KEY POINTS:
The Silver Ferns dominated throughout the court to cruise to a 65-26 victory in Auckland tonight in the opening match of their three-test netball series with England.
New Zealand won every quarter comfortably to avenge their surprise defeat in Manchester 17 months ago, the last time the two
countries met.
Just over a week ago, England had pushed Australia to finish within three goals of the world champions, but they were never in the hunt in Auckland.
They struggled to feed their shooters in the face of the home side's tight defence, while at the other end they found Irene van Dyk and Maria Tutaia finding the hoop with early faultless accuracy.
England were on the back foot even before the match began, with key defence Geva Mentor having to pull out.
The Adelaide Thunderbird rolled an ankle in training and was confirmed as a scratching when the team lists came out.
The injury robbed England's coach, Australian Sue Hawkins, returning to Auckland where she had coached National Bank Cup side the Diamonds, of the settled defensive combination of Mentor and the Central Pulse's Sonia Mkoloma.
Mentor was replaced at goal defence by Ama Agbeze.
England did have Pamela Cookey back in their squad.
Cookey had unavailable for last week's 2-0 series defeat in Australia because of work commitment.
But the goal attack had a disappointing night, landing just three from 10 before sitting out the final quarter.
New Zealand coach Ruth Aitken began with a full-strength starting line-up and restored van Dyk to her normal position of goal shoot, before shifting her to goal attack in the second half.
New Zealand raced out of the blocks with van Dyk and Tutaia not missing a shot in the first quarter.
Van Dyk's first five efforts took the Silver Ferns out to a 5-0 lead, before Tutaia began contributing with her trademark bombs from distance.
On defence, Casey Williams, Sheryl Scanlan and Joline Henry, later named player of the match, all did their part in stifling the England attack, and by quarter time, New Zealand were up 16-7.
The home side's defensive cover was particularly tight in the second quarter, when England shooters Louisa Brownfield and Pamela Cookey were able to put up just seven shots, of which they were successful with five via Brownfield.
With New Zealand up 30-12 by the main break, Aitken went to her bench over the course of the second half, giving shooter Daneka Wipiiti, defender Leanna de Bruin and midcourter Maree Bowden court time.
By the third quarter, the margin had blown out to 47-18 and the Silver Ferns didn't let up in the final 15 minutes.
The teams head to Dunedin tomorrow for the second test on Wednesday night.
Hawkins summed the match up with three words: "We got smacked."
"Certainly from the word go, we got smacked.
"I think we need to have a good look at what we did in that last quarter (when) we got some links happening and at least our shooters went to the post.
"It is tough out there, the Silver Ferns certainly stepped up.
"Defensively, through the middle of the court, they really put that zone on and we need to have a look at it and start penetrating."
However, Aitken felt England would be an improved side for the next test in Dunedin on Wednesday.
"Certainly Geva Mentor was a big loss to them and when she's back, it'll make a difference.
Despite the big winning margin, the Silver Ferns would need to step up again on Wednesday as Aitken expected improvement from England.
"We'll still be looking at areas to improve on."
- NZPA
