Sporting achievements: Biggest hiding of the year

The Silver Ferns celebrate defeating the Aussies 61-36 at Trusts Stadium, Auckland. Picture / Richard Robinson

The suspicion was that the Silver Ferns were a better team than their great rivals from across the Tasman.

They'd won a bitterly-fought encounter by seven goals earlier in the year at Sydney but Australian coach Norma Plummer was talking up her team's ability to counter New Zealand's roughhouse tactics.

Some hope.

By halftime the Silver Ferns were 14 goals up and by three-quarter time they led 48-25.

An easing off in the final period meant a 61-36 victory and a record winning margin of 25 goals.

All of which is fine if you like playing with abacuses, but of more import was the fact that the Silver Ferns seemed to have taken the sport to a whole new athletic level, a level Australia do not seem currently capable of matching.

Of course, the gold-medal match at Melbourne 2006 will be the judge of that.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY