Netball: 'Old hand' Nicol keen for repeat against Australia

By RICHARD BOOCK

If experience counts for anything, Silver Fern Lesley Nicol should be worth her weight in gold during Saturday night's Tri-Nations netball test against Australia.

Nicol, the most-capped member of the New Zealand side, will play her 70th test when she runs out on to the Melbourne State Netball Centre, and two more will bring her level with the record held by former greats Sandra Edge and Lyn Gunson.

Assuming Yvonne Willering continues to be coach, first-choice wing-defence Nicol should break new ground on Saturday week in Sydney, when the tournament concludes with a transtasman rematch at the State Sports Centre.

Not that she is giving the milestone much thought.

"I don't put a lot of store in the record because things are so much different now," Nicol said from Brisbane, where the Ferns were preparing for tonight's match against the Queensland Firebirds.

"We play a lot more tests these days so there's no comparison, really. But I didn't even realise I was close. Who counts these things?"

Like Edge and Gunson, Nicol has played a prominent mid-court role for New Zealand since her first test appearance against Australia in 1993, and like them, she is also a former New Zealand captain.

However she has been on the wrong side of New Zealand-Australia results more times than she would care to remember in her eight-year career, and has only one thing on her mind as the countdown to Saturday night continues.

"We've got a point to prove as a team.

"We want to show that we can be the No 1 team in the world, that we are the No 1 team in the world.

"We beat Australia in South Africa late last year but I don't think that win received the publicity it deserved. Now we want to do it again." Initially from Southland, where she grew up on a farm and competed with her sister at rodeo barrel-racing, Nicol is also well acquainted with Dunedin, representing Otago through much of the 1990s while completing her physiotherapy training.

The 28-year-old now plays for the Coca-Cola Cup champions, the Southern Sting, but has moved on from physiotherapy to study medicine, and all going well should be a trainee intern next year.

Far from being flattered by the approaching test record, Nicol said it was indicative of the problems facing netball that a 28-year-old should be considered an old hand, rather than someone who was possibly still approaching their prime.

"It's sad that netball's so affected by the different social pressures. "Most women start peaking around their 30s, because at that stage their bodies have learned how to train and can take more; they're used to it. Often when you're younger your body's not capable.

"I look back at that 1991 New Zealand youth team which won the world cup, and there's only two of us left.

"Up until this year there had always been four or five but the others have either retired or have had babies."

Nicol said New Zealand were excited by the Tri-Nations concept, and were anxious to overcome the disadvantage of the draw to show that the win in South Africa last year was no fluke.

"It will be helpful to be able to watch Australia play South Africa on Friday night but it's a shame we don't play an international before the test on Saturday - they've got a definite advantage there, to go with the home court edge.

"But it's up to us to adjust and to react quickly, and to stamp our dominance on the game from the outset."