Wales lose 34-83 to New Zealand at World Cup

Wales’ Lucy Howells challenges New Zealand captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio for the ballVenue: Cape Town, South Africa Dates: 28 July to 6 AugustCoverage: Watch live coverage across BBC TV and the BBC iPlayer, listen to commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Sports Extra & BBC Sounds and follow text commentary of selected matches on the BBC Sport website and app.Wales were outclassed by defending champions New Zealand in their Pool G match at the Netball World Cup.The Silver Ferns enjoyed a perfect scoring opening quarter to build a 19-8 lead in Cape Town. They continued to assert their dominance as the Welsh Feathers looked static and struggled to live with the speed of ball. New Zealand were 40-16 up at half-time, 65-22 by the end of the third quarter, with the match finishing 83-34.It was always going to be a tough ask for Wales who are seven positions below New Zealand who are ranked second in the world.Emily Handyside’s team started well enough in the opening quarter, but the Silver Ferns proved more clinical in the shooting circle. The intensity began to dip from the second as New Zealand began to dominate the turnovers.To their credit, Wales finished with a flourish and reached doubles figures for the first time in the final quarter as Handyside gave the whole squad a run out.Both sides now have a day off before returning to action on Wednesday.Wales take on Uganda, while New Zealand play the hosts South Africa. Wales captain Nia Jones said: “We knew today was probably a bit out of reach for us in terms of where we’re at as a national team.”There were structures that we put out today that worked and if they worked against these guys, we know that they will work against Uganda and Trinidad and Tobago, that’s what we really need to look at and stick to it for a little bit longer.”I think we lost a bit of our discipline, we know they off-mark, they have got a break zone and we fell into their traps a little bit too often today.”Wales squad: Nia Jones (capt), Bethan Dyke (vice-captain), Lucy Howells, Clare Jones, Nansi Kuti, Zoe Matthewman, Shona O’Dwyer, Ella Powell-Davies, Georgia Rowe, Christina Shaw, Sarie Watkins, Phillipa Yarranton.

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