BY RICHARD BULLICK
NIAMH Cooper claimed the bragging rights over three of her Northern Ireland team-mates as Severn Stars defeated Leeds Rhinos 57-41 in the opening game of netball’s new British SuperLeague season.
All four Warriors involved in this season’s competition featured in the very first fixture with both Caroline O’Hanlon and Michelle Magee playing the full hour for Rhinos while the latter’s older sister Emma Magee came off the bench to join them in the final quarter.
Rhinos have been boosted by the high-profile signings of legendary England goalkeeper Geva Mentor and Malawi goal machine Joyce Mvula ahead of the 2024 campaign but instead it was the players in those respective positions for Stars who stole the show.
Giant South African shooter Sigi Burger led the way with 45 goals and towering defender Jas Brown won Player of the Match as Stars player-coach Jo Trip picked up a valuable victory at the expense of her rival Kiwi supremo Liana Leota.
Bessbrook sportswoman O’Hanlon had got the action underway at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena by taking the first centre pass but the world-class centre’s hopes of marking her 150th SuperLeague appearance with a victory were dashed by fellow doctor Cooper’s Stars.
The 31-year-old Belfast native ended up marking her NI Warriors skipper, who was switched to wing attack for Rhinos after ferocious Stars wing defence Cooper had made life difficult for Welsh international Celyn Emanuel and then her replacement Amelia Hall.
Rhinos have a much-changed squad this season with O’Hanlon and Antrim gaelic footballer Michelle Magee the only players left from last year’s core roster and Saturday’s display suggests the new combinations may take time to gel.
Although this pre-season has run much more smoothly than the badly disrupted build-up to Leota’s injury-ravaged first campaign at the Rhinos helm, the Headingley women were wasteful during a scrappy opening period.
There were too many wayward passes and missed shots, with Mvula, who had netted 774 goals during Manchester Thunder’s record-breaking 2022 campaign, scoring just four times in the first quarter which ended with Rhinos trailing 12-7.
The gap grew to 28-20 at half-time and, although resurgent Rhinos scored the first four goals of the third quarter, the errors started creeping in again and Stars had extended their advantage to double digits by the last break which came with the scoreboard showing 42-32.
So the win was probably beyond the Leeds side going into the final period but, rather than being able to take some satisfaction from closing the gap a bit, they were outscored 15-9 despite the best efforts of Emma Magee.
The elder Magee sister, who had spent two seasons with Cooper at Surrey Storm, had to wait for her first Rhinos appearance until late in the game with Harriet Jones preferred as starting goal attack alongside Mvula, who had been sick during the week, up front.
Part of England Netball’s Future Roses programme, young Jones scored with 16 of her 21 shots, supplementing Mvula’s 21 from 26, but Emma Magee had the best conversion rate of the trio with only one miss from five attempts.
Northern Ireland’s leading goal-scorer at the 2019 World Cup when aged just 21, Emma Magee immediately won a turnover after being introduced in the 52nd minute and rounded off the resulting attack by confidently nailing her first shot, quickly followed by another goal.
Having previously played against each other in SuperLeague, lining out on the same side was a new experience for the star siblings in what was also Michelle Magee’s first match as vice-captain of Rhinos.
Michelle Magee is the only player to have been with the Yorkshire franchise since they were admitted to SuperLeague ahead of the 2021 season and, although she just turned 24 last month, the big Belfast woman is a natural leader and an influential figure at Rhinos.
So it is no surprise that she has been given a formal leadership role as number two to new Rhinos skipper Mentor, a two-time World Player of the Year who retired from international netball after playing in her sixth World Cup in Cape Town last summer.
The 39-year-old, who won gold with England at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, is making a long-awaited return to the northern hemisphere’s showcase competition after playing professional franchise netball in Australia for the past decade and a half.
She was partnered initially in the back circle on Saturday by Australian Zoe Davies, her former team-mate at Suncorp Super netball side Collingwood Magpies, with Michelle Magee starting at wing defence.
With six in total, Michelle Magee made more gains for her team than the rest of the starting side put together, though the most magical moment was her wonderful feed into Mvula from long-range with both feet in the air as she twisted while going out over the sideline.
O’Hanlon led the way with 19 feeds, and will look forward to rebuilding the almost telepathic connection she had with Mvula during their five seasons together at Thunder, where Leota was also part of the attacking unit for the 2019 SuperLeague title triumph.
The promising Cassie Howard initially came on at wing defence for Davies when Michelle Magee was moved into the back circle alongside Mentor and she then switched to centre when O’Hanlon went to wing forward in place of Hall, originally a sub for Emanuel.
Emma Magee was the only other sub used, so Mvula’s understudy Amy Braithwaite and Scottish international defender Sarah MacPhail will have to wait until at least round two to take the court in Rhinos’ new blue and yellow dress.
Rhinos are away this Saturday (5pm, Sky Sports Youtube) to Saracens Mavericks, who drew 48-48 with Cardiff Dragons in the fifth and final fixture of the opening weekend’s bumper day of netball which saw all 10 teams in action in Nottingham.
Like Stars, Mavericks are a team that Rhinos might be expected to be battling with for a top four play-offs place this season, perhaps alongside reigning champions Loughborough Lightning, the formidable Manchester Thunder and much-heralded London Pulse.
Lightning began by defeating Surrey Storm 63-50 in Saturday’s second game, but last season’s losing finalists Pulse were well beaten 56-40 by Thunder after Team Bath had edged Strathclyde Sirens 53-49.
It took Rhinos a long time to pick up their first win last season and they propped up the table for a prolonged period before finishing strongly to secure seventh place having picked up as many points in their last three matches as the previous 15 fixtures.
They will want to get off the mark much more quickly this time by beating Mavericks, while Cooper’s Stars will unquestionably be backing themselves to make it two from two with victory over Sirens in Worcester on Saturday (6pm).
Vice-captain Cooper played all but the final few minutes against Rhinos on a day when Trip emptied her bench with four substitutions towards the end with South African signing Lefebre Rademan and Welsh shooter Besty Creak among those introduced.
Although last season was Cooper’s second as one of two vice-captains at Surrey Storm, she didn’t start a single game for Mikki Austin’s side in the 2023 campaign so is relishing this exciting new challenge with Stars.
Caroline O’Hanlon
