‘Boss lady’ Mentor awaits Ferns
One of the netballers Noeline Taurua most admires stands between the Silver Ferns and the World Cup final.
Despite suffering a tense 50-49 loss to three-time defending champions Australia in their final Group F match on Thursday, the Ferns were already assured of a spot in the semifinals.
Their punishment for losing is a semifinal showdown tomorrow morning (2am NZ time) against host nation England at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena.
England finished top of Group G after accounting for South Africa 58-47 to remain unbeaten.
Australia will meet South Africa in the other semifinal tonight (10.15pm NZ time).
If the Ferns are to upset England and progress to their sixth straight World Cup final, they will have to overcome the threat of Roses goal keep Geva Mentor, an English netball great.
Mentor made her debut in 2001 as a 16-year-old and has been a mainstay through the good and the bad, playing in her fifth World Cup.
She’s even a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) after being recognised in the New Year’s Honours list for 2019.
The 34-year-old is in the tail end of her illustrious career and few know her better than Ferns coach Taurua.
Taurua was quick to snap up Mentor for her Sunshine Coast Lightning club when the Australian Super Netball competition was launched in 2017.
Mentor and Taurua were two of the key minds behind the dominant Lightning side, who captured the first two Super Netball titles in 2017 and 2018.
This season, Mentor defected to the Melbourne-based Collingwood Magpies, and you can guarantee Taurua will be providing her shooters with valuable intel ahead of the semifinal.
How Maria Folau and Ameliaranne Ekenasio stand up against Mentor will have a huge bearing on the result.
‘‘With Geva Mentor spearheading that defence end, [she’s] very mature and very experienced and a game-breaker,’’ Taurua said.
‘‘[England are] the gold medallist for the Commonwealth Games and also the crowd favourite obviously being at home. I would expect a torrid encounter.’’
Mentor remains one of the premier defenders in world netball and is held in high regard by not just her team-mates, but opposition players.
The England squad posted a heartwarming clip on Twitter, talking about how much Mentor meant to their side.
They used words to describe her as ‘‘defensive boss’’, ‘‘the queen’’, ‘‘boss lady’’ and ‘‘the best goalkeeper in the world’’.
It’s hard to argue with those comments and few would begrudge Mentor if she helped lead England to a first final appearance at the Netball World Cup and an inaugural title on home soil. Not many netballers deserve a first World Cup trophy more than her, given what she’s done for the sport.
Mentor expected a difficult contest against the Ferns shooters, who can all shoot from long range and play a moving circle.
With first-choice goal defence Layla Guscoth suffering a tournament-ending ruptured Achilles tendon in the pool match against Scotland, Mentor will be instrumental at the back alongside Eboni Usoro-Brown, who celebrated her 100th test cap against Jamaica earlier in the tournament.
‘‘We know we’re coming up against the Kiwis. I really rate ‘Noels’ as a coach, so she’ll definitely do her homework on us and she’s brought over a really fit and strong team,’’ Mentor said. ‘‘It’s going to be a great battle. ‘‘I think for us it’s just about ourselves and having that confidence. We want to go out there and make sure we try and win every quarter, whoever we’re going to be facing against.’’
England’s experienced squad have been building for several years and are the strongest they’ve been in international netball. They’ve held the edge over the Ferns lately, winning six of the past eight games since August, 2017, including four straight.
In their most recent game in January’s Northern Quad Series in Liverpool, England won by 13 goals (54-41), their equal largest margin against the Ferns.
Taurua stressed it was vital they started strongly to take the parochial English crowd out of the equation.
‘‘Once they are riding the wave they love that feel and can milk it as much as they can and obviously with England as well being their home territory you want to be able to put that presence out there on court.
‘‘So I think they’ve got to take it by the horns basically and do whatever they need to do to get the win.’’