Taurua confident as Ferns depart

Noeline Taurua and the Silver Ferns were on their way to England and the World Cup last night, looking to force themselves into title contention.

New Zealand have only finished outside the top two twice in the event’s 56-year history, with Australia ever present, England pipping the Ferns in 1975 and South Africa in 1995, and the 2019 team has a fight on its hands to avoid it happening to it.

This year, the hosts will begin as favourites, after stunning Australia on the Gold Coast to win the Commonwealth Games last April, a tournament where the Ferns finished fourth, with Jamaica claiming the bronze.

That failure led to several changes, with Taurua’s appointment as coach in place of Janine Southby the most notable, paving the way for veterans Casey Kopua and Laura Langman to pull on the black dress once more.

Taurua’s first game in charge was just over nine months ago, so Silver Ferns coach Noeline Taurua, right.

she hasn’t had a lot of time to turn things around, but speaking hours before the team boarded its flight out of Auckland, she was confident they would be competitive as they look to win the title for the first time since 2003.

‘‘I’m quite heartened by what we’ve been able to do over the past couple of weeks, where we ended the Cadbury Netball Series, and our planning and thinking leading into the worlds.

‘‘I do feel more confident now than I probably did last year when taking on the role, because I feel that we have got individuals capable of playing the game style I want to play, especially at the attacking end.

‘‘I’m more confident, sitting where we are now, and it’s just about being able to deliver and execute, but I think our ground

work has set us up nicely to be able to do that.’’

While Taurua might be confident, it is hard to escape the fact that since she took charge, the Ferns have lost five of their six games against the Australian Diamonds and both of their games against the England Roses, as well as needing overtime to beat South Africa when they last met in January.

Under their new coach, the Ferns are yet to face Jamaica, the fifth team in medal contention, who will fancy their chances after winning all three of the meetings between the two teams last year.

Taurua has not resisted making changes for the World Cup, recalling Bailey Mes, Phoenix Karaka and Shannon Saunders, who she hadn’t needed for the Quad Series and the Constellation Cup at the end of last year or the Quad Series at the start of this year, and as they finished their domestic preparations last week, the Ferns looked as fit and sharp as they have for quite some time.

First up in Liverpool for the Ferns are Malawi, who they suffered a shock loss to at the Commonwealth Games, which makes that game a good chance for them to erase any lingering doubts or fears.

After that, the crunch contest will come when they face Australia in the second preliminary phase, with a win likely to put them on track for a semifinal against Jamaica or South Africa, and a loss setting them up for a clash with England, who will have a country at their backs.

It would have been hard to imagine England being in this position when they were handed the hosting rights four years ago, but Taurua believes it will make for an exciting tournament.

‘‘I think there’s going to be a lot of hype and I think that’s going to be fantastic for our sport.

‘‘With England being the Commonwealth Games gold medallists, I know that certainly raised the profile of netball in England, and now when you couple that with the Netball World Cup, it’s very good for our sport overall.

‘‘What that does is it makes it very hard for England to be beaten on their home court and they’ll definitely be crowd favourites as well as favourites to win the tournament.’’

MARIA FOLAU BACKED

‘‘I’m more confident, sitting where we are now, and it’s just about being able to deliver and execute.’’