The England coach, Tracey Neville, praised her players for responding to the “heartbreaking” loss of Layla Guscoth to injury as they cruised past Samoa at the Netball World Cup in Liverpool
Guscoth, who suffered a ruptured achilles against Scotland on Saturday which has ruled her out of the rest of the tournament, watched from the bench as her teammates ended the preliminary phase with a processional 90-24 win that booked England’s place in the second group stage.
Neville admitted the loss of the popular Guscoth had hit the team hard, saying: “Of course there were tears from everyone. There was nothing wrong with showing emotion because she means a lot to us.
“Layla touches the heart of everyone in the group. She is one of the biggest personalities and influencers. I think if we hadn’t shared that emotion I would have been really worried within the group.
Guscoth returned from a hospital scan to sit on the sidelines in Liverpool, as Neville nevertheless continued her rotation policy before the much tougher second phase of the tournament ahead.
Having scored from 39 consecutive goal attempts, Jo Harten was rested for much of the third quarter with Rachel Dunn once again stepping in for the second part of the match, and Jade Clarke promoted in Guscoth’s absence to starter at wing defence.
If group minnows Samoa were unable to muster much resistance, much sterner tests now loom for England in the six-team second group phase, where meetings with potential contenders such as Jamaica and South Africa await.
England were due to discover later on Sunday who they would face in their first second-round match on Monday. They are also projected to play on Wednesday and Thursday as they target a place in the semi-finals.