National coach Wesley "Pepe" Gomes says he is satisfied with the allround improvements shown by the Calypso netballers despite a combined record of seven losses and one win in the eight-match campaign during the just concluded tour of Europe.The team which included the likes of Joelisa Cooper and Candice Guerrero, suffered a 3-0 loss to England in their Test series, 69-36, 67-42 and 65-42 and this was followed by a 1-4 outing at the Netball Europe Ranking Competition and Open Championship which ended at the Antrim Forum, Belfast, Northern Ireland on Sunday.
In Belfast, the world ninth ranked T&T was again beaten by world third ranked England (63-42); Wales (53-46) and Scotland (45-42) before breaking that losing skid with a 52-40 win over host Northern Ireland.However, in their final match on Sunday, the Calypso netballers led for the first three quarters before falling to sixth ranked South Africa, 46-42.
But despite the poor run of results, coach Gomes who was using the matches as part of the team's preparations for the 14th Netball World Cup in Sydney Australia, from August 7-16, said he was pleased with the performances achieved considering some of the challenges with regards to the cold weather and injuries.
The T&T coach was quick to point out that in comparisons to the matches between T&T and the teams last year to this tournament, the Calypso netballers boasting a few new faces have managed to closed the gap in terms of the margin of defeats.He added, "We have improved a lot defensively in that last year we had a lot of problem in the second phase of our game, but now we have managed to fix that problem mostly, and it's just a matter of us having that self-confidence to go out and execute."
Gomes said the team, which returns home today will resume training on Sunday and he is hoping to having another set of international matches against top level opposition if possible."All the top teams that participated in Northern Ireland and are going to Australia in a few months, already have international engagements ahead of the World Cup.
"But at this time, we don't have any international matches set up, as the intended series against Jamaica, which was carded for late June had to put on hold due to lack of finances."A hopeful Gomes added, "It will be great if we are able to get the Jamaica series back on as it will give us another chance to improve on our flaws ahead of the World Cup".
However, with no word on what happens next, Gomes says he will be focusing on a lot of strength work. At the tournament in England, the girls' fitness level was very good, so its just about maintaining it going into the World Cup", ended Gomes. At the World Cup, T&T joint winners in 1979 with Australia and New Zealand, will also face those same two teams in Pool A as well as Caribbean rivals Barbados in round-robin play.
Pool B of the 2015 Championship features world third and fourth ranked teams, England and Jamaica as well as Scotland and Samoa, while Malawi, South Africa, Singapore and Sri Lanka comprise Pool C, and the quartet of Fiji, Wales, Uganda and Zambia make up Pool D with the matches carded for the 21,000 seat Allphones Arena (formerly known as the Sydney SuperDome and Acer Arena), Sydney Olympic Park.