Netball: Bruising test win as Ferns find the formula

By Suzanne McFadden

Tough-nut Silver Ferns captain Belinda Colling scraped herself off the floorboards and drove her side to a 15-goal victory over the Jamaican netball team yesterday.

New Zealand's face-saving 62-47 win after the drawn first test was the type of bone-crunching clash to be expected in a match in the Caribbean. Players' bruised bodies were often strewn across the wooden floor of the National Stadium in Kingston.

Ferns centre Jenny-May Coffin was one of the major casualties, taken off court with a wrenched shoulder when she leapt for a ball. Jamaican linchpin Connie Francis went off with a back injury.

But Colling relished the physical nature of the game, even though she was regularly knocked to the ground in the shooting circle.

New Zealand coach Yvonne Willering does not normally hand out bouquets to any single player, but yesterday she could not stop herself from praising Colling's gutsy effort.

"She got knocked down a few times but she got right back up again - she's a committed individual," Willering said. "Belinda led by example - she worked tirelessly on attack and defence and she shot consistently."

At times during her career Colling has been reluctant to put up shots from goal-attack, but yesterday she shared the responsibility with goal-shoot Donna Loffhagen and scored with 27 of her 33 attempts.

Loffhagen, who had a jittery game in the first test, was back on song with 35 from 43. It was a more confident effort from the whole line-up after their drowsy first-test performance 48 hours before.

Uncharacteristically, Willering made only one change during the game, and that was forced upon her by Coffin's injury just before three-quarter time. Sonya Hardcastle came on as the replacement in the middle, joining Anna Rowberry and Lesley Nicol.

Circle-defence Bernice Mene and Linda Vagana finally figured out how to contain Jamaica's goal-shoot Elaine Davis.

"We took away some of her space and we put pressure on the passers rather than the receiver," Willering said. "She was taken off in the last quarter."

In contrast to the first test, New Zealand made Jamaica chase them from the outset, leading 19-11 at the first break.

The second quarter was drawn, and the Ferns won the third spell by just one goal. But it was the last 15 minutes, which New Zealand won 17-11, that Willering was heartened by.

"We were able to fight back. And that's not easy in Jamaica. The crowd are unbelievably biased toward their team - they boo and hiss," she said. "It's been a hard tour, but we knew it was going to be. We should have had a few days rest before we started playing, but we didn't have time to be away from home any longer.

"We could have picked an easier team to play, but that would have defeated the purpose of this - to build for the Australian test and get a taste of the Caribbean style for the world champs."

The Ferns will have a warm-down session today before flying home. Willering wants them up and running again in 10 days, ready for the Fisher and Paykel Cup test against the world champion Australians in Christchurch on February 27.