The Silver Ferns need to work on starting games well against world champions Australia, in order to turn the table on recent results.
The New Zealand side has just returned home from the quad series and a two-match effort against Wales across South Africa, England and Wales.
Wins against South Africa, England and Wales were over-shadowed by a first-up loss to Australia in Durban, in which the Ferns struggled early before a late fight-back saw the match end with a 57-50 loss.
Coach Janine Southby was happy with their form in the last four matches on tour, but said the loss to Australia wasn’t good enough and they need to front up from start to finish against their trans-tasman rivals.
“Obviously we were disappointed in our first up loss to,” said Southby.
“We know that’s not good enough, and we know that the preparation leading into it was really challenged around time together.”
“We need to start really strongly and make sure we are staying in touch from the start……the next thing would be to cut out our error rate, while maintaining the style of play we want to play.”
With another quad series back home in August and the Constellation Cup in October, Southby said the tour was great for team unity and will prepare them well for the upcoming series.
“A tour like this really tests your resilience and your ability to deal with things quickly and move on so it doesn’t become a big issue, and I think the girls have done that really well over the course of the tour.
“I think we made lots of progress in little ways for us and that’s what we were looking to address on this tour.”
Meanwhile the return to netball of former captain Casey Kopua could see her added to the squad for the internationals later in the year.
Kopua, who has sat out the last 12 months after having her first child, is scheduled to compete for the Bay of Plenty Magic in the re-jigged ANZ Premiership and Southby said she would definitely come into the mix if she makes herself available.
“With Casey we want her to get back into ANZ [Premiership], get back on court again and then take it from there, so I know Casey is really keen to take one step at a time.”
“The experience she would bring into the group would be invaluable, so certainly no doors are shut at this point and time.”
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