KEY POINTS:
Irene van Dyk showed no compassion to the land of her birth last night, leading the Silver Ferns to an 82-23 decimation of South Africa on their march to the World Netball Championships semifinals.
Even with her South African mother in the crowd at Waitakere's Trusts Stadium, the
Ferns' star shooter played one of her classic, near-perfect games in their quarter-final clash.
It was a calculated, gradual humiliation of the once-great South Africans, restricting them to scoring no more than six goals a quarter - as much a sign of the defending world champions' prowess as the Proteas' collapse.
As expected, the world's top four - New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica and England - comfortably won through to today's semifinals, with Jamaica's Sunshine Girls now standing between the Ferns and tomorrow's final.
Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken appears sold on her favoured starting seven - with goal attack Jodi Te Huna, wing defence Julie Seymour and goal defence Sheryl Scanlan cementing their places this week.
There were early jitters for the Ferns. Van Dyk uncharacteristically missed her first shot on goal and berated herself, but swiftly made amends. Within minutes, the Ferns had a 9-0 lead; their blanket defence throughout court denying the Proteas a shot at goal.
The interaction between van Dyk and Te Huna was sublime. Although Protea goalkeep Adele Niemand tried to stick like velcro to van Dyk, she was no match in stature or skill.
As promised, the Ferns employed their "snowball" defence tactics to great effect - the entire team putting pressure on the Proteas' attack.
Scanlan, with her little fantail squeaks to get her teammates' attention, was on the lookout for every stray ball and potential intercept - her best performance since returning to netball as a mother.
Ahead 43-12 at halftime, Aitken led her team to the changing room so they could hear above the din, and took the opportunity to swap five of her seven players - thinking ahead to the demands of the next two days.
Te Huna's replacement under the hoop, the graceful Maria Tutaia, carried on where she left off; at the opposite end, ex-South African Leana de Bruin gave her old teammates no leeway.
Even when the Proteas introduced their towering 1.92m shooter, Sindi Gumede, in the final spell, they still could not bridge the huge gulf between the two sides.
It was good practice for the Silver Ferns, who will need to foil Jamaica's tall teenage sensation Romelda Aiken who slam-dunked the Samoans, 73-42, in their quarter-final last night. Aiken was the star, shooting a marathon 57 goals from 65 attempts, but the Ferns have dimmed her brilliance before.
Aitken said she was - up to a point - satisfied with her team's overall game.
"I thought defensively we had a real step up in terms of our working together. You felt the connections, the tip here, the pick-up there and I think that was a real step forward," she said.
"But I think we could still be crisper in our feeding and we could use our angles on attack a bit more."
