CRYING SHAME
What’s going on with Silver Ferns?
An emotional Silver Ferns captain Katrina Grant was brought to tears in a post-match television interview as she hit back at the perceived lack of pride in the black dress, following their 54-45 loss to England at the Commonwealth Games yesterday.
It was New Zealand’s biggest defeat against the Roses, but their one solace was they did not suffer the humiliation of missing the semifinals.
Scotland, coached by former Silver Fern Gail Parata, did them a massive favour by losing to Uganda by only 20 goals 57-37, allowing New Zealand to move through with a superior goal percentage. Uganda needed to win by at least 38 goals to progress.
They will play Australia in their semifinal on Saturday.
That would come as little comfort to skipper Grant, who is clearly feeling the pressure of the team’s struggles. She broke into tears when asked whether there was a lack of pride among the Silver Ferns squad by former international Jenny-May Clarkson.
‘‘Of course we have pride in this black dress. It means a lot to every single one of us,’’ Grant said. ‘‘We were little kids, you know younger girls growing up playing netball, and this is all we wanted. There’s a lot of pride in this dress and it’s a lot to take.’’
The loss against England yesterday continued New Zealand’s dire recent results, dropping 10 of their last 16 games, including Sunday’s embarrassing 57-53 loss to Malawi.
England have dominated the Silver Ferns of late, winning four of their past six games since August 2017. The nine-goal winning margin was England’s biggest victory over New Zealand.
After holding a 26-24 lead at halftime, England jumped out to a 34-28 buffer midway through the third term with mistakes in the attacking end crippling New Zealand’s play.
England outscored the Ferns 14-10 in the third quarter with Jo Harten landing a goal as the term expired to take a decisive 40-34 advantage into the last 15 minutes.
Sloppy shooting and untidy turnovers hurt the Silver Ferns, who gobbled up enough ball defensively through Grant and Temalisi Fakahokotau. New Zealand converted just 45/62 attempts for the game (73 per cent) compared to England’s 86 per cent.
Maria Folau carried New Zealand’s shooting end, converting 30/39, but lacked support from her shooting partner.
England have bottled it against the Ferns in crunch matches at previous World Cup and Commonwealth Game tournaments. They threatened to do so again at the start of the final quarter, but regained their composure to hold their nerve.
The Ferns trimmed England’s lead to 45-42 with seven minutes left, but that was as close as New Zealand got it.
New Zealand got off to a shaky start with Te Paea Selby-Rickit missing her first three attempts and England jumping out to a 4-1 advantage.
Folau was accurate early from long range steadying the Silver Ferns and pulling them back into the contest.
Fakahokotau was lively in the opening minutes, pulling off two intercepts as New Zealand began to get into their rhythm.
Selby-Rickit struggled with her shooting in the first quarter, landing just 5/10, but managed to redeem herself by pulling in three rebounds.
New Zealand shot just 12/18 for the opening term as the teams went into the quarter break all level at 12-12. Having only converted 8/14, Selby-Rickit was substituted with four minutes left in the first half with Bailey Mes.
The first half was a see-saw affair with no team able to go on a run of goals.
England finished the first half the stronger side with Helen Housby and Harten combining effectively. They took a narrow 26-24 lead into the main break.
New Zealand’s ineffective shooting was the difference in the first half. The Silver Ferns had five more attempts than England, but landed just 71 per cent of their attempts, compared to England’s 90 per cent.