‘No mercy’ as Pulse start title defence with win

London Pulse showed a “no-mercy mindset” as they got their Netball Super League title defence off to a winning start with a 56-51 victory over Manchester Thunder at the Copper Box Arena.

Having been edged out in last week’s season-opening Netball Super Cup final by Loughborough Lightning, a dominant third and fourth-quarter showing enabled the home side to stretch out what had been a two-point lead at the halfway point.

Player of the match Halimat Adio hailed Pulse’s “slick” display.

“It’s crazy to say it, but we had a no-mercy mentality today,” she said. “We want to finish off where we finished off last season.

“We want to win and we have to start that from the get-go. I think everyone did that.

“Obviously last week was really disappointing for us, but there are building blocks.

Pulse coach Sam Bird said the game had “ebbed and flowed” with Thunder scores in the last two minutes narrowing the gap to grab a league table point for finishing within five points of their opponents.

BBC Sport will show one game per week during the regular season.

These are the games you can watch live on the BBC Sport website and iPlayer:

28 February: London Mavericks v Nottingham Forest (14:00 GMT)

7 March: Manchester Thunder v London Mavericks (17:00 GMT)

15 March: Nottingham Forest v Leeds Rhinos (16:00 GMT)

22 March: London Pulse v Nottingham Forest (18:00 GMT)

28 March: Loughborough Lightning v Birmingham Panthers (18:30 GMT)

4 April: London Pulse v Birmingham Panthers (17:00 BST)

11 April: Dragons v Birmingham Panthers (16:00 BST)

18 April: Loughborough Lightning v London Mavericks (18:00 BST)