England beat New Zealand in a closely contested affair on Sunday as the Vitality Roses drew level in their three-match Test series.
With England’s 61-58 victory, both the Vitality Roses and New Zealand have won one match a piece in the Vitality Netball International Series.
After falling short in the opening game with a 58-61 loss to New Zealand on Saturday, the Vitality Roses reversed the result in front of a passionate crowd at the Copper Box Arena on Sunday.
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Goal attack Helen Housby was named player of the match in a performance that saw her score 23 goals at 96 per cent accuracy.
Vitality Roses Head Coach Jess Thirlby reflected on the win, saying: “I think it was brilliant to see two teams put out another epic performance. We knew that yesterday’s performance was good, but ultimately, it wouldn’t be enough for today.”
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She continued: “We needed to make some quick changes tactically, and I thought we saw us implement some of that early on defensively.
“With two teams of this calibre, there’s always going to be that bouncing back and forth, and I think the momentum shifts have been fascinating in these two matches.
“As a team, we spoke yesterday around managing the moment better in those momentum builders, but also breakers. At half-time, we knew we needed to take the precious turnover we were getting through to a goal, and then we went on and did that in the second half.”
The Vitality Roses’ focus now turns to a deciding third match on Wednesday at Manchester’s AO Arena.
For Thirlby, the support of the home crowd will be critical to the team’s chances on Wednesday.
“I think it’s been set up perfectly by both teams, we’re doing our bit for the neutral, that’s for sure,” she said.
“Both teams are going to go and do their homework now and it’s only going to level up in our view in terms of the intensity and quality of performance.
“It’s going to be brilliant.”
‘So, so special’
Helen Housby told Sky Sports: “That was incredible, that was so, so special. We knew what we had to do. We went back and looked at the video. To be honest, I thought we put out a pretty good performance yesterday considering it’s our first game of the international season.
Housby was the player of the match.
“We went back to the drawing board and I think you saw exactly what we wanted to work on. I’m just so proud of the girls. I think we showed a lot of discipline. In that last five, 10 minutes we kept the scoreboard ticking over and I think we showed a lot of maturity.
“For us it was about sticking to process, trying to win some more ball on their through court attack, which we did and taking that through to goal which I think we did in the third quarter. So it was about sticking to basics but we knew we were in the game and if we got a sniff, I thought we’d got a good chance. We took it.
“I just can’t wait to play in Manchester again. It’s where I started with my netball so I can’t wait. The crowd’s are amazing.
“We’re going for it and I think both teams are going to come out and want to get that win. It means a lot before Comm Games next year.”