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According to the SASCOC website, after the women had gone down 24-2 to the United States, skipper Pierre le Roux’s charges were savaged to the tune of 21-5 by Serbia, the current Olympic, world and European champions.
Quarter scores were 6-1, 7-1, 5-1 and 3-2 in favour of the Serbians.
Despite the defeat Le Roux took some good out of the beating.
‘It was still an absolute honour to play against Serbia at world championships. A highlight in my water polo career.
‘As expected they came out firing and put some really fantastic passages of play together to put us under huge pressure early in the game.
‘But what was positive to see was that we kept fighting throughout the game - as the nerves calmed down we started playing better.
‘We managed to draw some exclusions and score some really well worked team goals. It was very evident to see that one team was a multiple world title holder and have played many games together while the other was still finding comfort and balance playing together.
‘Still there were many positives from the game - if you look at some of their players ( Filipovic - the best player in the world) we manage to show some really good passages of play. A lot to work on but a good foundation to begin with.’
South Africa’s goals came via Le Roux’s brother Etienne (2), Devon Card, Chris Brown and Nic Molyneux.
It doesn’t get any easier though with world No 3-ranked Greece lying in wait for South Africa in their next Group C game on Wednesday.
