Netball Super League | Imports shining in the Superleague

We’re only just into Round 2 of this exciting new Vitality Netball Superleague season and import players are already shining through.

After the thrills and spills of Super Saturday, Yorkshire Jets and Team Bath kicked off the second round in front of the Sky Sports cameras on Monday evening with Bath taking home the points and an early lead in the table.

This weekend we have three gripping fixtures to serve up to you, starting tomorrow night when last season’s champions Surrey Storm host Team Northumbria at 7.30pm in a match where both teams will be looking to bounce back from first round losses.

We then move through to Saturday where the first match of the evening sees Manchester Thunder host Celtic Dragons at 5pm, and later at 6.30pm Loughborough Lightning travel to Hertfordshire Mavericks to conclude Round 2.

The opening round, plus Monday’s clash between Jets and Bath highlighted the quality of all franchise imports. Every single Vitality Player of the Match prize across these five games have gone to imports or players returning from stints in the ANZ!

Before the season even got started, everyone was talking about the busiest off-season for transfers and the anticipation definitely hasn’t turned into disappointment.

Shooter Sammy Wallace who has joined Mavericks from Trinidad and Tobago set the tone as she took the first Player of the Match of Super Saturday. In Mavericks 60-39 win over Dragons, Wallace recorded an impressive shooting accuracy of 92%.

It was our Rose Ama Agbeze who translated her international form straight into the Superleague with ease as she put in another Player of the Match performance for Lightning in their 65-34 win over Jets.

Thunder’s centre court firecracker and New Zealand international Liana Leota shone in the third game of the day as Manchester overcame Northumbria 59-37.

The final match of Super Saturday was between Team Bath and Surrey Storm and was seemingly the one the enthusiastic crowd were waiting for. In a game that saw Storm in the lead until the final quarter, South African defender Karla Mostert made the difference for Bath.

Bath were up again on Monday, and this time they travelled to Jets and beat them 58-38. England defender and Bath Captain Eboni Beckford-Chambers was the Vitality Player of the Match, bringing her ANZ and international form back to the Superleague for 2016.

Will this weekend follow the same pattern? Only time will tell – follow live updates on Twitter from us and all the teams to stay in the know!