David Leggat: Green and gold shoes looking good for Delhi

Australian goal keep Fuhrmann might be the only opponent van Dyk needs to raise her eyes to look at. Photo / Getty Images

Okay, so let's be clear: there's little between New Zealand and Australia going to New Delhi and October's Commonwealth Games.

Yesterday's series decider in Auckland was 22-all at halftime, 31-all at three-quarter time before Australia eased away to win by six.

The Silver Ferns won by 19 in Wellington last week, however six of their last eight clashes have been won by six goals or less.

Put it this way: whose shoes would you rather be in now - Ruth Aitken's black-and-white pair or Norma Plummer's green-and-gold set?

First, a memo to New Zealand's sports bodies: When casting about for someone to sing the national anthem before the big events, look no further than Jason Kerrison. He's unlikely to give up his day job with OpShop, but you'll go a long way to get a better rendition, unaccompanied, than his yesterday.

This was a match in which Australia, when it really mattered, were sharper, took their chances in a rough-and-tumble contest, played the umpires better and finished more clinically.

Which is not to say the Silver Ferns were poor. They sweated heaps and worked overtime, notably player of-the-series Katrina Grant and captain Casey Williams at the defensive end. The packed 8500 crowd at Vector Arena got their money's worth in terms of the tightness of the battle and the more, ahem, physical aspects.

To those who reckon it's getting out of hand, sorry, bad news. The days of genteel, dainty passing and nary a bump of hand on back, or shoulder on chest, are long gone.

It's all about physically imposing yourself on the opposition - plus, of course, being accurate in passing, movement and shooting.

Players have become adept at the sly shove, the discreet tug on the blindside of the umpires. However one Joline Henry elbow lacked any discretion while Grant and sharp-eyed Australian captain Sharelle McMahon ended one tussle together in a heap on the floor under the net.

To call it "willing" is like describing Irene van Dyk and Susan Fuhrmann as tallish. Australian goal keep Fuhrmann might be the only opponent van Dyk needs to raise her eyes to look at.

Van Dyk was gone at halftime and the fans got a glimpse of the post-van Dyk Silver Ferns - when the day comes that the veteran departs - when Daneka Wipiiti replaced her.

Wipiiti, resplendent in bubble-gum-coloured shoes, shoots goals with the outwardly relaxed demeanour of someone potting shots in the backyard.

The umpiring of England's Louise Travis and Joel Young-Strong of Trinidad and Tobago had players at both ends frustrated. But McMahon got it right: there's no point in fretting. "We look at what calls the umpires are making and we just know we have to adjust to whatever they are," McMahon said.

In that respect last night, one team was superior.

And they'll start favourites in New Delhi.