Netball: Defender with score to settle

By JULIE ASH

Talk to Sheryl Clarke and it soon becomes clear the Silver Fern defender can hardly contain her excitement as she counts down to the world championships.

As part of the team that missed out on a gold medal at last year's Commonwealth Games in the double overtime loss to Australia, Clarke is the first to admit she is "ready to go out there and do the damage".

"If you lose by one you might as well lose by 20," she said.

"It was terrible and we don't want that to happen again. We just want to go over there and win the thing."

Teaming up with fellow defender Vilimaina Davu, the Commonwealth Games final was Clarke's first real hit out against the world champions.

"It was so exciting but I have never been in a game where I have wanted to win so badly," she recalled of the Manchester final before a raucous packed house last August.

"They are a very skilful team but all I can remember from that game is how much I wanted to beat them."

When Clarke lines up in Jamaica in July, it will be her second world championships, after captaining Samoa in the last championships in Christchurch in 1999.

"We went in ranked ninth and we finished ninth so we didn't do any better or any worse.

"It was a good experience for me. I definitely learnt a lot from it.

"Coming into this event, playing for New Zealand is such an honour for me because I have always wanted to play for the Silver Ferns."

Clarke first made the New Zealand team in 1997 for a tour of Britain, and was often compared to the likes of New Zealand greats Waimarama Taumaunu and Bernice Mene.

She saw it differently.

"To be honest I was more of a tourist than anything else.

"As it was my first time in the team I didn't know what to expect so I was more overwhelmed than anything."

Clarke missed out on selection for the next two years before being reinstated in 2000.

"I think the time out of the team did me good.

"It made me think about my game and ask myself where I really wanted to be. It made me more hungry.

"Since then I have learnt a lot and this time around I feel I have matured in my game and I am ready to go.

Born and bred in west Auckland, Clarke, the youngest of five children, admits she was a bit of a "sports nut" growing up.

"I started playing netball when I was eight years old at Sunnyvale Primary," she said.

"But I also played softball, volleyball, basketball - anything with a ball I played it.

"I cut down when I got to high school, I went to Auckland Girls Grammar and they were strong at netball so I carried on with netball."

Clarke made her first Auckland side, the under-16s, when she was 13 and has been a regular in representative teams ever since.

With brother Eroni, the popular former All Black and Auckland midfield back, and another brother, Egelagi, a former gridiron player in Hawaii, Clarke has plenty of family members to turn to for advice.

"If ever I was feeling down in a game Eroni [who is now playing rugby in Japan] was always there picking me up and telling me to keep going.

"That is the good thing about Eroni, he was always encouraging."

While the Australians are at the top of Clarke's hit list come July, the 25-year-old is by no means underestimating the likes of Jamaica, who are also expected to be in the running for the championship title.

"To win it we have to play as a team," she said.

"Everyone has to have that desire and that determination to go out there and win that gold medal."

Inside Track

Name: Sheryl Clarke

Born: Auckland, Sept 8, 1977

School: Auckland Girls Grammar

Height: 1.76m.

Occupation: Company shift leader.

Position: GD, WD.

Test caps: 22.

Career highlights:

Silver Ferns: 1997, 2000/03

National Bank Cup: Force 1998-2003