David Leggat: Tough tests ahead for our netballers

Some years ago, Martin Crowe got out cheaply in consecutive test innings.

A cricket reporter, whose experience in the middle was limited to second grade club standard, wrote a piece pointing out that Crowe's problem was a technical flaw with his forward defensive stroke.

With that curious episode in mind, and this column devoted to netball, if you're looking for wise words here on how the Silver Ferns are coping with the transition line, or whether their pass and cut move is working efficiently, the news is all bad.

Perhaps that is the sort of thing TV One interviewer and former international Jenny May Coffin could usefully have asked captain Casey Williams after Wednesday's awful 53-44 loss to the World Seven.

Rather that than the inane "I don't know what to ask you" tripe, which smacked of the nudge, nudge, cosy inhouse world of the soft sideline chat.

These are tough days for the Silver Ferns and those hoping the New Zealand sporting public will give them a gentle ride through rough seas are out of luck. That's not the way the fans like their sport here. Just ask Graham Henry or any number of coaches who have been given both barrels in times of strife.

That said, a couple of points are worth making ahead of tonight's third international against the side comprising four players from each of Australia and England, a couple of Jamaicans and two Samoans.

If this World Seven took on Australia right now, my money would be on the mixed team. I might not get a collect, but I would get full value for my investment.

There are two ways of choosing opponents for your national side; one is the approach of Netball New Zealand, which was to pick a genuine top-quality team but risk being on the wrong end of a beating - or two.

The other is the Norma Plummer way; the Australian coach having chosen a far weaker collection of players to take on the Aussies next weekend.

Expect Australia to beat their World Seven opposition and therefore, unless the background is well known, incorrect assumptions could be made about the relative strengths of the world's two leading national teams.

New Zealand's attention is primarily on next year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and the world championships a few months later. The building blocks are being put in place and while that is happening, it follows that what is being produced on court is going to be uneven.

Coaches Ruth Aitken and Waimarama Taumaunu have lost several players who would at least have provided experienced options. Now they're having to blood younger ones who may have been in good form in the ANZ Championship but hint at possum-in-the-headlights at the top level.

Five tests loom against Australia next month, then a trip to the Super Six tournament in Manchester and a stopover for a couple of internationals in Jamaica on the way home.

It's a tough campaign, but by the end of it Aitken and Taumaunu should at least be clearer in their minds about which players they can see seriously challenging for gold in New Delhi.

Until then, the old line about pain and gain is ringing loud and clear.