A rare sending-off in netball has overshadowed the Sunshine Coast Lightning's come-from-behind win over the Giants in Australia's Super Netball competition.
New Zealand-born defender Kristiana Manu'a was given her marching orders early in the fourth quarter after she was pinged by the umpires for rough play.
That meant Manu'a Giants, who were leading 52-45 at the time, had to finish the game with just six players on court - leaving goalkeeper Sam Poolman had to defend the shooters' circle on her own.
Led by Silver Ferns captain Laura Langman, the Lightning made the most of the advantage to win 58-57.
Giants captain Jo Harten had two chances to win the match with a super shot but missed both.
The decision to send Manu'a from the court was met with controversy, former West Coast Fever and Wales coach Sue Gaudion calling the decision "disgraceful."
"We're here to have an opinion on things. I'm going to give you one: as far as I'm concerned I think it's disgraceful," Gaudion said.
"It shouldn't have happened. I believe Kristiana Manu'a's intent was for the ball only. It was the same in the moment before."
Sending-offs are rare in netball. In 2018, Northern Stars midcourter Fa'amu Ioane was the first player to be sent off in the ANZ Premiership, while a sending-off had never occurred when the tournament was contested between Australian and New Zealand teams.
Langman said it was an "unfortunate way to finish" the match.
"It was definitely interesting, I don't think we wanted to finish the game like that.
"I felt at the time it was probably setting up for a really nice battle in that last nine minutes.
"We had to create something and we certainly didn't want to finish the game playing on six players.
"I thought we did pretty well but we certainly got out of jail."
The result sees the Sunshine Coast Lightning join the Melbourne Vixens and NSW Swifts at the top of the Super Netball ladder.
