KEY POINTS:
Australia 53 Silver Ferns 51
A raft of injuries and retirements in the Australian side could not help the Silver Ferns break their drought against their transtasman rivals in Christchurch last night.
With Australia missing a number of frontline players, the win was an ominous sign for
Ferns coach Ruth Aitken, whose task will only become harder in the coming tests.
Though the contest was tight, the match lacked atmosphere, with perhaps the crowd missing the likes of former Australian captain Liz Ellis and livewire shooter Sharelle McMahon to fire them up.
The umpires did not always have a handle on Australia's aggressive defence, with Chris Campbell and Maggie du Plessis allowing an extremely close three-foot mark from the visitors.
With five new caps in the Australian squad, the world champions crossed the Tasman with their most inexperienced line-up for quite some time.
Already missing two key shooters in Sharelle McMahon and Natalie Medhurst, the Diamonds suffered another blow before the opening whistle with veteran shooter Catherine Cox, one of the stand-out performers in the ANZ Championship, forced out with a minor ankle injury.
The injury at least gave Australian coach Norma Plummer the opportunity to stay true to her pre-game promise to trial new combinations, with Adelaide Thunderbirds shooter Kate Beveridge playing in her first test. NSW Swifts midcourter Kimberlee Green also made her test debut, starting at wing-attack.
Ferns coach Ruth Aitken also had a few surprises in her starting line-up with Irene van Dyk at goal-attack and Laura Langman playing at wing-attack, continuing on from Magic coach Noeline Taurua's experimentation with the pair during the ANZ Championship.
After losing key play-makers Adine Wilson and Jodi Brown from last year's World Championship squad, Aitken is clearly looking to develop more attacking options.
In her first test, Beveridge made an early impact on defender Casey Williams, though probably not in the manner she intended, when the two clashed heads five minutes into the match. Williams came off second best, copping a nasty cut to the eye.
With blood streaming down her face, Williams appeared very shook up by the collision but she was able to regain her composure as the medical staff attended to her cut and take the court following the injury break.
The two sides were level pegging for much of the opening spell and while the Ferns were able to a couple of mini-bursts they were never able to push on and took a narrow 15-14 lead at the first break.
With New Zealand struggling to assert the same defensive intensity that we've seen from them in the past, they failed to pick up much turnover ball in the first half. As a result, the score remained tight at halftime, with the Ferns leading 28-27.
Aitken opted to make a slight change to her defensive end for the second half, bringing on Leana de Bruin at goal-defence in place of Sheryl Scanlan.
But the changes did not throw the Australian attack end off their stride, with the visitors taking a 42-40 lead heading in to the final spell.
A midcourt reshuffle for the final quarter also failed to upset the steady Australians as they closed out the match with clinical efficiency.
Earlier in the evening the New Zealand Under-21 side suffered a demoralising 74-35 defeat to their Australian counterparts.
The heavy defeat was an ominous sign with the World Youth Cup less than a year away.
