Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls faced a tough opening day at the Fast5 Netball World Series on Friday, as they lost all three of their opening encounters, but will be hoping for better fortunes on Saturday’s final day in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The young, relatively inexperienced Jamaican squad—fielding seven debutants—was visibly affected by the high-stakes atmosphere, showing early jitters and struggling to find their usual rhythm. Their opponents—New Zealand, England, and South Africa—capitalized on the team's early nerves and shaky play to clinch solid 39-19, 35-15, and 33-25 wins.

In their first game against the host nation, New Zealand, Jamaica faltered under the pressure and succumbed to a 20-goal blowout. The Sunshine Girls’ normally steady ball movement and confident shooting were absent as they grappled to find cohesion on the court before Amanda Pinkney eventually scored 13 goals and Simone Gordon, six.

New Zealand, buoyed by their home crowd, put Jamaica on the defensive from start to finish, with Martina Salmon scoring 17 goals, while Maia Wilson and Saviour Tui had 11 goals each.

Jamaica’s next matchup, against England, unfolded similarly as the shooting struggles persisted, and unforced errors cost them valuable scoring opportunities and inevitably resulted in another 20-goal defeat. Pinkney again led the way for the Jamaicans with nine goals, while Shadine Bartley had the other six.

England’s disciplined defence and polished offensive execution widened the gap, as Harriet Jones hit a solid 13 goals from as many attempts, with support from Sophie Egbaran (8 goals), Paige Reed (8 goals), and Sophie Kelly (6 goals).

However, the Jamaicans returned for their final game against South Africa determined and refocused, and it was evident in what was their best showing of the day.

The Sunshine Girls appeared more positive and organized across the court, as they found moments of fluidity in their movement and delivered some confident shots, giving fans a glimpse of the team's potential.

Despite ultimately falling short by eight goals, they had much to smile about as this time it was Bartley that led from the front with 12 goals, supported by Kestina Sturridge (7 goals) and Pinkney (six goals).

South Africa used their experience to good effect, as Zandre Smith scored 18 goals and Kamogelo Maseko had a perfect seven goals from seven attempts. Rolene Streukter, also scored seven goals, with Lefebre Rademan getting the other goal.

With the first day out the way, the Jamaicans will be hoping for better fortunes on the second day as they face reigning champions Australia, who are so far unbeaten in the tournament, and Uganda. However, fatigue could set in as playing fast-paced games involving four six-minute quarters against five of the world’s best teams is by no means easy.

Those games are scheduled for 6:00pm and 10:30pm Jamaica time.

NB: Fast5 action can be seen live on SportsMax and the SportsMax app.

If ever Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls required a performance to add impetus to their charge of securing an historic Vitality Netball World Cup gold medal, it came in their historic 59-48 win over reigning champions New Zealand in their top Pool G clash at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in South Africa, on Thursday.

Captain Jhaniele Fowler shot a perfect 49 goals from 49 attempts and the defence produced one of its most consistent showings where applying pressure is concerned, as the number four-ranked Sunshine Girls topped their number two-ranked opponents for the first time ever on this stage.

Goal attack Shanice Beckford chipped in with nine goals from 10 attempts and Romelda Aiken-George the other goal from three attempts.

Maia Wilson led New Zealand with 31 goals from 33 attempts.

The Jamaicans, who extended their rich vein of form with this, their sixth-straight win at the tournament, will now have a day to rest and recover for their semi-final date with world number one-ranked Australia on Saturday. The Australians had earlier suffered a nail-biting final minute 55-56 loss to number three-ranked England, in their top Pool F clash.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s title defence seems in jeopardy, as they will have to wait on the result of South Africa's match against Uganda, to see if they are through to face England in the other semi-final.

Fowler lauded her teammates for their execution of the game plan, for the most parts.

“Kudos to my team, we went out there and did what we had to do, and it all came together in the end. We knew it was going to be tough, but we played hard and more importantly, maintained our focus and it showed in the fact that we remained consistent and disciplined which is what we were aiming for, so I am very pleased,” Fowler said in a post-game interview.

Having never beaten New Zealand on the World Cup stage previously, the Sunshine Girls drew inspiration from last year’s Commonwealth Games meeting when they drubbed the Silver Ferns 67-51 on their way to an historic silver medal.

