Uganda became the first African team to record a victory at the Netball World Cup 2023, cruising to a comfortable 79-37 win over Singapore in their opening Group D match in Cape Town.
The She Cranes are playing in their fourth Netball World Cup while Singapore are at their 11th, but this was the first time the two sides have met on the World Cup stage.
It was the east Africans who dominated from the first whistle. Ugandan coach Fred Mugerwa stuck with his starting seven for the first half of the match and the combination clearly worked with his side storming to a 42-18 lead by halftime.
Mugerwa rang in the changes in the second half to give all his players time on court. Among them was Mary Cholhok, the second tallest player of the tournament at 201cm, who was the leading goal scorer in the UK’s Netball Superleague, scoring 908 goals at an average of 50.4 per match. Only Cholhok and defender Stella Nanfuka have played in previous Netball World Cups.
Despite their inexperience, the Ugandans continued to dominate throughout the second half with superior passing and shooting to emerge as 79-37 winners.
Despite the convincing victory, Mugerwa said he was expecting more from his side, who finished seventh at the last Netball World Cup in 2019 and also recorded a memorable victory over South Africa’s Proteas at last year’s Commonwealth Games.
“After the first quarter, I was expecting the goals to go beyond 80 which we didn’t do because of some other errors which we made as a team which I think we are going to rectify for the next game and do better than that,” said Mugerwa.
Speaking about his decision to stick with his starting seven for the first two quarters, the coach added: “We just wanted to see how we played – because we haven’t seen this team playing together so then after seeing them play we said ok, now we can make the changes.”
As for his side’s next match, which will be against defending champions New Zealand on Saturday, Mugerwa added: “It’s a big team and we shall play them according to the way they come. There is nothing so special that we are going to prepare for them.”
Speaking about the match against Singapore, Ugandan captain Irene Eyaru said her team’s main ambition at this tournament is to improve on their world ranking of eight. “It was a hard game but for us but we have a plan that whenever we get on the court we should play each and every game as a final because each game that we win can also help us improve on our ranking,” she said.
Most Valuable Player: Margret Baagala (Uganda)