Dana Johannsen: Pressure on for Ferns as world champs loom

Australia's Susan Fuhrmann sent the New Zealand attack into meltdown mode on Thursday. Photo / Getty Images

When the Silver Ferns line up against Australia in tomorrow night's second test in Auckland, it will be just four weeks to the day until the final of the world championships.

Only time will tell if the same two sides will be facing off at Singapore International Stadium on July 10, but if history is anything to go by, a major upset would have to occur for it not to be a New Zealand-Australia final.

Since finals were introduced to the world championship format in 1991, New Zealand and Australia have contested four of the five finals.

The Ferns have won just one of those four meetings - in Jamaica in 2003. And on the evidence of their performance in Thursday night's loss to Australia in Palmerston North, the New Zealand side have a lot of work to do if they are going to reach those lofty heights again.

While the 52-47 loss is by no means the death knell for the Ferns' world title hopes, they will certainly be feeling very nervous given the Diamonds' combinations are still very new and they have a lot of room for improvement left in them yet.

And Ruth Aitken and co will be only too aware that there is limited time to get things right before the tournament.

Tomorrow's test will be their last proper hit-out before they take on Fiji in their opening match of the championships in just over three weeks and there is plenty still to be achieved.

They need to test out a couple more lines in the heat of a transtasman battle, particularly in the attack end where a lack of genuine back-up options to shooters Irene van Dyk and Maria Tutaia remains the key concern.

They need to show they can better adjust to a change-up in defensive strategy from the opposition.

And they need to get a win back over Australia to give them some peace of mind heading in to the world tournament.

That's a lot of boxes to tick in just 60 minutes.

But after copping plenty of flak for her decision to bring on Liana Leota in place of Temepara George when the Ferns were four goals up at halftime in Thursday night's opening test, Aitken may be a little gun shy when it comes to making changes tomorrow.

She said of paramount importance was ensuring her first-string side were given time to fine-tune their combinations and get their confidence back.

"We do want to get our flow back, there's no doubt about that. And we also want to introduce a few people as well. So it's a huge balancing act. We'll just have to see how it goes, we would obviously like to win this last test."

The New Zealand coach said if her side could build on their first-half performance of Thursday night, they would be in good shape to share the series.

The Ferns showed a great deal of variety in their attacking play early in the match, helped largely by some sterling work in the shooting circle by van Dyk, who mixed up her movement patterns well.

She outplayed Australian defender Laura Geitz, one of the stand-outs for the ANZ Championship-winning Queensland Firebirds this year, prompting Norma Plummer to make a change at halftime and introduce Susan Fuhrmann.

"I was really pleased with Irene in that first half against Geitz. There had been a big build-up about how she would go and I think that her variety in that circle was outstanding, she was also putting up the ball from further out, which is great," said Aitken.

But she was disappointed with her side's inability to adjust to the introduction of Fuhrmann, the presence of the 1.96m defender sending the New Zealand attack into meltdown.

Aitken said her side would go back and revisit what strategies worked against Fuhrmann, and learn to recognise more quickly when they needed to change up.

"It's about us maintaining our connections out on court, because the thing Australians do really well is they isolate you.

"While everyone was working really hard, it became about the personal battles and everyone was just trying to beat their opponent instead of thinking how they can actually work together to create space and I think that is something we have to key ourselves back into."

Silver Ferns v Australia
Second test
Tomorrow, 7.40pm
Vector Arena, Auckland

* dana.johannsen@nzherald.co.nz
* www.mynetball.co.nz