Netball Super League | Mvula and Greig on final Vitality Netball Legends Series encounter

Joyce Mvula of the Vitality Netball Superleague All Stars. Source | Ben Lumely.

The international Vitality Netball Superleague All Stars ended their Vitality Netball Legends Series campaign with a 55-43 victory on Sunday night.

This was the third instalment of the series with the other two games ending 70-54 and 67-44 to the Vitality Roses.

This meant that England would lift the Jean Hornsby Cup in Loughborough after a highly-entertaining round of games.

The All Stars – made up of some of the VNSL’s biggest names – only had a short period of training before jumping into battle with the Commonwealth Games champions but gave a good account of themselves on all three occasions.

One player who impressed was goal shooter Joyce Mvula. The 2019 title winner was on fire in the shooting circle and Razia Quashie had to produce two Player of the Match performances to contain her.

The Manchester Thunder player remains positive despite defeat, saying that there is now a bond between her teammates and that this has helped prepare her for the 2021 season.

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“It’s really good because you know, we were different players from different teams and now we can chat, we can laugh, because we’ve met and have made a bond between us. So that’s been a lovely thing that I’ve been experiencing through this series,” said Mvula.

“I’ll keep on working hard on my physical and on my shooting as well because we still have a battle to fight. This is just the start so we can start like in this Superleague. So, I just have to go hard with my training and shooting as well to be prepared.”Mvula works with Head Coach Karen Greig at Manchester Thunder. Greig made several changes to her Starting VII after opting to field the same side on Wednesday.

The changes paid dividends as the All Stars managed to win their first quarter of the series and draw the final quarter.

“I was super impressed. We won by three or four and then we drew the last quarter so for us to be able to take pretty much two quarters away from England tonight was a fantastic job for us,” said Greig.

“To be able to say that at the end of three matches, we’ve only come together on Monday, it’s a huge achievement for the girls. The girls have been fabulous, have been absolutely receptive to everything that the coaching team have thrown at them and they did us proud tonight. I was really happy with what they achieved.

“We had some video footage of when England last played New Zealand and, even though we knew that the line-up wasn’t going to be the same, we were just looking for tactical dinks to try and expose them.

“We came in with quite simple but specific principles of play that we wanted to work to and until you get the players in you don’t know how they’re going to respond to that. Ultimately, they responded really well.”

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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