’ve really helped us to nail down what we’ve needed to work on, where we needed to improve on the game. I think we showed that in our start.

“We really wanted to have a better start compared to our test one game, so credit to the coaches for that, they powered us with a game plan and the girls were able to execute, I’m so proud of everyone tonight.”

Upon looking back at what the result meant, Haythornthwaite said it was a great effort to get over a team that had constantly got the better of them in recent years. In their past six outings coming into the series, England had only won once against the Sunshine Girls, and now they had won back-to-back matches comfortably.

“It’s amazing. We spoke a lot about England being able to win in a major year, so Commonwealth Games and World Cup, but we haven’t beaten Jamaica in a three-match series since 2013,” Haythornthwaite said. “So to be able to have that now is awesome, but there’s still one game to go tomorrow, so we’re going to rest up and be all guns a-blazing tomorrow.”

England clashes with Jamaica at 3:45pm local time, or 2:45am AEDST for dedicated Australians on the east coast wishing to tune in.