Netball: Hiding reveals great divide

By RICHARD BOOCK

The yawning gulf dividing New Zealand and Australia from the rest of the netballing world has never seemed wider.

Only a fortnight after the transtasman rivals traded blows in the hotly contested Tri-Nations series, the Silver Ferns demolished England by 48 goals in the first test at Invercargill, underlining a huge imbalance in the game.

New Zealand coach Yvonne Willering had earlier rated England as the No 3 team in the world. But as she tried to look past the record-winning margin, questions were already being raised about the calibre of the opposition and the health of the game around the world.

The Silver Ferns made a quiet start at Stadium Southland on Saturday night, but then turned on the power to crush England 78-30.

The test was effectively over at the first-quarter break. By then the tourists had been out-pointed to the tune of 23-8, and after that the only genuine interest centred around whether New Zealand could break the 80-goal barrier.

As expected, England had no answer to the sweet-shooting skills of Irene van Dyk and Donna Loffhagen - who rendered their England opposites helpless - but they also struggled against the hosts' mid-court fluency and defensive intensity.

Quite why they did not play former Fern Jo Steed from the outset remains something of a mystery, but even when they finally found room for the former Otago goal-shoot, it was still very much one-way traffic.

There were moments of brilliance from the Ferns, in particular a couple of scarcely believable goals from an off-balance van Dyk, and the generous points cushion allowed Willering to find court-time for Jenny-May Coffin and Sheryl Clarke.

But possibly the biggest issue to emerge from the test was the state of the game internationally, particularly given South Africa's mediocre form during the recent Tri-Nations series.

South Africa, who are rated close to England on the world rankings, showed themselves to be well off the pace.

The only other possible threat to New Zealand and Australia are Jamaica, but they have such a limited international programme that they find it difficult to live up to their potential.

Willering said later that she did not care about the big score, but was happy with the manner in which her team played.

"We started well and each quarter reflected that. To be fair, England hadn't sighted us for a while, so they will be better for it after this game.

"England are a developing side. They are looking toward the [2003] world championships while we are focusing very much on the present."

England coach Julie Hoornweg said she was extremely disappointed.

"We couldn't take control, which is a lesson we haven't learned yet," Hoornweg said.

"Early on we missed a few shots, we lost a bit of confidence and it rolled on from there.

"New Zealand played extremely well and to our credit we forced them to play well. But they showed some amazing feats of athleticism."

The second test is at Palmerston North on Wednesday night.