JAMAICA has won the Margaret Beckford Sunshine Series, after taking the second match of the series 59-47.

A second quarter burst ultimately proved the difference for the Jamaicans, as the South Africans proved to be quite late to react to on court issues that needed to be fixed.

Although both sides went goal for goal early in the first quarter, the two sides had very different methods for getting to goal. Jamaica tended to go for the longer feed, really using Shimona Jok’s height and leap to its advantage, whereas South Africa was playing a much shorter game, looking to really work the ball down and using a lot more passes to get the ball to Kamogelo Maskeo and Rolene Streukter.

South Africa was the first side to establish a definitive lead, but it was only at most two goals so it was hardly one to rest any laurels on. This was proven minutes after the lead was established when Jamaica levelled things back up again thanks to some stellar defensive work from Shamera Sterling-Humphrey. Some strong attentiveness in defence helped Jamaica establish a lead of their own pretty quickly after levelling up proceedings.

Ultimately at quarter time Jamaica held a five goal lead, and South Africa had plenty to think about at the first break.

The two teams went goal for goal again early in the second term, but South Africa did manage to eat away a little bit as the visitors made the most of any little error from the home side. However they were unable to fully close the gap as the Jamaicans extended their lead back out and even further than the quarter time margin.

One issue that South Africa had was that even though they had moved around their defence – moving Jamie Van Wyk from wing defence to goal defence and Sanmarie Visser from goal defence to goal keeper – this just made Jok’s height advantage over her direct opponent even more stark, which played right into Jok’s style.

Combine this with some strong defending up the other end from Sterling-Humphrey, Latanya Wilson and Jodi-Ann Ward meant that the Jamaicans really started to put their foot down, and as such saw their lead out to nine goals at half time.

The second quarter was ultimately a real turning point in the match.

The Jamaicans did not let up on their pressure, and even with a few on court positional changes the momentum of the Sunshine Girls was not disrupted. Meanwhile South Africa was slipping further and further behind on the scoreboard, simply being outclassed by the home side and not making any personnel changes to try and stay in the match. As such, the margin was out to 14 goals as the teams turned for home.

Things did not improve in the final quarter for South Africa. The visitors did finally make some wholesale changes to their on court line up and were able to cut into a bit of the deficit, by this stage it was too little too late as they had to reel in a double digit lead to take the win, which they could not do. This allowed the Jamaicans to switch their focus and give those who had started on the bench some more game time, and even with the continuous changes the Jamaicans were making, it did not interrupt their momentum.

Player of the Match honours went to Wilson, who as per usual again starred across goal defence and wing defence for the home side.

JAMAICA                        18 | 16 | 16 | 9 (59)
SOUTH AFRICA              13 | 12 | 11 | 11 (47)

STARTING SEVENS

Jamaica

GS: Shimona Jok
GA: Shanice Beckford
WA: Brie Grierson
C: Adean Thomas
WD: Latanya Wilson
GD: Jodi-Ann Ward
GK: Shamera Sterling-Humphrey

South Africa

GS: Rolene Streutker
GA: Kamogelo Maseko
WA: Khanyisa Chawane
C: Refiloe Nketsa
WD: Jamie Van Wyk
GD: Sanmarie Visser
GK: Ané Retief