Australia netball coach Lisa Alexander has revealed how a New Zealand sporting legend inspired her team to victory over the Silver Ferns on Wednesday night.
After losing the Constellation Cup series opener by one goal in Christchurch on Sunday, the Diamonds responded with a 48-42 win in Auckland to level the series at 1-1 with two games remaining.
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The match was Alexander's 100th test in charge of Australia and she was determined to celebrate the milestone match with a win, so she took a leaf out of former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw's book and it certainly had an effect on the team.
"I threw out the script for my pre-game and they were all looking at me," Alexander said. "I did something different, because I wanted to demonstrate to the players that they needed to be brave out there.
"We were inspired a bit by Richie [McCaw] weren't we?"
"McCaw's movie [Chasing Great], we had a little clip of that... when he talks about the moments, and when Ceri [Evans], the forensic psychiatrist, talks about how he worked with Richie and we were very struck by that, how inspirational that is.
"So I did a poem in the rooms and I did a meditation - a breathing technique and centring. Just talking about a few things that are really positive, because that's what you have to get, you have to get that positive mindset to perform.
The series now heads to Australia for the final two matches.
"We've put ourselves into a great position for this for the rest of the series," Alexander said. "We can go home and land, and feel like winners."
The third Constellation Cup test takes place in Sydney on Sunday.
Join us for live updates of Silver Ferns v Australia from 3pm Sunday
AAP
