KEY POINTS:
Tonight's second netball test against New Zealand in Dunedin offers England a shot at redemption - and the possibility of a decent night's sleep for their coach, Sue Hawkins.
Australian-born Hawkins will probably suffer nightmares for months to come after her team's meek capitulation at New Zealand's hands
in Auckland on Monday.
With two solid performances against Australia a week earlier, England had high hopes of repeating last year's upset 50-45 win over the Silver Ferns.
Although the New Zealanders totally annihilated England 65-26 in Monday's first test of the three-match series, Hawkins is optimistic things must get better.
"I might get some sleep tonight - I had about two hours on Monday night," Hawkins said.
"We got back after the match, we watched the video, and we're going `oh Jesus'. The sad thing is I even dreamt about it - now that's scary..."
Not even the arrival of playmaking goal attack Pam Cookey, who was unavailable for the Australian leg of the tour, could turn things around for England as the Silver Ferns poured on the pressure right from the first whistle.
"At 8-1 down in the first five minutes, my heart was in my mouth," Hawkins said. "Once you give someone eight goals, you give them their confidence and then you're chasing your tail the whole time."
Hawkins was at a loss to explain why her players failed to fire, but said the Silver Ferns were a class act.
"It was like we were little girls out there, scared of the big Silver Ferns. I don't know why that crept into their game, and into their whole persona.
"When they were playing against Australia, they had this confidence about themselves. We just need to find that again," Hawkins said.
"It's not silly to say the Silver Ferns defence end stepped up and did the job on us. I'm not afraid to say that, but now we need to say `OK, what do we have to do to get that back'?"
Hawkins said video analysis from Monday night's "smacking" would go some way towards setting up an England fightback over the next two tests.
The possible return of key defender Geva Mentor, out with an ankle injury for the first test, would also help. But Hawkins said the entire team needed to step up and take responsibility for Monday night's effort.
"There were a lot of little minor things, but if everyone's got little minor things happening, all of a sudden there's a snowball effect," she said.
"Everyone's saying if Geva had been there, it would have been a completely different ball game. But she's not worth 40 points - if she was that good, she'd be on a big contract!"
Hawkins said the New Zealand coaching staff had to take a lot of credit for Monday's result.
"They've certainly lifted the level of the Silver Ferns. I know (Australian coach) Norma Plummer was in the stands, and I'm sure she'd be going `oh my God'."
It would be a measure of her players, their resolve and resilience, as to how they bounce back in tonight's test, and the final match in Palmerston North on Saturday, Hawkins said.
"They hurt last night and they were very disappointed but as I said, we have to bounce back. We have to let it go - we can't change what happened on Monday, but we can address what we're going to do tonight."
- NZPA
