Netball Super League | Greig and O’Hanlon share their thoughts on second Vitality Roses loss

Caroline O'Hanlon of the Vitality Netball Superleague All Stars.

The second game of the Vitality Netball Legends Series ended in a 67-44 defeat for the Vitality Netball Superleague All Stars on Friday night.

In an end-to-end 60 minutes of competitive netball, it was the Vitality Roses who came out on top in Loughborough.

With that victory, the hosts have won the series following a win on Wednesday evening and will subsequently lift the Jean Hornsby Cup when the two teams meet for the final time on Sunday.

The All Stars once again came out hard in front of the Sky Sports cameras with what was an unchanged Starting VII from Head Coach Karen Greig.

This team of VNSL talent pushed Jess Thirlby’s side all the way in the first quarter but found themselves down by four goals at the first interval.

The deficit rarely improved for the All Stars, who only had their first training session together on Monday, and they went down by seven goals at the half-time whistle.

Some fine individual performances from the likes of defender Sam May and captain Liana Leota could not stop England from pulling away. Eventually, they secured the 67-44 win.

Greig has had a hard task gearing her side up to take on a side who finished third in the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup but is remaining positive despite defeat.

“It’s all about keeping it positive. As much as these players wanted to go out there and win, I think we’ve got to be really realistic that we’ve been together since Monday and a lot these players haven’t played for a long time,” said the Manchester Thunder Head Coach.

“The fact that we again put out 45 minutes of really good netball is credit to the players and their efforts. We’ve just got to make sure we do plenty of video tomorrow and look to put the wrongs right. Ultimately, they’ve done a great job.”

One of Greig’s star players at Thunder during the VNSL season is mid-court sensation Caroline O’Hanlon who has caught the eye of many during her limited time in a black dress to date.

The Northern Ireland international has produced two fine individual performances but walked away frustrated from Friday’s encounter.

“It was a frustrating game. We came into the game with a lot of confidence and we were close in the first half. We felt that we were still very much in the game but just made too many personal errors. We felt the intensity was there but we weren’t able to sustain that intensity,” said O’Hanlon.

“We just have to watch the video and analyse it. We felt like we were still creating a lot of opportunities but we probably took the wrong ones.

O’Hanlon continued: “We have plenty of talent within the squad and you will certainly go back to the drawing board tonight and tomorrow and I think that we have plenty of scope to improve.”

The Vitality Netball All Star’s final game with the Vitality Roses takes place on Sunday evening with first centre pass at 6:15pm. You can watch the game live on Sky Sports.

A huge thank you to everyone for making the Vitality Netball Legends Series happen and the continued support from all of our partners during these challenging times.

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