KEY POINTS:
A northern final looms for a second year at the national netball championships which finish in Rotorua this week.
Defending champions Auckland Waitakere top the standings on 13 points after four rounds of matches over the last month, with the six teams to complete the round-robin phase on Thursday.
Last year's beaten finalists North are second on 10 points, just one point ahead of three teams banked up in third - Southland, Waikato and Otago.
Waikato beat Southland 43-39 in Te Awamutu yesterday to deny the southerners a chance to claim outright second place.
Auckland Waitakere will play Waikato on Thursday while North meet Otago in matches that will shape the makeup for Friday's semifinals. Southland will face last-placed Western in the other match.
In division two, the key game on Thursday will be between second-placed Bay of Plenty and third-placed Wellington, who have both lost to leaders Canterbury but won their other three games.
The winners will meet Canterbury in the division two final on Friday and the winners of that match will face the last-placed team from division one in a promotion-relegation match on Saturday.
- NZPA
