Silver Ferns suffer upset loss to inexperienced England in series opener

At Wolfbrook Arena, Christchurch: England 55 (Sasha Glasgow: 38/41, Sophie Drakeford-Lewis: 15/19, Berri Neil: 2/3) Silver Ferns 54 (Maia Wilson: 9/11, Ameliaranne Ekenasio: 39/41, Tiana Metuarau: 6/7) 1Q: 12-13, HT: 29-23, 3Q: 43-37.

So much for an England B side.

The Silver Ferns’ World Cup woes continued in Christchurch on Sunday afternoon, suffering an embarrassing 55-54 loss to an understrength England team.

The Ferns were looking to use the Taini Jamison Tropy series to banish their Netball World Cup pain and show their fans what they could really do. Dame Noeline Taurua’s side stumbled to a fourth place finish in Cape Town in August – their worst World Cup finish in the 16 edition history of the tournament.

Instead, the opening test descended into a horror show for the Ferns. To their credit, they rallied in the fourth quarter, after trailing by as many as 10 goals in the third quarter, but left their run too late.

Take nothing away from England’s inexperienced test squad, who deserved their win and frustrated the Ferns for most of the game.

This was some victory for former Silver Fern Liana Leota, who made her head coaching debut for England. Leota, who is a technical coach for England Netball, is stepping in for usual head coach Jess Thirlby in this series.

England’s victory means the Ferns head to Wellington for Wednesday’s second test in Porirua, needing to stay alive with a win.

After a tough World Cup, Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio, who missed Friday’s training session with illness, carried the load in the shooting end. Ekenasio was superb for the Ferns in the losing cause, landing 39 goals from 41 attempts.

England goal shoot Sasha Glasgow was outstanding for her team, converting 38 from 41, including several crunch goals late in the game.

Much was made in the lead up to this series of England Netball’s decision to send a watered down squad.

None of England’s main 12-player squad from the Netball World Cup made the trip with those players on rest and recovery programmes back home.

New Zealand’s squad for this match boasted 416 test caps of experience, compared to just 56 for England – 23 which came from Sophie Drakeford-Lewis.

Defender Halimat Adio was in the rare position of making her debut for England and also captaining the side.

England certainly didn’t play like a bunch of second stringers though.

They were able to unsettle the Ferns and force them into attacking mistakes. The Roses stuck with the Ferns, trailing by just one goal (13-12) after the opening term.

Taurua clearly wasn’t happy with what she saw in the first 15 minutes. She went to her bench injecting Maddy Gordon into the action at centre for Kate Heffernan to begin the second term.

England then hit the front for the first time in the game (21-20), five minutes out from halftime. That promptly saw the introduction of Tactix hometown favourite Jane Watson at goal keep for Kelly Jury.

The Roses’ lead quickly pushed out to five goals late in the half (29-23), causing plenty of concerned looks in the sellout Wolfbrook Arena crowd.

It was all England to finish the first half, netting four unanswered goals and outscoring the stunned Ferns 8-2 to take a six-goal lead into halftime.

Taurua was doesn’t with the changes. Maia Wilson made way for Tiana Metuarau at halftime with Ekenasio moving to goal shoot.

The resilient Roses never buckled in the second half, absorbing every mini-run from the Ferns and handling the pressure.

For a side with limited test caps they made international netball look easy, calmly taking the ball to goal and generating defensive turnovers.

At three-quarter time, the Ferns still had significant work to do, trailing by six goals (43-37).

The Ferns finally clicked into gear in the final quarter, trimming England’s advantage to one goal with just over four minutes left.

New Zealand roared home in the dying minutes and a great ecsape looked possible, but the Roses didn’t flinch.