In front of a passionate Auckland crowd, the Silver Ferns have delivered another dominant display to go match point against Australia in a series they’ve only ever won twice in 13 years.
The result marks the Ferns’ eighth-consecutive home victory against the Aussies dating back to March 2021, as they chase redemption following their home series defeat to England earlier this month.
Coach Dame Noeline Taurua stuck with the same starting seven for match two, and it took them just 19 minutes to gain a 10-goal advantage. A lead they maintained for most of the remainder of the match.
The third quarter was the only one in which the Australians outscored the hosts; going into the fourth they still trailed by nine points.
Classy and crisp feeding into the goal circle was the difference on the night between the transtasman rivals, with Kiwi goal-shoot Grace Nweke landing 47 of 51 shots, while goal-attack Ameliaranne Ekenasio, netted 16 from 18.
The fans of Tāmaki-Makaurau erupted every time Nweke received a long ball under the hoop from midcourters Maddie Gordon and Kimiora Poi. Skipper Ekenasio also had her fair share of clean feeds into her goal-circle counterpart.
Grace Nweke claims the ball within shooting range for New Zealand. Photo / Photosport
Things were different at the other end of the court where the Aussies struggled to find their shooters and to break the hold of the impressive touch-tight marking by New Zealand’s Karin Burger and Kelly Jackson. The pair caused many issues for the Diamonds’ attack, including forcing the goal-attack to do most of the shooting from length by double-teaming goal-shoot Sophie Garbin.
Wing-attack Claire O’Brien, a 2024 debutant, was New Zealand’s most-used substitute taking the court for 18 minutes of the contest and going on to claim five assists and an intercept.
Fellow newbie and goal-defence Parris Mason also earned minutes late in the fourth quarter, with veteran shooter Maia Wilson getting a couple of minutes at the end.
Ekenasio said the big back-to-back wins provide confidence heading to Australian territory.
“We know we haven’t won there for a long time...But the way that we’ve started now gives us that energy that we can carry over and the confidence that we can carry over and how we’ve continued to build across the game,” Ekenasio said.
“So I’m actually really looking forward to it. The energy that we’re bringing into the team at the moment is that we just have to go out there and fight instead of just being a bit worried.”
Taurua however is acting with some caution: “Every time we’ve gone over there for the third test, we’ve been walloped.”
“[Australia have] become really physical and sometimes the umpires sort of change up as well so we’ve got to be smart in what we do,” Taurua said.
“This is a big test for us and it’s pretty cool. If we’re going to [win] it, now is the time to do it.”
New Zealand heads to Perth to play their rivals in match three on Sunday before the final clash in Melbourne on Wednesday.
If the series draws two all, the cup will be decided through extra time in the final clash.
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a full-time journalist.
