Plenty of learning to be taken from sell-out home Tri-Tournament as Team Bath Netball continue build-up to 2024 Super League season

Asha Francis says her Team Bath Netball players will have learnt plenty from their performances in Sunday’s sell-out Tri-Tournament against Super League rivals Severn Stars and London Pulse.

An action-packed afternoon saw Stars secure the Lyn Gunson Trophy – named after the Team Bath coaching great – with a 53-34 win over the hosts and 46-40 success against Pulse, who then beat Team Bath 42-32 in the third round-robin fixture.

Head Coach Francis was pleased by the improvement shown by her squad over the course of the pre-season tournament, which was enjoyed by a capacity crowd of 1,000 spectators in the Team Bath Arena.

“We’ve tried out various combinations in our pre-season matches so far and all of it is more information for me, about what is working and what needs tweaking,” she said. “Sunday’s games highlighted some areas that we had already identified and we will continue to focus on those over the next few weeks.

“The key thing is we learn and improve every time we go out on court, and we are doing that. I’m really pleased with how reflective the girls have been about their performances and they are keen to take the opportunities to improve.

“We saw that on Sunday. The players knew they had to step it up after the first game and they did. We showed much more fight and that was the biggest positive for me. We just need to cut out the unforced errors. Stars in particular were clinical and we didn’t help ourselves by gifting them the ball on several occasions.

“The results might not reflect it but we are so close to where we want to be come the start of the season in mid-February.”

Francis was also pleased to see netball fans turn out in force for the Tri-Tournament, saying: “It was great to see such a big turnout on Sunday. We hope they enjoyed the event and will come back for more netball during the Super League season.”

The 2024 campaign begins on Saturday 17th February with the Season Opener event in Nottingham where Team Bath will take on Strathclyde Sirens (click here to buy tickets).

Their first home matches at the Team Bath Arena are against their Tri-Tournament opponents – Severn Stars on Friday 1st March and London Pulse on Friday 8th March. They also entertain old rivals Saracens Mavericks on Friday 15th March, with a 7.30pm centre-pass for all three matches.

Tickets are on sale now for those fixtures and the six other home matches at the Team Bath Arena. Click here to find out more.

Team Bath Netball is supported by Bath Building Society and Rengen Developments, who are both overall Team Bath Partners. Flyhawk supply Team Bath’s performance clothing and off-court apparel.