Netball: Win over England good start for Ferns

Casey Williams. Photo / Getty Images

It is fair to say January netball didn't always bring out the best in the Silver Ferns in terms of their on-court performance, but their 3-0 series win over England this week was still an extremely positive start to their world championship campaign.

Resilience is a word often bandied about by the management team, who preach self-responsibility and coach their sides to be ready to adapt to any situation. How they deal with adversity is the measure of their strength.

With that in mind, Ruth Aitken and Waimarama Taumaunu will be chuffed - and perhaps pleasantly surprised - with their series whitewash against England.

The New Zealand side shook off pre-season rust, injuries to key players, shooting woes and a tight travel schedule to battle past the feisty English.

There were times in all three tests when the chips were down for the Ferns, who were forced to run with a couple of makeshift line-ups, but on each occasion they found a way to win.

Silver Ferns captain Casey Williams said it was a difficult ask for her side to head straight from the beach into a test match environment, particularly when they had a number of injuries to contend with before and during the tour. But she is pleased with the way the Ferns responded to those challenges.

"There were a lot of variables that could have influenced the team over the last few weeks, but we stuck to it and got on with the job. And I think that can only bring us closer together as a team," said Williams.

Opting to pull the players out of their ANZ Championship teams to play a test series in January was a big call for the Ferns management. Some commentators believed the whirlwind tour served little purpose, as the team were severely underdone heading in to the series.

But assistant coach Taumaunu said the tour was an extremely worthwhile exercise, having managed to balance the difficult twin objectives of winning the series with building depth in the squad.

The team won't assemble again until the conclusion of the ANZ Championship in June, and Taumaunu said they had little choice but to begin their preparations for the worlds in summer.

"It was a big call. Normally at this time of year it would be skills-based work and conditioning, it's pretty rare to play a test at this time of year," said Taumaunu. "But the world champs are early, they're in July, which means we had to start early."

With the Ferns likely to face England in the semifinals in Singapore, Taumaunu said it was also important that they made sure they had properly scouted the English before the tournament.

The New Zealand selectors have opted to name their line-up for the world championships early on in the piece, with the 12-strong team to be revealed on March 16.

That gives those looking to fight their way in to the side just five rounds of ANZ Championship netball to prove they are worthy of a spot.

But Taumaunu said the selectors would spend those five weeks canvassing all their options.

"Ruth and I have a very interesting travel schedule over the next couple of months. It will be a real selection process and now we've been able to have a good look at everyone in the Ferns environment we can make decisions based on what we know they can do rather than what we think they can do."

Those selection decisions may not be as straightforward as you would have expected after the Commonwealth Games final in October, but there is still probably only one area of the court where there is any contention - the shooting circle.

Shooting depth remains a problem and the tour to England did not reveal any strong contenders to push Irene van Dyk and Maria Tutaia for their starting spots.