Tonga Tala

It was the Malawi Queens who held on for a 56-51 victory in a match that was closer than appeared in the final scoreline.

It was neck and neck in the opening quarter of the encounter as the two sides matched each other’s physicality and intensity. They went into the first break level on 13-13.

The Malawi Queens came out firing in the second quarter and stormed to an eight-goal lead before Tonga could even score their first goal of the period.

The team’s star goal shooter, Uneeq Palavi is currently second in the Goal/Attempts table.

Palavi managed to score 186 goals out of 203 attempts in the competition so far.

She is trailing behind Aussie star, Sophie Garbin who is leading with ladder after scoring 188 goals out of 207 attempts.

Tonga’s Centre, Hulita Veve is currently ranked 3rd with 16 points in the intercepts table.

Veve is trailing behind Courtney Bruce of Australia, who is in second with 19 points.

Felistus Kwangwa of Zimbabwe currently leads with 22 points.

In mourning the loss of her mother just weeks ago, Gerrard has also found peace and purpose on the court.

Gerrard said has always wanted to represent her mother’s homeland for a long time.

“I wanted to represent Tonga a long time ago but I got to experience the green and gold dress. And all the pathways and resources they had had given me which led to be where I was at that time.”

The team has won three out of the total of five games they played.

The ladies from the pacific island kingdom won against Fiji 56-51 in their first game. They also defeated Zimbabwe 55-46 and also Scotland 55-47.

They lost two games so far to Australia 85-38 and England 46-72.

Tonga will be facing Malawi in their next game on Friday.

The Tala slumped to a 72-46 defeat to one of the title favourites England in their first match of the second stage of pool play.

Unique Palavi had another strong game, shooting 41 goals from 43 attempts.

She has 186 goals so far, two behind Australia's Sophie Garbin.

Fiji meanwhile, lost 89-28 to England in Cape Town.

Both teams have a rest day on Wednesday local time.

Tonga were impressive in the opening term and trailed by just two goals at the first change, leaving a “frustrated” Diamonds coach Stacey Marinkovich to rev up her side on the bench.

And the speech worked as the Diamonds went on a 10-goal run to open the second, forcing Tonga to bring Tuivaiti onto the court at goal shooter.

The former Silver Fern and Samoa representative brought the fireworks with look-away balls and over the shoulder passes to excite her teammates and crowd.

Captain, Hulita Haukinima Veve said, “Netball has helped me grow as a person. It has helped me make lifelong friendship and it’s just a team environment that I love going to.”

Also sharing similar experience, Peti Talanoa said, “Netball has helped me travel the world, see different scenes, be part of a new family and to be able to help me learn about my health and wellbeing.”

Star Goal Shooter, Uneeq Palavi said, “Netball has really helped me bring out my confidence and help me make friends and I really like the game.”

The team finished both the PacificAUS Series in March 2022 and the Netball World Cup Qualifier Oceania in July 2022 unbeaten resulting in an improvement in the ranking.  World Netball requires teams to have played 6 or more matches in the ranking period to be eligible for a World Ranking.

Tonga has reached this threshold again and they now regain a world ranking, entering in 9th place in the world.  This is a remarkable achievement as their highest previous ranking was 19th.