Severn Stars’ Jane Taylor believes they have enough to beat Leeds Rhinos, but need to “trust each other more” in order to move off the foot of the table.
With just three points from their opening seven games, Stars sit rock bottom of the Vitality Netball Superleague before facing sixth placed Leeds Rhinos on Friday 11 March.
Taylor spoke exclusively to Park Life Sport ahead of the game, and is hopeful of overcoming the most recent loss to Celtic Dragons. “We had a very open and honest meeting and everyone put their thoughts and feelings out on the table, and I think it was a really good thing for us to do,” Taylor said. “We’ve got a nice little captain’s meeting before the game so we will basically join up together early to go through some setups and structures so everyone’s on the same page.”
Taylor, who is a training partner at Severn Stars and considers herself “lucky to still be in the squad,” revealed the team needs a confidence-boosting win with their victory over Surrey Storm the only points they’ve picked up to date. “We know we can do it. It’s just putting the performance out on court,” she said. “Every time we lose it fires up us even more and we’re annoyed ourselves because we know we can do better. So hopefully against Leeds Rhinos it will put fire in the bellies and ice in the mind and put in a good performance.
“Our performance against Surrey [on the opening day of the season], who have now gone and beaten some quite big teams, shows we have it in us,” Taylor added. “But we just need to actually all be there on the day performing, and since then we haven’t had that kind of flow that we just don’t. We can’t even say Catherine [Tuivati] played that game because she hasn’t played all season.”
Friday night Netball night 🌟…. It’s GAME DAY!!
— Severn Stars VNSL (@SevernStars) March 11, 2022
🌟Severn Stars vs Leeds Rhinos 🦏
🚪 doors open at 6pm
🏐 FCP 7pm
🏟University of Worcester Arena
🎟 tickets available on YouTube
📺 LIVE on YouTube #weareSTARS pic.twitter.com/LMb1SnLASy
Tuivati’s absence this campaign has been felt by Stars, who have felt the effects of missing their first choice goal-shooter.
“I think we just have to trust each other more. We have been really unlucky with our shooters so we’re not having a normal 12 [players], but it shouldn’t matter. Everyone’s been training, so we can’t just blame it on us not having our goal shooters. But I think the fact that we have been open and honest and we know how the team works is going to help us progress to start winning.”
Facing a Leeds team who narrowly beat Wasps 44-43 in their last game, Taylor admits it will be a tricky task to secure a win. “They’re a very good team. They had quite a good season last season so we’re expecting a nice, good physical game,” she revealed. “Netball in general is going towards more of a physical game even though we all say non-contact! We’re expecting a strong start from them and I think we just need to be ready for it and almost have a counter attack for it. But, it’s not going to be an easy game.”
The game will be broadcasted live on SkySports, with kick-off at 19:00.
