Netball: Coach's blunder puts pressure on Ferns

By RICHARD BOOCK

Not for the first time in recent seasons, the international coaching career of Yvonne Willering is at the crossroads.

While victory against Australia tonight might be enough to win a reprieve - and a repeat in Christchurch on Saturday would leave her the keys to the country - fairy-tales do not happen every day and, certainly, the world champions do not often lose twice in a row.

The irony is that Willering's role might not have been questioned at all had it not been for her mad-scientist-like changes to the first-test starting line-up, and the idea of fielding an untried midcourt against the best team in the world.

Quite why she decided to reverse the positions of Temepara George and Adine Harper has not yet been adequately explained, but the upshot was that Australia ran all over their hosts in the first quarter and continued to do so until the New Zealand boss bit the bullet and corrected her errors.

Asked afterwards about her thinking behind the move, Willering replied that there was very little between the wing-attack and centre positions anyway, which begged the even bigger question - why change them at all then?

After all, it was George the Centre and Harper the Attack who helped New Zealand to their triumphant win over Australia in Melbourne this year.

It was the same pair who later lit up the midcourt as the Silver Ferns ran riot over England.

There are some games when a spot of experimentation can be justified, but in this case Willering appeared to show little respect for the value of a strong combination, for the might of the Australian defence, or for the significance of an opening test.

It was also difficult to fathom her thinking in regard to Donna Loffhagen, who in the first test kept the clever and extremely robust Belinda Colling on the bench, despite putting up only 10 shots in the entire game.

The problem now is that, by risking all with a greenhorn midcourt in the first 15 minutes of the series, Willering has not been able to advance her game-plan and instead has been forced back to the drawing board.

As a consequence, not only do her players face a sudden-death showdown at a time when their confidence is not exactly brimful, but the Australians are feeling bullet-proof and already have the scent of a series win.