Selby-Rickit faces former team-mates

Southern Steel defender Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit is looking forward to facing her old team in tomorrow’s trans-Tasman netball league clash against the Central Pulse at Stadium Southland.

The 27-year-old former Silver Fern international launched her professional netball career at the southern franchise, representing the Steel from 2008-2011 and its predecessor, the Sting, in 2006-2007, before heading to the Central Pulse under coach Robyn Broughton in 2012.

Four years later she is back down south and finds herself playing against her former team although there are plenty of new faces in the Pulse team from last season.

‘‘It will be tough, I remember when I played for the Steel last time and then I moved to the Pulse and when we played the Steel it was really strange playing against friends,’’ she said.

‘‘Because you do become friends when you play with each other so much, it will be interesting.

‘‘I will try to just treat it as any other game really.

‘‘I went up to Wellington four years ago and I played there until October last year in training and in the club competition and NPC. It will be weird but it will be the same for them with me I guess.’’

Both teams sit at the top of the New Zealand conference, which means the stakes are raised for tomorrow’s fixture.

The visitors possess several threats across the court, with the combination between Ameliaranne Wells and Chelsea Locke one they need to be wary of if they are to claim the two competition points.

‘‘It will just be what you bring on the day, who wins,’’ SelbyRickit said.

‘‘Hopefully we will have the upper hand. I know they are really good players but we will do our best to shut them down.

‘‘In this competition every win counts, so you are always going out to win and hopefully we can do that against the Pulse.’’

The southerners enter the match with two wins and a draw as they try to maintain their unbeaten record following a 63-53 win against the Magic.

‘‘We were really stoked with the win last week and so we have had two really hard training sessions and we are just looking to execute our game plan more consistently for the whole game,’’ she said.

‘‘We know the Pulse are going to be a hard game, so we have tried to do as much research as we can and train hard against each other so hopefully it shows on court and we can execute our game plan for 60 minutes.’’

The Pulse will be aiming for their second win of the season after a 52-52 draw against the Northern Mystics.