England may have found the key to beating NZ rivals

It’s harder than it sounds, but if you listen to England captain Ama Agbeze, they may have found the key to beating the Silver Ferns.

The first way is shutting down gun Silver Ferns shooter Maria Tutaia, and then moving the ball as quick as they can to their own prolific shooters.

Tutaia had a field day in the opening game of the Taini Jamison Trophy against England in Porirua last week when the Silver Ferns won 62-55, but she was out of form in the second match in Napier on Sunday, when England won 49-46.

Agbeze and her defensive partner Geva Mentor both had big games during England’s win and made sure Tutaia had a rare night off her game, shooting just eight from 16 and going off just after halftime.

‘‘The last game I think she was crucial,’’ Agbeze said. ‘‘Her shooting stats were quite high last time, but I think it was more significantly where she was getting the shots from and the timing of the shots she got in last time.

‘‘We’ve worked a lot on trying to get into her head, get her off the zone and I guess we succeeded this time.’’

They must have succeeded because Tutaia missed eight shots at goal in Napier, letting Bailey Mes do most of the shooting work, before making way for Te Paea Selby-rickit.

‘‘It’s not just about her missing shots, but actually making her wary of going to the post,’’ Agbeze said. ‘‘Usually she’ll get the ball and straight away she’ll go to the post and want to shoot, whereas when you get in her head she’ll get the ball and look to pass or look to see what else she can do because she’s not as confident of going to the post.’’

Agbeze said they covered lost of space and were tight on the body.

The key though for England though was their speed, Agbeze said. The Silver Ferns struggled to maintain their connections, but England kept shifting the ball all game, especially while they were going for the kill in the last quarter.

‘‘When we move the ball quickly, at pace through court, we beat New Zealand every time. So I think just having the confidence to actually let the ball go and know that someone else is going to move so I can make the next move for the next ball. I think that beat them every time.

‘‘The game we played this time and last time is good enough to beat the Ferns and we probably had opportunities to take the game a lot earlier than we did in the last quarter. So if we can actually eradicate the small errors, the basic errors that we make, we’ll actually be in a position to sit back a bit and relax.

‘‘Maybe get 10 goals up and actually build on that and win by a comfortable match.’’

England looked good for three quarters in the loss in Porirua, and beat the Silver Ferns in the Quad Series two weeks ago, so are now a real chance to win the Taini Jamison series.

England coach Tracey Neville wouldn’t admit their results had exceeded expectations.

‘‘I’m not going to sit her and faff around it,’’ Neville said. ‘‘I’m going to tell you we came here to win both series.

‘‘The expectation is that we win. What we need now is the girls on task is the expectation that when they go out on court is they take the win and that is something as a staff group and as players we’re really trying to get through on this series.’’