Netball: Goodnight Nourse, you're bugging us

Australia coach Norma Plummer. Photo / Getty Images

Rookie midcourter Lauren Nourse has been in isolation from the rest of the Australian team this week to keep them bug-free.

In their final training camp in Melbourne before leaving for Auckland on Monday, the Australians banished schoolteacher Nourse to her room for several days while she recovered from a gastro bug she caught from her students.

Coach Norma Plummer told the Herald-Sun this Australian team had better "stability and balance" than the side who lost to New Zealand at last year's Commonwealth Games. The stream of four-day camps the team had this time would make a massive difference, compared to the "Mickey Mouse" build-up last year.

This month's rigorous training camps included a boot-camp with Special Operations Group policemen and games against the Victorian men's side.