Giant Killers Tonga Face Fiji Pearls
Tonga created waves at the PacificAus Sports Netball series in Sydney after eliminating the three netball giants of the South Pacific in one week.
Yesterday Tonga sneaked past Samoa 60-56, on Wednesday the ladies in red walloped the Fijian Pearls 68-54, they had earlier in the week thumped Papua New Guinea 85-42.
With three wins Tonga has secured its spot in the final against Fiji Pearls tomorrow.
Fiji Pearls secured their spot after beating Singapore 56-41 yesterday.
Singapore was the only Asian nation that had joined the weeklong tournament.
Like Netball Fiji the five participating nations were part of the programme to improve their world ranking.
The tournament was also held in preparations for the Oceania Netball World Cup Qualifiers to be held in Fiji in July.
It was also the first time for teams to compete internationally since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an earlier interview Netball Fiji chief executive officer Vivian Koster said: “One of our medium term goals is to improve our world ranking. We are ranked 16th in the world and the series provides us an opportunity to work towards improving that ranking.”
Cook Islands is ranked 14 followed by Samoa at 15, Fiji is on the 16th spot and Tonga in ranked 19. PNG and Singapore are ranked 34 and 32 respectively.
Results at the end of Day 4: Tonga 85 PNG 42, Samoa 59 Singapore 36, Fiji Pearls 78 PNG 40, PNG 64 Singapore 49, Tonga 68 Fiji Pearls 54, Fiji Pearls 55 Samoa 44, Tonga 60 Samoa 56, Fiji Pearls 56 Singapore 41
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