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National

Silver Ferns kick season off with a bang

The Silver Ferns have kicked their 2020 season off with a bang and have solidified their World Championship title with a convincing 64-48 win over England in Nottingham this morning.

This is the Ferns highest score against the Vitality Roses since 2016 and coach Dame Noeline Taurua says despite the change of dynamic in the team she is pleased with the result.

“I’m really happy with the result, the performance overall, the standard that we put out there and the transition of the new players,” Taurua said.

Ameliaranne Ekenasio has secured her first win for the Ferns as captain in the inaugural Vitality Nations Cup.

"I actually couldn't be prouder of the girls tonight it was a good start definitely a lot of things to work on but hey a lot of great things out there so yeah good place for us to start."

Today's match set the teams standard for the remainder of the competition, one that Ekenasio says they will be building on.

"We just want to build on that every single game so it will be pretty much we just take it one step at a time," says Ekenasio.

With a convincing lead, Taurua had an opportunity to change it up a little which resulted in players being moved around on both sides of the court.

Ekenasio says, "We need to give everyone a really good chance in these kinds of games to see where we are at and see what we can do and just really good for us to start a full year cycle off like getting new girls blooded and giving everyone a really good shot."

Today's game has also identified where the team's weaknesses and strengths are.

"We kind of know where we are sitting now and can see what we've got to work on in real-time."

However, Ekenasio knows the upcoming games won't be a walk in the park.

"it's going to be a tough one we haven't played Jamaica for a little while they've got a lot of height in there as well too so yeah we just need to probably go back to the drawing board and really back our way how we play kiwi style of netball."

The Silver Ferns are set to take on Jamaica this Thursday.