{"id":36065,"date":"2026-01-30T20:27:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/?p=36065"},"modified":"2026-01-30T20:27:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:27:01","slug":"spar-proteas-confident-heading-into-remainder-of-england-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2026\/01\/30\/spar-proteas-confident-heading-into-remainder-of-england-series\/","title":{"rendered":"SPAR Proteas confident heading into remainder of England series"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_36066\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36066\" style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-36066\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-30-at-18.29.53-770x604.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"604\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-30-at-18.29.53-770x604.jpeg 770w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-30-at-18.29.53-768x602.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-30-at-18.29.53.jpeg 1075w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36066\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image credit: Backpagepix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SPAR Proteas head coach, Jenny van Dyk, says she is pleased with her teams resilience after they held their nerve to secure a 52\u201348 victory over England in the opening match of the Spar Challenge at Ellis Park.<\/p>\n<p>The win has boosted the Proteas&#8217; as they prepare for the remainder of the three-match Test series against the Roses, with the second encounter set for Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after the match, Van Dyk praised both her players\u2019 composure and the support from the home crowd.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Definitely that is one of the most important components of sports and that&#8217;s something that we talk about quite a lot and it&#8217;s something that we train quite a lot. We&#8217;re always aware of the score, always aware of the time, it doesn&#8217;t matter if we are just having a run around on the court, an easy session or whether we have the most complex session,\u201d van Dyk said.<\/p>\n<p>Van Dyk also celebrated a major milestone for Nicola Smith, who earned her 50th cap in green and gold. She highlighted her sacrifices for the national team.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We want to say thank you, I don&#8217;t think a lot of people understand how much it takes out for the players to be able to perform at this level for such a long time. As a youngster she did get game time and she&#8217;s becoming such a strong, reliable player for us. So, thank you Nicola for the 50 caps and here&#8217;s to 50 more,&#8221; the coach added.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">50 caps of passion, pride and purpose. \ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6<br \/>\nWe celebrate you, Nicola! \ud83d\udc9a\ud83d\udc9b<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SPARChallenge?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SPARChallenge<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SPARProteas?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SPARProteas<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WeAreAllIn?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WeAreAllIn<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/L3fXAhUD5n\">pic.twitter.com\/L3fXAhUD5n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Netball South Africa (@Netball_SA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Netball_SA\/status\/2017251465614749767?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 30, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">You brought the energy, they delivered. \ud83d\udc4a\ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6<br \/>\nWe go again. \ud83d\udc9a\ud83d\udc9b<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udd9a\ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc65\udb40\udc6e\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc7f<br \/>\nSaturday, 31 Jan. 17:00<br \/>\nSunday, 1 Feb. 16:00<\/p>\n<p>Can\u2019t join us at Ellis Park? Catch the action live \u2014 and on repeat \u2014 on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SuperSportTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SuperSportTV<\/a> your World of Champions!<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SPARProteas?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SPARProteas<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WeAreAllIn?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WeAreAllIn<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SPARChallenge?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SPARChallenge<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/049nqEtsym\">pic.twitter.com\/049nqEtsym<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Netball South Africa (@Netball_SA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Netball_SA\/status\/2017281660090265891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 30, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Written by: Ntsako Mukhari\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SPAR Proteas head coach, Jenny van Dyk, says she is pleased with her teams resilience after they held their nerve to secure a 52\u201348 victory over England in the opening match of the Spar Challenge at Ellis Park. The win has boosted the Proteas&#8217; as they prepare for the remainder ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":36066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2621,1399,1488,2622,1953,1485,1487],"class_list":["post-36065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ellis-park","tag-england","tag-jenny-van-dyk","tag-nicola-smith","tag-spar-challenge","tag-spar-proteas","tag-test-series"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-30-at-18.29.53.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36065"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36068,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36065\/revisions\/36068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}