Slow starts an issue for Ferns
The Silver Ferns’ sluggish starts are becoming far too common for coach Janine Southby’s liking.
New Zealand made a dreadful beginning to Sunday’s Quad Series opener against Australia in Durban, turning possession over from their first centre pass and falling behind 12-4.
They were forced to play catch up netball from then on in the 57-50 loss, which all but saw the Diamonds retain their Quad Series title.
There were always going to be cobwebs with the Silver Ferns spending limited time together as a group before flying to South Africa and going straight from a Kiwi summer. Australia were in a similar predicament, however, and Southby admitted their sloppy first quarters had become an issue.
New Zealand were slow to get going in several tests last year, especially against Australia, and a vast improvement has been demanded against England in Liverpool today.
’’We were conscious of making sure we get off to a strong start and we got off to the worst possible start,’’ Southby said.
‘‘If we’re serious about wanting to win games, we need to make sure we’re playing for a full 60 [minutes].’’
Southby said they had examined all parts of their preparation to work out why they weren’t firing from the opening whistle.
The intent was there from the players, but for whatever reason they were making too many mistakes early on and not getting into the match quickly enough.
‘‘The big thing is being able to reset mentally.
‘‘How do we react, so one error doesn’t turn into five errors, which pretty much happened the other
day [against Australia].’’
The Silver Ferns have a fine record against England, losing just four times in 86 contests with two draws played out.
New Zealand thumped the Roses 65-39 in Southby’s first game in charge during last August’s Quad Series in Auckland.
She wasn’t anticipating a repeat of that scoreline with England expected to provide a stern test in front of their parochial home fans at the 11,000 capacity Echo Arena.
‘‘We talked about that,’’ Southby said.
‘‘England at home are always really challenging. I know over the years, whenever the Silver Ferns have played England at home, it’s been a real challenge. We’re going to have to be a lot better than we were the other night, particularly in the area of our start.’’
England opened the Quad Series with an extra-time 60-55 victory over South Africa in Durban after the scores were level at 48-48 at fulltime.
Experienced shooter Jo Harten, who has previously played for the Tactix and Waikato-bay of Plenty Magic, isn’t with the English squad, but several other names will be familiar to the Silver Ferns.
Defenders Geva Mentor, Ama Agbeze, veteran midcourter Jade Clarke and one-time Australian international Chelsea Locke, who has switched allegiance to her father’s country of birth, all played in the former ANZ Championship.
Southby said the Silver Fern shooters would need to keep their composure against the experienced defensive duo of Mentor and Agbeze.
‘‘They’ve got a great combination. We know we have to be making sure we execute everything we do with real accuracy. That’s certainly a big work on for us.’’