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Casey Williams - Source: Getty Images -
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Still stinging from Sunday's five-goal loss to Australia in Adelaide, the Silver Ferns today ratcheted up the intensity with a no-holds-barred training session ahead of tomorrow's second netball Test in Wellington.
Both New Zealand coach Ruth Aitken and captain Casey Williams are looking for that extra edge after the Silver Ferns faded in the closing minutes of the first Test, and both pinpointed a lift in intensity as crucial to levelling the series before Sunday's third and final Test in Auckland.
"Yesterday's session was even harder than today's, and I think we're all feeling it a bit," Williams said as the sweat-soaked Silver Ferns concluded their two-hour session at Porirua's Te Rauparaha Arena this morning.
"But it just shows the intensity we need, and we didn't have that before the first Test."
Nevertheless, the Silver Ferns started strongly, and led 36-35 going into the last 15 minutes before fading under pressure in the closing spell to concede a disappointing loss.
Williams said that fall-off had been noted, and was a focus over the last two days as the New Zealanders sought to rediscover their winning touch.
"In the past two trainings, we've really made a considerable effort in the last five minutes to keep that pressure on, but also to stay composed. It's about being aware that the game's not over until the whistle blows.
"Even though you're tired, you need to be able to perform the basics."
Williams said that meant getting the simple things right, eliminating turnovers due to basic mistakes - dropped passes, stepping, breaking the line - and leaving it to the umpires to control the rest.
Aitken agreed: "We just have to make sure we're really tidy in our skills and our basics so that we don't bring the umpire into play."
And she said although Australia's 1.96m goal keep Susan Fuhrmann had done a superb job in closing down experienced Silver Ferns shooter Irene van Dyk in the final quarter, the New Zealand fall-away in the last three or four minutes was not the fault of one player.
"We have to look at how the ball is coming down court as well. If we can get that ball to circle edge, we can keep Irene inside doing movement within the circle rather than coming out.
"The Australian defenders shut down any space, and are very much one-on-one hard up against her."
Van Dyk needed to be able to free herself from her marker, instead of trying to win a one-on-one battle, Aitken said, with the New Zealand midcourt - marshalled by Laura Langman - also playing smarter in changing the angle of the ball "instead of just trying to attack through the throat".
With their New Delhi Commonwealth Games title defence just over a month away, Aitken said it was vital the Silver Ferns put together a strong showing across four quarters tomorrow.
"We want to pick ourselves up after that loss - it was a fabulous match, there's just that last three and a half minutes I'd like to press rewind on."
You can catch the second Test between the Silver Ferns and Australia from Wellington LIVE on TV ONE from 7:30pm on Thursday night.
