KEY POINTS:
The Silver Ferns have unfinished business to tend to in next week's three-test series against England, but none more so than sharp-shooter Irene Van Dyk.
Nobody in the New Zealand camp needs reminding the last time the two sides met in May last year England pulled off a
shock 50-45 win over the Ferns.
The win in Manchester was the first time England had beaten New Zealand in 32 years and their second ever win over their Kiwi rivals.
The loss, which occurred just six months out from last year's World Champs, sparked a huge backlash against the Ferns, but it was Van Dyk who bore the brunt of much of the criticism.
The veteran shooter, once hailed as the saviour of New Zealand netball, was all of a sudden blamed for the Ferns' failings.
The critics labelled Van Dyk's play as "one-dimensional", with some declaring the world's most capped netballer to be "past it".
It was the most testing time in Van Dyk's career, but the 36-year-old was determined to proved she wasn't over and done with yet.
"You can either make it or break it. You either take that criticism on board and become better from it, or you can just say, 'Oh, get stuffed', but you'll never learn from it," she said.
"A lot of the things that were said were just not necessary so I just dropped that, but I think some of the media made really valid points, like I did get a bit stationary and the opposition were beginning to be able to read my game pretty well."
Van Dyk said she was always confident that she could make those adjustments and come back stronger. The former South African international put in a great deal of work in the months leading up to the 2007 World Champs, improving her movement around the circle and general attacking play.
Little did she know this season she would be forced to add several more ... ahem, dimensions to her game after being thrust in to the goal-attack role during the transtasman league, which paved the way for a switch at international level.
Again, there are a fair few critics of the positional change, with many preferring Van Dyk in her more traditional goal-shoot role. But there can be no denying the 1.9m shooter is a handful for opposition defenders wherever she is on the court.
While Van Dyk, who was this year voted New Zealand's favourite sportsperson, is not a vengeful person by any means, she is quietly determined to produce a strong performance against England.
"I'm well and truly over that," Van Dyk said of the bad press she copped following her last meeting with England. "It's long gone and there's a lot of netball that's been played since then, but of course I want to go out there and play well."
And Van Dyk will need to be at her best to counter the world-class England defensive line-up of Geva Mentor and Sonia Mkoloma. The pair have a long-established combination in the defensive end and have a knack for putting shooters off their rhythm.
But their class was further underlined this season with both stand-outs for their respective teams in the ANZ Championships.
Van Dyk believes the English duo's performance in the transtasman league will have given them further confidence.
She said the Ferns will be focussing a lot on their shooting end over the next couple of days to ensure they're ready for the close attention they expect from the English defenders.
"They have these amazing long arms and their reach is unbelievable and they're both quite physical as well so it's going to be very interesting," said Van Dyk.
"Our movement has to be bigger to make them swing their heads a bit more and confuse the space, in saying that you don't want to lose our strengths."
When it comes to mental strength, there's no danger of that happening for Van Dyk.
