Wa Ganyu

Under the new leadership of Deborah Fuller, Malawians hoped to see a new play in the court when the Malawi Queens opened their 2026 Commonwealth Games campaign against rivals South Africa at OVO Hydro, Glasgow on Saturday night, 25 July 2026.

The approach was different, a lot of new faces in the team and the same mistakes saw South Africa capitalising on it to demolish the Malawi Queens 64-44—winning all four quarters.

Turnovers, short passes, failing to build from transition, few mistakes in the goals, poor defence and physicality were some of the contributing factors for Malawi’s loss.

Coach Fuller has also noted the same elements and hopes to fix those gaps before taking on Northern Ireland at 15:00 later today.

First Quarter: South Africa 18-12 Malawi

Malawi with a centre—pass and scored, though South Africa utilized their turn but Malawi were composed for the first 3 minutes of the quarter.

After 4 minutes, Malawi lost possession, and South Africa were awarded a turnover, which they scored to level at 4-4. Lucky, Malawi won a turnover and scored to lead again through Mwai Kumwenda. But a minute later, Malawi lost it again, awarding South Africa a turnover and scoring also utilizing their centre pass to lead 7-6.

It was game over already for Malawi, for they failed to level. When they won a turnover on most occasions they were under pressure to regain possession and establish the attack.

Tactical changes were made by Fuller, but she had no solution at the back as Malawi’s goalkeeper Shabel Bengo had no answers to stop South Africa’s GS Elmere Berg and GA Kamogelo Maseko.

Second Quarter: South Africa 16-11 Malawi

Just at the start, South Africa utilized their centre pass, and a moment later, they won a turnover to score two goals with Malawi caught unaware. South Africa led 34–23 after two quarters, with Malawi showing resilience but unable to close the gap.

Malawi changed their attack formation introducing Tendai Masamba for Kumwenda, her energy around the goal post, efforts to tap long passes from GA Takondwa Lwazi helped Malawi to score vital goals but that alone was not enough to completely stop South Africa who led at half time.

Third Quarter: South Africa 15-9 Malawi 

It was the same story with Malawi struggling at the back and failing to find the centre to transition the attack to goal. Masamba was always amidst two tall defenders, which, on many occasions she was forced to leave the goal area in search of the ball.

Height played a big part as Masamba twice failed to win the ball from defenders. It was the same case with GA Ethel Ng’ambi but despite her height, she had a 100 per cent shooting accuracy, scoring all 14 chances.

Fourth Quarter: South Africa 16-12 Malawi

At the beginning of the final quarter, supporters witnessed a different Malawi. Winning two turnovers in the opening minute plus Lwazi delivering well executed passes direct to the shooter which gave them courage to reduce the goal deficit. For those minutes they managed to build from transition but could not do it further as South Africa regrouped and controlled the match.

Malawi missed two scoring chances plus losing two more turnovers and a footwork mistake by Ng’ambi allowed South Africa to gain control of the half.

Lwazi said: “Second quarter we did not play well, third and 4th we did well as per what the coach told us. We will build from this play to our next match.”

South Africa had 92 percent shooting accuracy against Malawi’s 89.

Stats:

Tendai Masamba Goals scored 19/23 (83%)

Ethel Ng’ambi Goals scored 14/14 (100%)

Mwai Kumwenda Goals scored 9/9 (100%)

Stellah Matelezi Goals scored 2/3 (67%)