Netball: New knees earn Tairi recall for Ferns tour

By Suzanne McFadden

After two total knee reconstructions before the age of 25, Teresa Tairi is back in the Silver Ferns.

"If Michael Jones can do it at 33, I think I've got a pretty good chance," Tairi said.

It is all a little spooky for Tairi, who will make her return to international netball when the New Zealand team leave tonight for a two-test tour of Jamaica and come home to play world No 1 Australia.

The talented shooter wrenched her left knee against Australia in May last year, exactly four years after she did the same to her right knee, again against Australia.
Her return then was in a series against, you guessed it - Jamaica.

But Tairi has done things differently this time from her recovery after the first reconstruction. She finally learned that her knees were trying to tell her body something.

"After the second injury I realised I had to take a good hard look at my training," she said yesterday. "My whole body needed to be a lot stronger to take the knocks. I took a look at the Australian physique - they're stronger and faster than us.

"My knee still stiffens and swells up and I'm still waiting for everything to grow back."

Silver Ferns coach Yvonne Willering admitted to taking a little gamble with Tairi.

"Her fitness levels are not quite up to where I would like them to be," she said. "But this is an opportunity for her to get back into international netball. And she's come back stronger this time."

Tairi and Waikato policewoman Jenny-May Coffin were recalled to the team after both were missing from the Commonwealth Games side last year. Out are Otago shooter Jo Steed and North Harbour defender Lorna Suafoa.

Willering has selected heavy in the midcourt at the expense of a circle defender for this tour and the one-off Fisher and Paykel Cup test against Australia on February 27.

"We're still making too many mistakes in the middle. We have tremendous speed, and flair and variety, but we're losing possession all the time," Willering said.

"Look at when we played Australia in the Commonwealth Games - they had more attempts at goal than we did."

In other words, the Silver Ferns are getting the ball through the hoop, but not through the court with enough regularity.

So that is where Coffin re-enters the fray, after being dropped for the Kuala Lumpur Games. She said her omission had woken her to reality.

"After a few weeks of sulking and all that, I got back into it," she said. "Last night I never slept, just waiting for the phone call."

The Ferns fly out at midnight tonight and play their first game on Friday against a local selection. The two tests are Saturday and Monday.

New Zealand: Belinda Colling (captain), Teresa Tairi, Donna Loffhagen, Noeline Taurua, Jenny-May Coffin, Anna Rowberry, Sonya Hardcastle, Julie Seymour (nee Dawson), Lesley Nicol, Belinda Charteris (nee Blair), Bernice Mene, Linda Vagana.