Paul-Andre Walker, Staff ReporterAUSTRALIA, JAMAICA'S Under-21 Sunshine Girls' second challenge on their way to the World Youth Netball Championships, arrived in the island yesterday.
The Aussies, who are currently ranked number one at the Under-21 level, will provide the ultimate test for the Jamaicans, who lost out to number three ranked New Zealand 2-1 in a three-game series 10 days ago.
Ranked at number two in the world, the Jamaicans have a rich history to protect and they have much work to do if the results of the games against the Silver Ferns are anything to go by.
To see if there is any improvement in the team that played against the Silver Ferns, Australia will be taking the Sunshine Girls to task on Thursday in the first of three games.
Their schedule begins today, however, as they will be having practice sessions in the morning before going on to play against Berger Super League defending champions Jamalco at the National Indoor Sports Centre, with a tentative starting time of 5:30 p.m.
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
The Australians, like Jamaica, are trying to soak up international experience before July, a fact which takes on even more importance when speaking about the Jamaicans, who play a different style of netball as Aussie coach Michelle Wilkins explains:
"We are really just looking to expose our young group to the Jamaican style of play. We have a
relatively inexperienced group from an international perspective, so we really just want to give them the opportunity to be exposed to as many different styles as we can before we head into the World Youth Cup and I think that the Jamaican team could be one of the most challenging teams and we need to at least experience that before we get to the World Youth Cup in July."
