Netball: Mismatch as Silver Ferns deliver goods

Silver Ferns centre Temepara George prepares to pass in the test in Wellington last night. Picture / Mark Mitchell

New Zealand 74 England 30

A much slicker Silver Ferns unit wrapped up the series against England last night with a comfortable win in Wellington.

After a patchy 52-30 victory in the opening test, Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken was looking for an improvement in all areas of court, particularly in the shooting third where they struggled to contend with England's rangy defence in Auckland.

Last night the Silver Ferns delivered, taking an almost unassailable 21-7 lead in the first quarter and in the end racked up an impressive 44-goal win, beating the 40-goal margin achieved by Australia in their one-off test against England last month.

England were without influential captain Olivia Murphy, who was presumably still troubled by the foot on which she had an operation last year.

They had no answer to the Silver Ferns' speed through court and struggled to get the ball to their shooters.

With possibly an eye on the future, Aitken left experienced defenders Victoria Edward, Sheryl Scanlan and Vilimaina Davu on the bench and started instead with the next generation, Laura Langman, Joline Henry and Anna Scarlett.

The young trio immediately made their presence felt, especially Scarlett, who had a considerable height advantage over her opponent, Rachel Greig.

Once again England found it difficult to find a way through the Silver Ferns' midcourt zone and as a result handed over plenty of ball.

After a less than tidy performance in the first test, the New Zealand attack seemed to cope better with England's towering defence.

Jodi Te Huna, in particular, moved a lot better in the circle, but left a lot of the shooting responsibility to Irene van Dyk.

The New Zealanders restricted their opponents to just nine goals in the second quarter, extending their lead to 37-16. England made two changes at the break, introducing Rachel Dunn into goal shoot and Rebecca Douglass into goal defence, while the Silver Ferns brought on the imposing figure of Vilimaina Davu and Victoria Edward.

Defensively, New Zealand had a high success rate with both combinations. Henry especially was solid and combined well with Scarlett and Davu.

On attack the New Zealanders cruised down the court with almost too much ease.

English coach Marg Caldow will be looking to address their midcourt defence before the final test.

With a 55-26 lead the Silver Ferns made a number of changes in the final quarter, the most significant being Victoria Edward's move from wing defence to centre.

New Zealand showed a vast improvement on the first test and proved that defensively they are well equipped for the future.

On attack, the New Zealanders were a lot more effective through court, but may still need a little more work on feeding their shooters, where at times passes connecting were more from good luck than good play.

For the English it will be back to the drawing board to try to figure out a way of cutting down errors and stopping the Silver Ferns' rampant attack.

The final test is in Invercargill on Saturday night.