KEY POINTS:
The Silver Ferns have hit back at Norma Plummer's criticism over the umpiring in Wednesday night's opening test, labelling the Australian coach's latest outburst as blatant intimidation.
Never one to mince words, Plummer described the performance of umpires Chris Campbell and Maggie du Plessis in Australia's 53-51 win
in Christchurch as atrocious.
The forthright Aussie coach believes New Zealand persistently infringed off the ball and were guilty of some close body checking, which the umpires failed to pick up.
"There was a lot going on off the ball and from my point of view I thought it should have been called a lot more," said Plummer.
"You can't use your hip or your thigh to throw people out of the game, that was going on all the time and it was just overlooked constantly."
But Silver Ferns assistant coach Waimarama Taumaunu believes Plummer's comments are a ploy to manipulate the umpires into scruntinising the New Zealand defenders more closely in tonight's second test in Auckland.
With the Diamonds copping 20 more penalties than New Zealand in the opening test, Taumaunu said the Australian coach was trying to ensure the penalty count evened out tonight.
"Norma's free to have her opinion but I think they're largely aimed at trying to get more pro-Australian calls out of it," the former Ferns captain said.
Much of Plummer's criticism was levelled at New Zealand captain Julie Seymour, who moved from centre to wing-defence in the final quarter to try to contain the athletic Kimberlee Green, who made her test debut in Christchurch.
Seymour did a solid job of restricting the space and movement of Green, but Plummer believes the midcourter did so using illegal tactics _ a notion Taumaunu strongly denies.
"I absolutely reject that Julie is a dirty or in any way a cynical defender," she said.
Taumaunu cited statistics from the transtasman league, which showed Seymour was well below the average in terms of contacts against her.
"In the ANZ Championship Julie's ability to restrict possession of wing-attacks that played against her was extremely good and she did so with a very low penalty count. So what Julie did on Wednesday night was what Julie does very well as a wing-defender."
She points out it is the Australian players who take a more physical approach, with Queensland Firebirds wing-defence Clare McMeniman, and Australian defenders Mo'onia Gerrard and Julie Prendergast all well over the odds in terms of the penalty count.
"On Wednesday night alone the Australians had 20 more penalties than us and I think that was an accurate reflection of their level of infringing," Taumaunu added.
The verbal stoush between camps has added some much needed spice heading into tonight's second test, with the opening clash lacking the intensity of previous transtasman matches.
But Plummer is expecting plenty of fireworks in Auckland, as she believes the Silver Ferns will have a definite point to prove following their lacklustre performance on Wednesday.
Plummer said the Ferns, who have lost six of their past seven matches to Australia, will be desperate to address their poor record against Australia.
"It'll be a clash, an all out-clash, and we're prepared for that," she said.
After experimenting with her attack end on Wednesday night, giving Irene van Dyk and Laura Langman their first international starts at goal-attack and wing-attack respectively, Ferns coach Ruth Aitken has hinted there could be further positional changes in her line-up tonight.
"We're still to make that final decision, we do believe we've got some strong options and we are wanting to grow the team looking forward."
TVNZ's coverage of Wednesday night's test in Christchurch outrated the live screening on Sky Sport of the All Blacks Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup decider against Australia last weekend in Brisbane. TV One peaked at a total audience of 568,100 during the netball compared with the peak audience during the rugby test of 428,100.
