Netball: Aussie scrubs up comments

Australian netball coach Norma Plummer has pleaded ignorance as she tries to dampen her controversial description of the New Zealand team as a "a bunch of scrubbers".

She told the Courier Mail newspaper in Brisbane yesterday that she didn't realise a scrubber was an "ugly girl or woman", according to the Australian national dictionary, the Macquarie Dictionary.

"I didn't know the term had another meaning until my daughter asked me whether I really knew what it meant," she said.

"I got a shock when I found out, because there is no way I would say anything like that about any woman. I would never be that derogatory."

Her choice of words did not convey the meaning she meant to express.

"I meant that they were a team that would do anything to win," she said.

Plummer, appointed a fortnight ago to succeed Jill McIntosh as the Australian coach, made the remarks to a Canberra journalist last week.

New Zealand coach Ruth Aitken yesterday refused to bite back.

"People say there is not enough controversy in netball," Aitken said.

"She is just setting things up for her reign by being controversial and being seen to go on to the attack."

Australian defender Liz Ellis laughed when told of Plummer's quote, which followed New Zealand's victory in the world championships in Jamaica in July.

Ellis was part of the team dubbed "geriatrics" by the New Zealand media before Australia's one-goal win over the Silver Ferns in the final of the 1999 world championships.

But Ellis said there was no ill-feeling between the teams despite the renowned tough nature of their matches.

"I'm reasonably close to a couple of the girls and I really enjoy their company," Ellis said.

"Irene van Dyk, along with Vicki Wilson, is probably the best goalshooter I've ever played against and they've got plenty of good players.

"I certainly wouldn't call them 'scrubbers'. It's just an unfortunate choice of words and I'm pretty sure the New Zealanders would laugh at it.

"You can laugh at most things when you're the world champions."

Ellis said she was looking forward to playing for Plummer, who is to leave her role as head coach at the Australian Institute of Sport.

"Norma is very straightforward and she lets you know where you stand," Ellis said.

"She admires people who get out there and do whatever it takes to get the job done."

Plummer was an Australian centre between 1972 and 1978.

- NZPA