Netball: Auckland Waitakere end Wellington's fairytale

Canterbury's Ellen Halpenny crashes into the pole during their semifinal win over Southland. Photo / Dean Purcell

Auckland Waitakere will contest their fifth straight national provincial final today after ending newly promoted Wellington's fairytale run in yesterday's semifinal.

After being upstaged by Wellington 56-52 in their round robin match-up two weeks ago, the Auckland side exacted their revenge at Trusts Stadium last night, producing their most complete performance of the competition to date.

The tournament hosts will meet Canterbury, the pacesetters throughout this year's Lion Foundation netball championships, in today's final after the Maree Bowden-led side overwhelmed Southland in the first semifinal.

Just one week ago Auckland Waitakere suffered an 18-goal demolition at the hands of Canterbury, but captain Rachel Rasmussen believes her side are capable of overturning that.

"It's definitely possible to turn it around. I think we let that one go ourselves, it was down to our personal errors and silly mistakes and we've worked hard on that this week," the veteran defender said.

After heading in to the tournament week on the back of two losses, Auckland Waitakere were in danger of missing out on the finals altogether. But with a more settled attacking line that has seen Brigette Tapene promoted to the starting goal attack role over Jade Topia, Auckland finally seem to have found the right gear.

But the defending champions will still head in to the final as the underdogs, with Canterbury looking unstoppable in their crusade for their first title in eight years, easing past Southland 56-44 in yesterday's first semifinal.

It wasn't the most clinical performance seen from Canterbury during the competition, with the experienced side getting off to a wobbly start, trailing by four goals at the first break.

But a change to the midcourt in the second quarter, which saw Hannah Poff introduced off the bench in place of Phillipa Finch, who was clearly hampered by a calf injury, saw the Cantabrians regain their speed and fluency through court.

After drawing level five minutes in to the quarter, Canterbury raced away to take a 28-23 lead at halftime, which they built on over the final two quarters. The Red and Blacks packed up for the day with the luxury of knowing that they had beaten both potential final opponents by 18 goals during the pool play.

It seems at this stage Canterbury's biggest adversary will be complacency - something Silver Ferns shooter Anna Thompson insists will not be a factor.

"The games that have been in the past don't really matter, this is the one that counts so we'll be doing everything we can to recover well and tick all the boxes in out preparation," said Thompson.

She said that after enduring a disappointing transtasman league season with the Tactix, who finished at the foot of the competition ladder after winning just one game, it had made her even more hungry to taste success at provincial level.

Nine of the 12-strong Canterbury side were involved with the Tactix campaign this season and Thompson said her side were enjoying setting the pace in the competition rather than being one of the easy-beats.