Netball: Delay in naming Silver Ferns squad

By Suzanne McFadden

Two dodgy knees belonging to two of New Zealand's top netball shooters have held up the selection of the Silver Ferns for this year's world championships.

Silver Ferns coach Yvonne Willering has had a change of heart, deciding not to name her side tomorrow as planned.

She will name 12 players to meet South Africa in a three-test home series in a fortnight, and then have another look at the status of injured New Zealand shooters Noeline Taurua and Teresa Tairi.

Both players have knee injuries and will not play in the Fisher and Paykel series. Taurua tore a ligament during the Star series, and Tairi damaged hers stepping off a bus.

It was always going to be a tough call to name a team four months out from the world championships in Christchurch, with a spate of injuries hitting the country's top players after an intense five months of competition.

"We want the absolutely best team at the world championships," Willering said. "It's disappointing that we couldn't name them now. We wanted to give the players some stability so they knew where they were at and we could get on with it. But I want to reassess those injured players after this series.

"The bulk of the players who are chosen now are going to go through to the world championships anyway."

A new young shooter, or two, may get a chance to become a Silver Fern.

Captain Belinda Colling and Donna Loffhagen are shoo-ins, but two places are open to the other four shooters from Saturday night's selection trial in Taupo.

The contenders are Jo Steed and Tania Nicholson, who have both had brief appearances for New Zealand, and teenagers Adine Harper and Jodi Te Huna.

A third Silver Fern missing from the trial, midcourter Anna Rowberry, should be fit for the South African series. Her absence was a precautionary measure after spraining an ankle in the final of the Star Series.

Four other Ferns were nursed through the trial, in which (for the record) the Probables beat the Possibles 63-53.

Steed was recovering from an ankle injury, Temepara George had a bruised thigh, and southern team-mates Loffhagen and Bernice Mene were taking it easy after hardly having a break from top-line netball this season.

Willering admitted the pressure of the season so far had been relentless on some players since the Ferns toured Jamaica in January.

"It's been a long and pretty competitive season already," she said. "Maybe we need to have a slightly longer gap between competitions - but this is an exceptional year."

Willering plans to name the world championship team some time in July. That still gives the Ferns around two months to prepare in their quest to take the title off the Australians, who won the second test against the touring English team, 56-36, on Friday night.