KEY POINTS:
The challenge of meeting Australia in their first world championship match tomorrow night must seem like a raindrop in a lagoon for the Samoan side.
For the past two years no netball has been played in Samoa. The dilapidated netball courts were ripped up, and their replacements have
yet to be opened.
The Samoan-based players in the national side had to be flown to New Zealand to be reminded what a court felt like.
That hasn't been as easy as it sounds, with little funding dished out for their build-up to these world champs - even though the Samoans are ranked sixth in the world. There's not enough for compensation for time off work, school or from family.
Only a handful of the team who will play in Auckland were able to take part in the South Pacific Games in August - eligibility for the side was restricted to those who lived in Samoa.
All this, and still Samoan coach Linda Vagana says her team takes it in their bounding stride.
"Mentally, it's nothing foreign to them," says the former Silver Fern. "It's always been like this - working under pressure, everything falling together at the last minute."
The Samoans are the first litmus test for the on-form favourites Australia in tomorrow night's top-billed match. Not a problem, says Vagana.
"We're looking forward to it - we have nothing to lose. That's the attitude we have to take and it's how we'll approach the game," she says.
"We want to try a whole lot of things, and Australia will no doubt be using the game to try things out as well. They will pick up - if they haven't already - that we play a very similar game to New Zealand."
Samoa have their sights set on at least a place in the quarter-finals, contending for a place-off spot with the erratic Trinidad & Tobago side and 15th-ranked Scotland.
"We certainly want to improve on our current ranking, and that's very achievable for us," Vagana says.
Their performance at the South Pacific Games, clinching a silver medal after losing the final to Fiji, was beyond Vagana's expectations with no New Zealand-based players in the side.
Since the last world champs, when Vagana was captain, the Samoans have grown in strength on attack - particularly with young Northern Force shooter Catherine Latu supporting former Silver Fern Anna Senio.
Five of the 12 players are based in Samoa; the others are from Auckland and Wellington - with Latu, Brooke Williams, Malu Fa'asavalu and sisters Frances and Gerardine Solia having National Bank Cup experience.
The team arrived in Auckland on Tuesday, after a week together in Samoa. "We had to sneak into the Samoa College grounds and play on their just-finished courts, which haven't been officially opened yet," Vagana admitted.
"But in Auckland, we are at home too. We're playing in a city where the population of Samoans is very high, so the support is there. Back in Samoa, they'll be watching the games on TV live for the first time. So there is some pressure to perform for everyone."
Vagana has the odd flicker of sadness that she isn't playing this time - until yesterday.
"I had a go on court in the final quarter of our warm-up game against England, just to make up the numbers. But I ended up tripping up on my own foot," she said. "Maybe I'll wait another week."
In other games of note tomorrow, England meet the seventh-ranked Barbados side, while Jamaica stretch their limbs against the Cook Islanders, who have a strong New Zealand influence.
World championships
Trusts Stadium, Henderson
Today
New Zealand v Malawi 8.10pm
Tomorrow
South Africa v Malaysia 12.10pm
Wales v Botswana 2.10pm
Trinidad & Tobago v Scotland 2.10pm
England v Barbados 4.10pm
Fiji v Singapore 4.10pm
Jamaica v Cook Islands 6.10pm
Australia v Samoa 8.10pm
