Blues and Chiefs battle to dour draw
‘‘It hasn’t probably been my ideal season doing the ankle. It has been a very slow road back to recovery - we are there now. I need to just keep working on making myself stronger and hoping it doesn’t happen again,’’ she said.
‘‘Obviously it is every netballer’s goal to get on the court. I am just going to let it be as it is, I am not going to rush it, just keep working hard. I think when you look at the team - there’s nothing but talent in that team, it is going to be hard to get there, but I just want to keep working at it.’’
The New Zealand under-21 representative was a key figure in Netball South’s 2016 development league victory and her extra height and ability have been a useful acquisition for the defending champions.
‘‘I used to be a defender, but changed to a shoot,’’ she said.
‘‘I haven’t really been a defender since high school, so it has been quite nice actually, just to play in training quite a bit against Jhaniele [Fowler-Reid] and just have a wee run around, it has been nice, keep mixing it up really.’’
While O’Connell would love to take the court for the Steel, she is enjoying the experience of being in the professional setup.
‘‘It has been really good, definitely very different to last year, being with the Beko League, so it is good,’’ she said.
‘‘I guess there is just more of a support network, that comes more with the high performance environment.’’
The Dunedin-based Southern club member thinks there is plenty of value in the development league, despite South sitting out of contention in fifth, with two games left.
‘‘It is still a new competition, but I think for the players that aren’t getting court time and coming back from injury and stuff it is just such a good competition, it is so good to have it there,’’ she said.
‘‘As far as results go, the most important thing with that league is the development, even with the varied results I think it is fair to say that everyone has developed, which is good.’’
The unbeaten Southern Steel host the vastly improved Northern Stars tomorrow at 2pm.
While the Stars started their debut season slowly, they have picked up some upset wins in recent weeks against the Northern Mystics and Waikato-BOP Magic, to suggest that they will be anything but a pushover in the opening game of round 10.
The Steel will be looking for their 11th win of the season after their impressive 80-44 victory over the Pulse on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, the Netball South development league team face the Northern Comets in a bottom-ofthe-table clash at the conclusion of the Steel versus Stars game. Honours shared was probably a fair reflection of far from one of the best but certainly the most closely contested Kiwi derby in recent memory.
Neither the Chiefs nor Blues were clinical or showed enough composure to land the definitive blow at Eden Park.
And, so, we are left to contemplate an underwhelming 16-16 Super Rugby stalemate that is ultimately likely to send the Chiefs to Africa for a playoff match, provided the Hurricanes stay the course.
As for the Blues, this was not the way they wanted to end their final home match.
The traditional battle of the Bombays turned into a proper dogfight.
Pick and go, drives and grubbers in behind became the modus operandi as the Auckland weather packed in.
Chances were squandered – Blues first five-eighth Piers Francis missing a kickable penalty with seven minutes left – and territory became king. This was a true grind. With momentum against the Chiefs, Damian McKenzie once again provided a telling blow. With brilliant vision he noted the lack of wing and fullback for the Blues and put in a perfectly placed crossfield kick for Johnny Fa’auli to pick up and score. Aaron Cruden could not knock over the sideline conversion and that locked it up at 16-16, setting up a dramatic, frenetic finish.
Both sides had their chances. Neither were good enough to take them. With three minutes to play the Blues forwards controlled proceedings and a dropped goal seemed on, only for the ball to be pushed too wide and another mistake made.
With it went the chance to record just their second win in the past 22 Kiwi derbies, and snap an 11-game losing streak against the Chiefs.
There were few highlights to savour. But if ever there was an illustration of the quality of depth of young talent in New Zealand rugby then this was it.
Rieko Ioane and McKenzie are by no means certainties to feature for the All Blacks against the Lions. Neither are older than 22 but they were both, by far and away, the most influential players on the park.
The Blues’ finals hopes are over but they may well have put a significant dampener on the Chiefs’ chances, too.