Auckland-Waitakere had too much class for Eastern in today's preliminary first round National Provincial Championship (NPC) netball clash in Napier.
After leading 9-8 after the first quarter and 20-14 at halftime Auckland-Waitakere dominated the second half of the match to register a 49-30 win.
The winners only required the services of SilverFerns world championship-winning captain Anna Rowberry for half the match.
Rowberry played centre in the first quarter and wing attack in the second.
While Eastern deserve praise for their competitive first half they would have been disappointed with their efforts in the third and fourth quarters.
Julie Kelman-Poto had a strong game at goal shoot for Auckland-Waitakere, particularly in the second quarter when she missed just two of her 11 attempts.
Auckland-Waitakere's defensive combination of captain Leigh Price and Ritua Petero operated well and made things tough for the Eastern shooters.
Goal keep Jodi Tod was Eastern's player-of-the-match. Centre Tammy Kupa, wing attack Anne-Marie Kupa and goal defence Kelly Wardle were others to enjoy strong patches for Eastern.
Meanwhile Waikato had a comfortable start to their National Provincial Championship netball campaign, beating neigbours Bay of Plenty 80-36 in pool play here today.
Waikato used their superior combinations and speed to create many scoring opportunities on attack and keep Bay of Plenty in check when they had the ball.
Waikato led 17-8 after the first quarter and extended their advantage to 34-19, 56-29 and 80-36 with ease.
Much of their second half scoring came from the robotic accuracy of Silver Fern shooter Irene Van Dyk who came off the bench and showed no signs of the injury that saw her leave the court in the pre-nationals tournament in Te Awamutu seven days ago.
Bay of Plenty now head into a double header in Porirua next weekend, needing to beat Wellington and Western to qualify for the top-six in Hamilton later this month.
