Sister act to fill vital gaps for Harcourts

The Phillips sisters from Kuranui College have been drafted into the Harcourts side which will represent Wairarapa in the regional super league netball competition, which gets under way on Saturday.
Te Ata Phillips plays at goal defence and Waimarama Phillips at goal shoot and their addition to the Harcourts line-up is timely as they have already lost one of their shooters, Mishelle Teahan, with a shoulder injury while a key member of their defence, Sarah Brooking, is heading overseas at the end of the month.
And it won't be a case of Harcourts' gain being Kuranui's loss either as they will still be eligible to turn out for the college in Wairarapa premier one matches, which are played on Thursday and Friday nights.
Harcourts player-coach Kelly Sargent expects Harcourts to make a bold showing in the superleague series where they will be confronted by the leading club sides in Wellington, Hutt Valley, Kapi Mana and Kapiti.
They have been placed in division two for the first round of round-robin matches, at the end of which the first two teams in division two will swap with the bottom two sides in division two for the main championship.
Sargent said the initial objective for Harcourts is to earn promotion to division one and she is confident that is within their scope, with two main provisos.
Firstly, they have to adjust to the nature of superleague play, which would be much more physical than what they were used of at Wairarapa premier one level.
"They will get bashed around a lot more than they do here, there's no doubt about that," she said.
"They don't take prisoners, you either give as good as you receive or you take the consequences, there is no other choice."
Secondly, there are the different umpiring interpretations with the contact rule, in particular, being more liberally interpreted than what was the case here.
"You have to get out of the habit of waiting for the whistle to sound, you can't anticipate anything in that respect," she said.
Sargent is also mindful that in some of their recent premier one matches Harcourts have struggled to maintain a maximum effort over the full 60 minutes, and that was another trend they would need to eradicate.
"When we make changes to combinations things seem to fall apart a bit and we won't get away with that now," she said.
"The comfort zone won't be there any more, we have to be consistent all the way through."
The full Harcourts squad is: Kelly Sargent, Geraldine Carroll, Waimarama Phillips, Katie Wyeth, Emma Foote, Carlene Karaitiana, Amy Lucas, Eleni Heggie, Dayna Fleet and Te Ata Phillips.
Their opening superleague division two match is against PIC 2 at Te Rauparaha Stadium in Porirua, starting at 2.30pm, and with PIC 2 being the fifth-ranked premier one side in Wellington they are certain to provide formidable opposition. Then on June 20 Harcourts will be at home to Wellington Girls College.
Other teams in division two are Kapiti, Taita and Rimutaka while in division one are PIC 1, Naenae Collegians United Blue, St Marys Old Girls 1, Naenae Collegians United White, Wellington East 1 and Kapi Mana.
Meanwhile, the final series of matches in round one of the Wairarapa premier one competition will be played at the Genesis Recreation Centre this week with Harcourts bowing out of the competition after they meet Fagan Motors Hot Shots in the early game on Friday evening.
Their unbeaten record should remain intact but with their superleague game the following day on their minds the scoreline could be closer than what would normally be the case.
The late match on Friday should see St Matthew's Collegiate edge out Carterton Sports Arena while tomorrow night Celtic should account for Kuranui College A and Gladstone All Blacks will start favourites against Wairarapa College.