Saracens Mavericks made it two wins from two in Hatfield with a comfortable success over Celtic Dragons.

The Hertfordshire Sports Village crowd saw their heroes run on 61-47 victors in the Netball Superleague with a confident effort.

 

Head coach Camilla Buchanan had targeted the contest as almost a must-win one but still believes there is more to come.

Speaking on the club's website, she said: "I’m very happy with the three points and how we’re building.

"Our connections in the attack end are getting stronger and defensively, that’s the first time we’ve played a rotational circle and I was really pleased with how Jodie [Gibson] and Monique [Mayer] worked.

"Some of our basic errors crept in so those things need to be fixed because we’re not going to be afforded legroom in the future.

"Keeping our foot on the accelerator consistently is something that we need to learn how to do.

"There were pockets of brilliance but we need to learn how to string them together for longer periods of time."

A nine-point lead after the first quarter set the stall out for the Mavs and they entered the final quarter 17 points to the good.

The Welsh visitors had tried to strangle the home side's attacking threat of Ine-Mari Venter and Kira Rothwell but without success.

 

The latter has settled in nicely since her switch from London Pulse in the off-season and the talented goal-attack has already formed a formidable partnership with South African international Venter.

That, as well as an already special bond with the rest of the squad, has made her introduction to Hertfordshire go smoothly.

Rothwell said: "I’m so grateful to have been given opportunities out on court but the girls off the court make it so much more than that.

"This is the closest I’ve felt with a playing group and I think the longer we have together, the more we’ll be able to use this to our advantage on court."

The game against Dragons came after back-to-back road games against the league's top two sides so far, Loughborough Lightning and Surrey Storm.

Rothwell was pleased with the team's performance though, saying they just need to keep trusting themselves on court to maximise their opportunities.

She said: "Our biggest moment of learning was trusting ourselves no matter the score, which we proved in our fightback against the Storm.

"We are also learning to trust the process and that if we put that into practice consistently, the results will come.

"We’ve been working on understanding our own roles specific to the opposition and ways to exploit our strengths further.

"The best thing about the league this year is that almost every game is an unknown. Dragons had a few losses but also a big win against Bath."

 

After a busy nine days, Mavericks get a break from league games with their next one not until March 17 when they go to Glasgow to face Strathclyde Sirens.

There is still a match in Hatfield on Saturday though when they play England Thorns.