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It was a privilege to watch Celtic Dragons power to their Vitality Superleague victory against London Pulse at the Copper Box Arena.
Dragons suffered misery when finishing bottom over the previous couple of seasons, but the pain of those failures are now driving them on.
Captain Nia Jones and her team were, fittingly, full of vitality, intensity and commitment during a stunning 67-40 win against a powerful Pulse team.
Dragons won all four quarters, leaving Pulse breathless at times with the calm patience, composure and mid-court balance.
https://twitter.com/SevernStars/status/1084757624921485312
Now their task is to build on the performance at the Copper Box Arena and improve in their next Superleague fixture, against Severn Stars in Gloucester on Friday, January 25. Coach Tania Hoffman will, without doubt, ensure her team stays focused on working to improve game-by-game. There were too many turnovers for comfort plus a few passes which went astray.
Dragons, though, showed a marked team performance improvement from their opening match defeat against Team Bath.
After the fixture against Severn Stars, Dragons will focus on their opening home fixture of the season when Saracens Mavericks visit Sport Wales National Centre in Cardiff on Monday, February 4.
They have a new vibrant mix of styles and skill in their team with players from Jamaica, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago, England, Wales and Australia.
Centre Kyra Jones is the player who was brought up in Perth – voted best player in West Australian Netball during her time playing for the Orioles – and is now an experienced Wales international.
https://twitter.com/SevernStars/status/1084736882649501696
Kyra arrived in Wales to play Superleague netball in 2009, met Welshman Scott Jones and is now settled in the Principality.
Her first Welsh cap came against Northern Ireland in 2012 at Netball Europe.
There is a buzz, an excitement, among the Dragons players about their team this season.
“Tere has been so much chat about our new team, new coach, new approach,” said captain Nia Jones.
“But unless we showed that on the Superleague stage people wouldn’t believe it. We did that against Pulse.
“We had shown flashes of that form in training, but it’s a different ball game producing those levels in a match.
“A key factor was that we nullified their strengths. They have a Commonwealth Games gold medallist (Ama Agbeze) at the back, but the way Chelsea Lewis, in particular, played against her was outstanding.”
The return of Suzy Drane at wing-attack was a factor in a flowing team display and Nia said: “People talk about Suzy’s experience, but she is also a tremendous athletic who has speed and agility to the highest levels.
“Those assets make it easy for us to get passes out.
“We have been working on patience and Stacian (Facey) has come in with that patient Jamaican style. Tania (Dragons coach) has talked to us about not just running, running, running for the sake of it.
“We played a little bit smarter and did that over four quarters against Pulse.”
Dragons fixtures 2019 – home games played at the Sport Wales National Centre in Cardiff.
Celtic Dragons 41, Team Bath 58
January
Saturday 12 London Pulse 40, Celtic Dragons 67
Friday 25 v Severn Stars (away, 7.30pm)
February
Monday 4 v Saracens Mavericks (home, 7pm)
Friday 8 v Strathclyde Sirens (away, 7.30pm)
Monday 18 v Wasps (home, 7pm)
Monday 25 v Manchester Thunder (home, 7pm)
March
Saturday 2 v Surrey Storm (away, 6pm)
Saturday 9 v Loughborough Lightning (home, 4pm)
Saturday 16 v Team Bath (away, 5pm)
Monday 25 v London Pulse (home, 7pm)
Saturday 30 v Severn Stars (home, 4pm)
April
Saturday 6 v Manchester Storm (away, 5pm)
Saturday 3 v Strathclyde Sirens (home, 4pm)
Saturday 20 v Saracens Mavericks (away, midday)
Sunday 21 v Wasps (away, midday)
Saturday 27 v Surrey Storm (home 4pm)
May
Saturday 4 Loughborough Lightning v Celtic Dragons (6pm)
For home match ticket information click on the Dragons name Celtic Dragons
Vitality Superleague table
| TEAM | P | W | L | G/AVG | GD | S | |
| 1 |  BAT |
2` | 2 | 0 | 1.31 | 27 | 6 |
| 2 |  WAS |
1 | 1 | 0 | 1.71 | 30 | 3 |
| 3 |  MAN |
1 | 1 | 0 | 1.14 | 7 | 3 |
| 4 |  MAVS |
2 | 1 | 1 | 1.13 | 13 | 3 |
| 5 |  DRA |
2 | 1 | 1 | 1.10 | 10 | 3 |
| 6 |  SIR |
2 | 1 | 1 | 1.09 | 8 | 3 |
| 7 |  LOU |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0.81 | -22 | 3 |
| 8 |  PULS |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0.78 | -25 | 3 |
| 9 |  SEV |
2 | 0 | 2 | 0.90 | -10 | 0 |
| 10 |  SUR |
2 | 0 | 2 | 0.67 | -38 | 0 |
