KEY POINTS:
The sharp and sagacious words of netball legend Wai Taumaunu let the Silver Ferns know they were at the business end of their world championship defence last night.
The former Silver Ferns captain ran the team through a concentrated defensive session in Auckland to kick-off their final camp before the opening game of the world tournament in five day's time. The no-nonsense Taumaunu, now an astute coach in Wellington, was invited to help out Ferns coach Ruth Aitken and has all the credentials to offer guidance.
She was a feared circle defender for a decade in international netball, played at three world championships - a runner-up in 1983, victor in 1987 and captain of the side that suffered a dramatic one-goal loss to Australia in the 1991 final. Before the last world championships, she helped prepare the English side at the end of her five-year tenure as England Netball's performance director.
The Silver Ferns met in camp on Auckland's North Shore late yesterday afternoon before going straight into the training session with a full squad of 18.
The five squad members who didn't make the cut for the world championships team - shooters Jade Topia and Danika Wipiiti, midcourters Liana Barrett-Chase, Debbie White, and former Fern defender Anna Scarlett - will train and play with the Ferns until Thursday.
Also brought in for the week is the star of the last world championships, Temepara George, originally unavailable for selection but now on stand-by in case injured midcourter Laura Langman is not fit to play in the eight-day tournament starting on Saturday.
Over the past week, Langman has continued to increase the load on the fractured bone in her foot - an injury suffered during a Ferns training camp five weeks ago. Last night was her first on-court test since.
Aitken is likely to leave the decision on whether Langman is in or out until the end of the week. Officially, changes can be made to teams until midday Saturday - eight hours before New Zealand's first game against Malawi.
Aitken wants to ease Langman - her first choice at centre - back into court play, with the security of having three replacement options in George, White and Barrett-Chase on hand.
Former Silver Fern and world champion Vilimaina Davu will return to the world stage at Waitakere next week and further her tally of 113 test appearances. Davu, now the Fijian coach, yesterday selected herself as the 12th player in the Fiji side, boosting the defensive end of the eighth-ranked team.
Although international rules prevent a player turning out for two different countries in back-to-back world championships, the world body INFA ruled Davu an exception - as a player returning to represent her country of birth.
Davu captained Fiji at the 1999 world championships in Christchurch, before moving there to play national league netball in 2000 and earning selection for the Ferns.
After retiring last November, following 58 tests for New Zealand, Davu returned to Suva and was named coach of the Fijian side.
Davu last played top-class netball in the National Bank Cup final in June, leaving herself on the bench during Fiji's South Pacific Games win in August.
She told the Fiji Times yesterday she was excited to be returning to the court. "It's always been an aim for me to come back to Fiji and give back to my nation what I learned from playing for New Zealand," she said.
After losing three players for personal reasons in the past month, Davu's experience is a fillip to the Fijians, in a testing pool with Jamaica, the Cook Islands and Five Nations champions Singapore.