Though they have proven strong side when they get their full squad together, the Jamaicans had their shakiest start of the tournament on this occasion, but eventually found their flow and got going. 

Of the two sides, Jamaica looked far more comfortable on attack in the first quarter, as they found the imposing presence of Fowler with consummate ease in the shooting circle.

The Silver Ferns, on the other hand, were made to battle for every pass and struggled to find any sense of flow in possession. That pressure resulted in them conceding multiple offensive fouls and, ultimately, a four-goal deficit on the scoreboard at 15-11.

This was the first opening quarter New Zealand lost in the tournament, but they again found the going tough in the second quarter.

Jamaica immediately shut down the Silver Ferns attack, as they delayed the passes to get the ball into the shooting circle. Once there, Ameliaranne Ekenasio's shot first up, was blocked and rebounded superbly by Shamera Sterling.

In fact, both teams defence proved too good to get past and forced multiple turnovers and missed shots in what was a messy period that New Zealand emerged strong from to quickly wipe out the four-goal gap.

From there, they evenly matched strides goal-for-goal, as both sides found their shooters with more ease.

But, as the second quarter seemed poised to end in a deadlock, especially after Jamaica lost Sterling to injury and a possible warning, the Sunshine Girls produced a late charge with two quick steals and passes to Fowler, who made no mistakes.

While New Zealand won the quarter 12-11, the Jamaicans maintained the ascendancy at half time, with a three-goal lead at 26-23.

Both sides were able to score more freely in the third quarter and Jamaica did well to open a five-goal lead at one point. But, unforced errors at the backend, allowed New Zealand to again close within two at 41-39, as they again outscored the Jamaicans 16-15 in that quarter.

However, any hopes the Silver Ferns harboured of finishing tops were dashed, as it appears the Jamaicans saved their best for the last quarter.

They applied consistent pressure in defence and mid-court, and that, coupled with quick passes into the shooting circle, allowed Fowler to score at will and open a 10-point gap, which was the Jamaicans biggest lead of the game.

At the end, they romped the quarter 18-9 and with it came the 11-goal win that solidifies their status as a gold-medal favourite. The last of their three bronze medals at this tournament, came in 2007.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Calypso Girls and Barbados Gems were both brave in defeat despite being outclassed by reigning champions New Zealand and England in their respective opening games at the Vitality Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa on Friday.

The number 10-ranked Calypso Girls, who were the first Caribbean team in action, went down 27-72 to number two-ranked New Zealand, while the 14-ranked Gems, succumbed to a 29-90 loss to number three-ranked England Roses.

Those results meant that both Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados will have to play catch up in their respective pools, if they are to make the top three to progress to the next round.

New Zealand head Pool D ahead of Uganda, who were 79-37 winners over Singapore, while England heads Pool B ahead Malawi, who registered a 55-49 win over Scotland.

Trinidad and Tobago, one of only three countries to win a World Cup title in the tournament’s history, knew they were always up against it against the Silver Ferns, but left their best on the court in restricting the champions to a score under 80.

Still, New Zealand were comfortable from the start going 23-2 in the opening quarter and 43-11 at half time, before asserting authority at the backend of the contest.

Grace Nweke scored a flawless 31 goals for New Zealand and Maia Wilson made 22 of 24 attempts, while Afeisha Noel and Joelisa Cooper, had 17 and 10 goals for Trinidad and Tobago.

The Calypso Girls are scheduled to face Singapore on Saturday at 11:00am Jamaica time.

Meanwhile, Barbados, despite the presence of experienced siblings Sasha and Kadeen Corbin, who both racked up over 70 caps for England before switching allegiance, struggled for consistency which proved their undoing against the Roses.

They Started positively by matching strides with, but a number of unforced errors paved the way for England to take command of the game at 20-8 going into the first interval and 42-18 at half time.

England rang the changes at the start of the third quarter and with Barbados being caught out by the long balls, it forced goal shooter Kadeen Corbin to take up the goalkeeping position. While the move gradually assisted in restricting the Roses, it also limited the Gems’ scoring chances across the last two quarters.  

Faye Agard, captain of the Bajan Gems took heart from her team’s performance heading into their second game against Scotland tomorrow at 9:00am Jamaica time.

“We know we had some really good passages of play, but we also had a lot of unforced errors that we need to work on. So, we know what we need to do, go back to the drawing board and fix some things for the next game,” Agard said.