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Regional | Australia

Australia will be hurting says Noeline Taurua

The Silver Ferns coach Noeline Taurua is looking for consistency following their success at the Netball World Cup before their first test of the year against the Australian Diamonds.

“Yeah I think they will be hurting,” says Taurua.

Their first test will be held at Horncastle Arena in Christchurch on Sunday, with Netball NZ confirming all tickets have been sold out. It is the first test of four in the Constellation Cup which has been dominated by Australia the last seven years.

New Zealand won the series two games to one in 2012 in which Taurua was the assistant coach to Waimarama Taumaunu.

“On the scoreboard it's great we've got the Netball World Cup but we're number two ranking at this stage. Really where we need to go in netball is really getting that dominance behind our game and being consistent in that.”

Last year the Silver Ferns suffered five losses from their six games against their arch rivals. However, the team was going through a new look and purpose under Taurua, who only signed up as coach for the Ferns 11 months before the world cup.

“History has shown that the Diamonds have been able to do that and they're not one hit wonders and that's the realm we need to get into.”

Chasing Great 2016 Trailer / Youtube 

Australian Diamonds Coach Lisa Alexander told Te Ao Māori News she watched Richie McCaws: Chasing Great on her flight to New Zealand. The idea of bouncing back from their world cup loss is all in good time.

“They'll (NZ) get confidence from the World Cup but I know that Noeline will remind them that we're going to come back and hit them pretty hard.”

“We're looking forward to the challenge and can't wait really. The fact that New Zealand has fallen in love with the Silver Ferns again is great.”

Sunshine Coast Lightning / Facebook

Captain Laura Langman who's just signed up for another year with the Sunshine Coast Lightning in the Suncorp Super Netball competition says her national side have a long way to go.

“It feels foggy I can tell you that. I feel the intent feels really good and the clarity or our willingness to really try new things has really heightened and I think that's really encouraging.”

Silver Ferns team training at Apollo Centre in Christchurch

For the past two days the Ferns training included specialist’s coaches such as Yvonne Willering and setting up a foundation for future prospects.

“We've watched a few sequences of play, probably to remind us where we were at and we've discussed how we would like to use that as our new ground zero so to speak,” says Langman.