Netball: Honour rests with Steel and Magic

Bay of Plenty Magic player Laura Langman. Photo / Mark McKeown

After a dominant weekend from the Australian sides, the heat falls on the Magic and the Steel to restore some pride for New Zealand in the transtasman league's Rivalry Round tonight.

The Steel take on the Adelaide Thunderbirds in Invercargill, while the Waikato/Bay of Plenty side will do battle against the West Coast Fever in Perth to wrap up the round of all New Zealand v Australia clashes.

Heavy losses to the Mystics, Tactix and Pulse at the weekend mean any hopes Magic captain Laura Langman would lift the trophy for New Zealand after the final match of the round have already been firmly stamped out.

Australia have all but secured the trophy for the third straight year with a 29-goal lead in the aggregate scores with two games remaining.

The round started ominously with the Queensland Firebirds' emphatic 61-52 win in Auckland on Saturday, before the Vixens' 15-goal win over the Tactix and the NSW Swifts' 48-43 victory over the Pulse last night compounded matters further.

Along with trying to make New Zealand's side of the ledger look a little more respectable, both sides will be strongly motivated by the two points.

With just two wins from six outings, the Steel are desperate to atone for an ordinary start to the season. A win against the Thunderbirds will allow them to leapfrog the Adelaide side into sixth place.

The third-placed Magic, meanwhile, will be eager to stay in touch with the pace-setting Firebirds, who are unbeaten this season.

The Magic tonight return to the venue where they notched up their first win in Australia in 2009 - an achievement they've been able to emulate only once since. But that is still two more wins than any other Kiwi side has managed across the Tasman.

The Waikato side will be desperate to add to that miserly tally tonight. A loss to the Fever, the weakest of the Australian teams, would hugely dent the credibility of the Magic's title bid.

After a couple of patchy performances earlier in the month, the Magic took a huge step up last week, outshining the star-studded Vixens.

But coach Noeline Taurua is taking nothing for granted, citing the "killer flight", time zone, extreme recent heat, Australian umpires and unusual game time (5.10pm local time) as making this an entirely different proposition from playing the Vixens in Hamilton.

"They probably haven't performed to their best this season," Taurua said. "Their midcourt is still finding its feet with new combinations but they are a very tenacious team."

The Magic will spend the week in Perth after tonight's game preparing for their round-eight clash against the Firebirds in Brisbane.