Tshwane — Norma Plummer was not about to read too much into her winning start to her return as coach of the South African national netball team.
Plummer said she would give the Proteas nothing more than a 6/10 for their 61-42 victory over Scotland on Tuesday.
"There's still a long way to go. The start was very patchy because there were a few things I asked the players to try out which put them way out of their comfort zone," Plummer said during her post-match conference at the Rembrandt Hall at the University of Pretoria.
Though they were always in charge of their opening Diamond Challenge match and won the initial three quarters, the hosts appeared tough at the edges and Plummer agreed that there is still a lot of work to do.
But she was pleased that as the game wore on, the players appeared to be improving and doing what she asked of them.
"They improved in the second quarter and I was pleased with that although we would not beat an Australia or England with that kind of performance," she said.
Against a Scottish side that is in a rebuilding process, the Proteas dominated play.
In a first quarter played at a frenetic pace, captain Bongiwe Msomi and her teammates were guilty of some stray passing as well as giving possession away somewhat cheaply.
Nevertheless, they still went into the break 14-10 to the good.
There was more of the same in the second quarter as ball turnover was the order of the 15 minutes, but the Proteas turned on the heat towards the end with some fantastic passing that saw them pile on the goals. It was not surprising that they were leading 27-18 at halftime.
They added 20 more goals to Scotland's 12 in the penultimate quarter as the partisan crowd cheered them on vociferously.
They took the foot off the pedal in the final quarter and Scotland outscored them 16-12, but it was too little too late as the Proteas gave Plummer a winning return in charge as coach.
The South Africans play Zimbabwe on Wednesday.
IOL Sport