Netball star Thirlby all smiles as England start Commonwealth Games in fine style

By James Toney in Birmingham

Bristol's Jess Thirlby was all smiles as England's defence of their women's netball title got off to flying start at the Commonwealth Games.

Four years after their last gasp win over red-hot favourites Australia on the Gold Coast, the Roses were back in action, brushing aside Trinidad and Tobago 74-22 in their opening group match at the National Exhibition Centre.

Eleanor Cardwell top scored with 30 goals, supported by Jo Harten and Helen Housby.

Tracey Neville coached England to glory in Australia but was succeeded by former Team Bath player Thirlby in 2019. They arrive at their home Games ranked third in the world behind the Silver Ferns of New Zealand and the Australian Diamonds.

And Thirlby - whose father Chris Garland spent two long spells at Bristol City - wants them to seize their chance, three years after winning bronze at the World Cup in Liverpool.

"For us to be afforded the chance to have another big tournament on home soil so soon, probably will never happen again in our lifetimes," she said.

"It's really important to embrace it. That's easy to say but I really trust in this group, that they will use that to build energy rather than for it to defeat them."

Thirlby knows this is a long tournament with games coming thick and fast, with Saturday's opponent Malawi, less than 24 hours after this game.

She utilised all her 12-strong squad against Trinidad and Tobago and insists it'll a key tactic of the days ahead.

"I think it's really important," she added.

"You can't pre-plan too much, but I think we’d be missing a trick if we didn't take the opportunities to give players chances.

We did it with meaning – we expect people to make a difference to our performance. It’ll be a great settler for the group – there are a lot of smiley faces.

"We inserted some people and made some changes during the game, which we afforded ourselves the chance to do. Trinidad and Tobago are tricky to play against – they’re great at disrupting our flow, which we struggled with in patches.

"But in the main, what I saw was great impact off the bench and us problem-solving with real purpose."

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