KEY POINTS:
Wales may be the saving grace for the Silver Ferns, yearning to get decent matchplay before the crucial quarter-finals of the world netball championships.
In what was billed as an entertaining spectacle, the Ferns were let down by a lacklustre Malawi side in Saturday night's opening game.
Although Malawi are supposedly the strongest opponent in their pool, an 85-26 first-up match did little to raise a sweat in the Silver Ferns' camp.
The Ferns' hopes now turn this afternoon to Wales, who scored a solid 54-35 victory over enthusiastic world championship debutantes Botswana yesterday.
The Silver Ferns watched the game with interest from their hotel rooms, where assistant coach Leigh Gibbs was impressed with the 14th-ranked Welsh team. They had improved significantly since New Zealand played them in an unofficial warm-up game on their English tour in May, making the most of their extra preparation time and playing in the British Superleague.
"Their shooting circle was mobile and accurate, and they had a strong attacking line through court," Gibbs said. "We're looking forward to playing them."
Welsh captain Ursula Pritchard was key in driving the attack from goal defence, while goal shoot Rebecca James found her way around thelong limbs of Botswana goal keep Thulaganyo Segopolo.
Pritchard, who will immigrate to New Zealand after this tournament, believes playing the Silver Ferns will be "a breath of fresh air" after contending with the complicated African style.
"We won't lie down dead - we've got to hang in there and give everything we have. We'll take our game to them," Pritchard said.
The Ferns will welcome it, though their game plan in this three-match round-robin is to focus intently on playing their own game.
They achieved that against Malawi - Irene van Dyk shooting the perfect game for the first time in her 152-test career; Laura Langman playing a full 60 minutes in her return from injury; and Sheryl Scanlan playing a strong driving game through court from her old goal defence spot. But there were a few hairline cracks.
Van Dyk summed it up: "I think there were times when we got quite hesitant and we would throw a high ball that didn't reach its target, and the next two times we wouldn't throw high balls. I think sometimes you need to persist with those things.
"I think there were times when we played too wide or too narrow. So there's just a few minor details that we need to adjust."
Van Dyk still saw the game as a strong, secure start to the Ferns' six-match campaign.
"Before the game we set our goal not to get trapped into their kind of play. Because lately when we trained, we played like the opposition," she said. "We had to stick to the game plan, play our own game and let the ball go. We needed something like this to build our confidence and make sure our links actually worked."
Malawi promised much with their eccentric style which caught some of the world's better sides on the hop at last year's Commonwealth Games, but on Saturday only clever goal attack Mary Waya made an impression.
When asked whether the Malawi match-up was below her expectations, Aitken blamed the Queens' short preparation time - the team arriving in dribs and drabs the day before.
But the Queens' captain, Peace Chawinga, wouldn't accept excuses for a lacklustre start.
"I don't know what happened - it wasn't the netball we play," she said. "They are good, we know they are great, and we wanted to give them a tough night which we didn't do. We are down but not out."
In contrast, Botswana were in high spirits after their loss - despite losing two goal attacks to injury in quick succession. While coach Joe Makakaba is looking forward to their first-ever Silver Fern encounter tomorrow, the highlight of their debut is meeting African rivals Malawi today.
