Defending champions Capital Force started on a winning note with a 46-31 win over Central Swifts in the Digicel Punjas Netball Super League at the FMF Gymnasium, Suva, yesterday.

Speaking to SUNsports, former national netball defender and Force coach Bernie Daurewa said this year’s competition would be tough for them as title holders but they are looking forward to the challenge.

“This year’s tournament is quite a challenge because Fiji Netball has divided the national reps to all teams as well as the under-20 players so it will be difficult,” Daurewa said.

“We started off pretty slow while building up on their performance from the second quarters onwards. We have tried out different combinations and it worked out today so we hope that will help us in our game next week.

We have a bunch of young girls and have a few experienced players as well so we are looking forward to working with these young girls during the competition.”

She added that preparations were not up to standard as most of the girls had commitments but is eager to see their full team take the court soon.

“It’s off season now so it was quite difficult to get these girls to train knowing that a few of them have exams so they couldn’t make the games today but in the next few weeks we hope to have the whole squad coming to train as a team.

“As the competition intensifies this is good for the development of the sport and we hope to be able to develop the player in the next four years and we are looking forward to our next game,” she said.

Capital Force will play Stallion Starlets and Jisoko Plateaus in the double- round in Lautoka next Saturday.