SEVERN Stars are hoping to bounce back from their first defeat of the Netball Superleague season last weekend when they make the trip to the capital to face London Pulse on Saturday.

Stars faced Manchester Thunder in a top-of-the-table clash last Friday (March 8) with both teams having taken wins from their first three matches. However, it was Thunder that prevailed 65-50.

Now Stars are looking to bounce back as they face Pulse at London’s Copper Box Arena, with first centre pass at 7pm on Saturday (March 16). Both sides sit on nine points in the Super League table, with Stars ahead in third on goal difference.

"The team are eager to learn from and move on from this (vs Thunder) loss,” said Trip. "We were not proud of the product we put out on court or our lack of commitment to our structures, which we have been very good at thus far.

"There were passages of brilliance against Thunder, so it is our job to find consistency in doing this for longer and increase our work rate to maintain this across the game."

But even in defeat, there were positives to take for Trip: "Our game against Thunder was a challenge and I was pleased with the learnings we came away with. We were not patient enough on ball and did not have the attacking options we needed.

"Our defensive effort was hesitant, and we backed off and did not challenge enough ball. These are areas that are in our hands and that we have been working on this week."

But Trip knows there will be no drop in standard this week when they face Pulse this weekend: "They have a very rangy defensive unit who are working well to turn ball so we must be a double threat to post, be clinical in our ball movement, maintain possession and starve their defence of ball.

"Pulse’s attacking unit are letting the ball go, so we must stifle their options and put them into tough positions where we can challenge the ball cleanly."