England vice-captain Karen Aspinall hopes she will reap the rewards of her stint with the Capital Shakers when she lines up against the Silver Ferns' fleet-footed middies.
Aspinall, who has 56 test caps for England, played for the Wellington side in last year's National Bank Cup. While the team bombed out in the competition, finishing seventh out of eight teams, Aspinall, 26, said competing week in and week out against New Zealand's best made it more than worthwhile.
Speed through court and the zone defence, which sees the players flood the midcourt as opposed to defending one on one, feature strongly in the New Zealand game.
"When we come here on tour we get a little taste of it [the New Zealand style]. Then we go home and have to re-adjust when you come back. It was good to get the experience and attack against that style of defence," Aspinall said.
She has also benefited from the tutelage of former Silver Ferns midcourter Lyn Gunson, who was England's head coach until July 2003.
"We also had Wai [Taumaunu] there working with the defence end, which was really useful. Now it is good that we have a shooting coach [former Australian goal-attack Marg Caldow] so we can focus on that end of the court and pick that up a bit."
England, who are halfway through their eight-week Southern Hemisphere tour, are desperate to make amends for their 40-goal hammering by Australia.
"We are improving every day," Aspinall said. "We just have to set realistic goals for ourselves and see how the first test goes.
"We are going to go all guns blazing for the first game and see how well we can do. We don't want a repeat performance."
Key Player
Karen Aspinall
Age: 26
Height: 1.68m
Occupation: Youth Sports Trust Administrator
Caps: 56.
England debut: 1997 against Silver Ferns
Netball: Armed with insider information
Karen Aspinall
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