Netball: England and Jamaica no easybeats

England and Jamaica showed their Commonwealth Games netball credentials last night, casting aspersions on local certainty that Sunday's final will be a trans-Tasman battle.

England were highly competitive against the Silver Ferns last night before losing by 15 goals, just after Jamaica came from behind to draw with Australia at Melbourne's State Netball Centre.

That result has cast extra attention on the final round of pool matches tonight as Australia and Jamaica's position in Saturday's semifinals will be determined by who finishes with the better goal 'for and against' ratio.

Jamaica currently has a 20 per cent better ratio, but their opponents Samoa shape as much tougher opponents than Singapore, who play Australia tonight.

The team with the lower ratio will play the top team in other pool in one of Saturday's semifinals and that will be New Zealand -- unless Malawi beat them later today and then the goal ratio system will come into play again.

Australian coach Norma Plummer said the aim would be to flog Singapore and restrict their scoring opportunities as much as possible.

England showed how much they have improved in the year with their 40-55 loss last night.

It was only in the last couple of minutes that the Silver Ferns pushed the lead out to 15 -- it was much closer than that for most of the match.

England coach Margaret Caldow was delighted with the way her side had taken the game to New Zealand and the performance of her two under-21 shooters, Louisa Brownfield and Pamela Cookey.

"Louisa Brownfield got 94 per cent on (Silver Ferns goalkeep Viliaima) Davu and I think that was a fantastic effort," Caldow said.

"At times what got us into trouble and where we did not quite finish off was unforced errors, but I am sure if we meet them again that won't happen."

And she said she wanted England to play the Silver Ferns again -- in the final.

"Australia? We are ready for it. We are up for everyone. I'd like to meet the Kiwis again to be honest. The girls are performing well."

Caldow said she had taken the team on several tours, including the Caribbean and Australia and New Zealand, in the past year and it was now showing results.

"We've done it tough along the way, and that is the best way you learn."

The match exposed a few problems in the Silver Ferns shooting circle, though they seemed ironed out by the end of the match.

It was the English defence that caused a disruption to the flow.

"We had to step away before we could get free, and our timing wasn't quite right on that." coach Ruth Aitken said.

Aitken only made one change to her starting line-up during the match, bringing on the promising Casey Williams at goal defence in place of Anna Scarlett.

The rest of the lineup was Irene van Dyk, Belinda Colling, Adine Wilson, Temepara George, Laura Langman and Davu. They look set for a heavy workload this weekend.

- NZPA