Netball: Patchy Ferns promise better

Laura Langman keeps possession for the Silver Ferns as England's Jade Clarke closes in. Photo / Getty Images

The Silver Ferns have not been able to shake off the rust that has accumulated over the holiday period as quickly as they would have liked, just scraping past England in their opening test in Manchester yesterday.

But the Ferns are promising a much improved performance in tomorrow's second showdown against England in Nottingham.

The New Zealand side survived a late flurry from England in the final quarter to turn in a patchy first-up 42-40 win.

It was a far from flawless performance from the Ferns, but that is unlikely to worry them - they are expected to be patchy at this time of year and this is only the starting point in their build-up to the world championships in July.

But what will be of concern to them is that England also have plenty of improvement left in them. The home side were well below par on attack, committing 31 turnovers, and were without star defender Geva Mentor, yet they came within a hair's breadth of pulling off an upset.

Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken warned that given her side had virtually come straight from the beach and in to a test series it would not be a 60-minute performance from the Ferns.

That lack of match fitness was particularly evident towards the end of each quarter, with their intensity dropping away approaching the breaks, letting England off the hook.

But New Zealand's game well and truly disintegrated late in the fourth spell, when they let England whittle down their 10-goal advantage early in the period to just two.

The home side looked extremely lethal through the dying stages of the match, pulling off some inspirational patches of play, leaving coach Sue Hawkins frustrated her side could not get their act together sooner.

She said they gave the Kiwi defenders too many opportunities and has implored her shooters to show more confidence in Nottingham tomorrow.

"When we go to the post, they can shoot. And what was frustrating for the first three quarters was they were playing the ball out a lot, and once they started getting back to the basic tactics, we were fine," said Hawkins.

All eyes were on how New Zealand shooter Maria Tutaia would back up after a heroic performance in her last outing in the Ferns' spectacular overtime win in last year's Commonwealth Games final.

But in Tutaia's own words, the answer was "terribly".

The long-bomb specialist's radar was way off yesterday as she initially struggled to adjust to the unorthodox defensive style of Eboni Beckford-Chambers, who was later replaced by the explosive Stacey Francis in the second half.

Tutaia shot at just 38 per cent for the first half, but managed to pull her figures back to 58 per cent for the match, shooting 15/26.

"Oh, my gosh, it was terrible," said Tutaia of her shooting woes. "I just wasn't following through as I normally would, and then I started to hesitate and it all kind of fell apart from there, really."

Irene van Dyk also had a few uncharacteristic wobbly moments under the goal, leading to a collective team shooting rate of 71 per cent, while England returned an impressive 93 per cent success rate.

If the Ferns can take any positives from the match it is that they clearly enjoyed the bulk of possession, putting up 59 attempts to England's 43, as on defence they worked hard to win the ball back.

Tutaia said with little turnaround time in between the two tests they need to look at renewing their links on attack and better absorbing the pressure of an aggressive England defence.

The Ferns' attacking cause was not helped by the makeshift midcourt line Aitken was forced to run, with injury ruling out Temepara George and Grace Rasmussen from the tour.

Then Liana Leota pulled up with a calf strain after their first training session in Manchester. Aitken threw rookie midcourter Camilla Lees, an 11th hour replacement for Rasmussen, in to the starting side.

Lees made her international debut at centre, with Laura Langman moving up a spot to wing attack.

Lees admitted she suffered from first-test jitters early on, but was pleased she was able to settle in to her work.