There were some rude awakening sfor South African Paarl Gimnasium and Khanyolwethu Senior Secondary School in their second matches of their United Kingdom tour.
The 2026 DStv Schools Netball Challenge (DSNC), powered by Bestmed Medical Scheme, champions both suffered sobering defeats to the Loughborough University. Khanyolwethu was the first to experience the devastating loss, going down 47-29 to the hosts.
Loughborough University netball acts as a talent pipeline bridging university student athletic development with the elite Loughborough Lightning franchise which has a rich South African history, having been represented by the likes of Zanele Vimbela, Phumza Maweni, Maryka Holtzhausen and recently retired Spar Proteas defender Shadine van der Merwe. Van der Merwe will still compete in the purple dress next season after securing a contract extension.
The Dimpho Lephallo-led side managed to score only 10 goals in the second half after it was 19-19 at halftime. Despite the loss, Lephallo believes there were plenty of take aways from the match.
“The game was good, we were tested in every way. We got to see what we need to work on, we got to see what we need to do better. The performance was good, they played their socks off. We played against a good team and we can accept the defeat but there are a lot of lessons we learnt from the game. In the match today we played against people who are more advance compared than us, in terms of experience,” says Lephallo.
Gim’s coach Juline van der Merwe is pleased with her players performance despite their 53-25 loss to Loughborough.
“I am happy with my team’s performance, I think it was a very difficult game with regard to the players playing professionally. I think it was a great exposure for our girls especially because they are still school going netball players. I am proud of the physicality, they didn’t stand back for the contesting. It was nice to see that they really tried to implement the structures we planned but it was obviously hard because they were under a lot of pressure,” explains van der Merwe.
Both sides will take on Bromsgrove School next before ending the tour against the England Under-18 side. The Khanyolwethu coach has emphasised that his players need to stick to the game plan and not panic when the opponents put pressure on them.
“They tend to lose focus when they are under pressure, they just pass without checking their options. Their choice of passes make them move away from the game plan, if they can just stick to the game plan and do what they need to, it will be much better. The matches have taught me that we need to condition players according to the standard of the game,” he says.
Gim coach stresses that her players have to focus on the basics if they want to get back to winning ways in their next match.
“Just to get to the basics again and focus when we are under pressure to still execute the game structure,” she says.