New Zealand under-21 netballers Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit (left) and her sister Te Paea. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey
New Zealand under-21 netballers Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit (left) and her sister Te Paea. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey
KEY POINTS:
Fifteen-year-old Te Paea Selby-Rickit has a netball timetable over the next few days that would make a Silver Fern wilt.
Selby-Rickit and the New Zealand under-21 squad will play against eight of the world's best netball teams preparing for the world championships. Even if the Silver Ferns makethe championship final, they will still only play six nations.
Selby-Rickit and her elder sister, 18-year-old Te Huinga Reo, are part of the national youth squad who have offered their services as warm-up partners for teams playing at the world championships in Auckland.
Eight of the 16 nations - South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Malaysia, Jamaica, Barbados, Wales, Singapore and Scotland - took up the offer.
Some days, the girls' schedule is exhausting - three games in five hours. Today, they meet Malaysia after breakfast, Jamaica after lunch and Barbados before dinner.
For most of this young team (none of them older than 19), this informal world series is their first taste of international netball. It serves a double purpose - more than simply being good hosts, it's the first step towards New Zealand's defence of the World Youth Cup title in the Cook Islands in 2009.
The once-in-a-lifetime camp brings together the Selby-Rickit sisters - daughters of former All Black and Waikato lock Hud Rickit - who now live in different islands. Te Huinga Reo is at Verdon College in Invercargill, moving south to play for the Sting in the last National Bank Cup competition; Te Paea, a promising shooter, lives with the rest of the family in Otaki on the Kapiti Coast.
Te Huinga Reo is one of those rare players comfortable defending or shooting. Both girls will be still young enough to play at the 2009 World Youth Cup, as are the other 15 players in the under-21 squad.
"It's an absolutely amazing experience to play our own mini-world championship, and against senior international sides," coach Yvette McCausland-Durie said. The team played their first game against South Africa on Tuesday - but, as with all the games, the score is under wraps.
