Netball: Injuries obscure selection plans for Silver Ferns

By Suzanne McFadden

Teresa Tairi, Noeline Taurua and Anna Rowberry are making the selection of the Silver Ferns for the world championships a very tricky job.

The injured trio won't be playing in tonight's trial for the world champs team, but they are still contenders for Yvonne Willering's 12.

So what does Willering do? Does she select players with dodgy body parts now, four months before the world tournament in Christchurch?

Does she choose 12 fit players for the three-test series against South Africa in a fortnight, and have another look afterwards?

Or does she stick with those 12? Willering can't say which route she will take.

Rowberry should be fit to meet the South Africans. She could play in the Taupo trial tonight, but physios have advised that she rest her sprained ankle for another week.

Tairi was a late withdrawal. Her career has been cursed with knee injuries - both joints have been reconstructed. The latest problem was sparked when she stepped off a bus awkwardly.

She decided to bypass the trial and get the knee checked out yesterday.

Taurua poses the biggest dilemma for Willering. She tore a knee ligament during the Star Series a fortnight ago and won't be fit to play until after the South African series.

If Willering sticks to her original game plan - to select 12 players now to go on to the world champs - then Taurua, a veteran Fern, will miss out.

Fit shooters are becoming a rare breed - Taurua and Tairi with their troublesome knees, and Otago's Jo Steed with an iffy ankle. Steed will, however, play in the trial.

It's most likely Willering will go for option B: choose 12 now and have a second look at the casualties later.

It won't be a case of she who plays best on the day becoming a Silver Fern. Willering has had so many opportunities in the last couple of months to spot the talent, through the Coca Cola Cup and the purpose-built Star Series.

She describes this Possibles-Probables match as "consolidation", her last chance to see 20 of the country's top players before she names her team on Tuesday.

Two players have been brought into the match to fill the injury gaps - shooter Tania Nicholson and midcourter Megan Dalgety.

Possibles: Tania Nicholson, Jo Steed, Belinda Colling, Megan Dalgety, Jenny-May Coffin, Amigene Rangitaawa, Sheryl Clarke, Belinda Charteris, Linda Vagana, Anna Veronese.

Probables: Jodi Te Huna, Donna Loffhagen, Adine Harper, Sonya Hardcastle, Temepara George, Julie Seymour, Lesley Nicol, Bernice Mene, Lorna Suafoa, Katie Fay.