Netball: Tight turnaround to test Silver Ferns

Ruth Aitken. Photo / Getty Images

The tight turnaround in-between finals at the netball world championships is set to test the Silver Ferns' mental preparation as much as it will their physical readiness.

The Ferns begin the knockout stages of the tournament today with a quarter-final showdown against South Africa, who finished second in pool C behind Jamaica.

The Sunshine Girls beat South Africa by 27-goals in the opening round of pool-play, which does not bode well for a tightly contested quarter-final, and it is expected New Zealand will charge to the semifinals.

There they will almost certainly meet England, who are expected to be similarly untroubled against Northern Ireland, while on the other side of the draw, Australia and Jamaica will face off.

From there, the Silver Ferns' fate is anyone's guess, but New Zealand coach Ruth Aitken said they have to be prepared for every eventuality.

The challenge is, with less than 24 hours' turnaround in-between their three biggest games of the year (even if they lost tomorrow's semifinal they would still have to play-off for final ranking on Sunday), how do they go about preparing for those games?

The Silver Ferns management team have been working overtime over the past week scouting out opposition teams to ensure the team will be up to speed tactically on their finals opponents.

"We certainly have a lot of data so that when we are confirmed in our opposition we are able to pull out just some key things to remind ourselves on," said Aitken.

But she is wary that overloading the team with information at this stage of the tournament could prove detrimental.

"At this point in time less is more, and it's trying to work out about what they most need to change or be aware of, rather than 10 things," she said.

"So for us it's about making sure we don't clutter their brains, and that we give them the confidence to know they've got the skills to deal with anything."

Given the tough matches coming up, Silver Ferns management are likely to again try to get their full squad of 12 out on court in today's quarter-final to ensure the top players are kept fresh for the weekend.

"We believe it is important to still keep everyone engaged for the quarter-finals, so the aim is to get all 12 out on court, but the performance can't be compromised so we'll have to see how it goes," said Aitken.

SCHEDULE

Netball World Championships - Day 6

QUARTER-FINALS:
* 5.15pm (NZT) England v Northern Ireland
* 7.30pm New Zealand v South Africa
* 9.45pm Australia v Malawi
* 12.00am Jamaica v Trinidad and Tobago