Australia Lifts To Get To Decider

The Age

Saturday November 17, 2007

By Linda Pearce, Auckland

AUSTRALIA has qualified for yet another world championship netball final. Of course it has.

England's bold talk of an upset brought only a 51-33 defeat, and Australia tonight will start a warm favourite against a New Zealand team given an awful fright by Jamaica in the white-knuckle semi-final that followed.

Recovery will be a factor, as not only will the Silver Ferns be feeling the effects of a tense 59-49 scrap that was alive well into the final quarter, but Australia's fifth game of the championships was also its most testing by far.

Not that there seemed any real prospect of an English boilover after a decisive second term from Norma Plummer's team, but the challenge now is to nurse sore and weary bodies through one last game.

"They certainly made us work for it, but I think the pressure overall just won out tonight when they were sheer dog-tired," Plummer said. "How you pick a three, two and one (votes) out of my group, I just don't know. I just had some outstanding kids on that court tonight. It was fantastic."

Yet Plummer does not expect the physical nature of the contest to take too much of a toll.

"We've worked really hard for this and we've worked really hard that we can back-up," Plummer said.

"You're now in a world championship grand final and that has to give you a huge boost. Australia lost it last time to New Zealand and I wasn't the coach then but we're hopeful. Any team that wins it will have earned it."

Helped by its superior shooting, England was within one goal at the end of an intense and defensive first quarter.

The break did not come until the second, which Australia won 14-6 - Mo'onia Gerrard exceptional at goal defence and the indefatigable Laura and Natalie von Bertouch ruling the midcourt as England's penalty and error count began to mount.

A worthy opponent in patches, England could not sustain the effort, especially in attack, where a superior conversion rate could not compensate for a lack of volume amid by close-checking of Gerrard and Liz Ellis. The closest England got after a half-time reshuffle was an eight-goal deficit in term three.

Indeed, Australia's margin would have been greater if not for its lowest shooting percentage of the week - 69 to England's 80 overall.

"Who gives a damn because we've just won," said Plummer, who neither knew nor, clearly, cared, but was pleased that Cath Cox held her nerve after a shaky patch in the second quarter to finish with 32 goals from 48 under some sustained pressure from Geva Mentor and Sonia Mkoloma. Sharelle McMahon's return was 19 from 26, but, as ever, she produced when it counted.

"We were nervous about playing England, they've had a pretty good season, but we can't sit back; we've still got 24 hours of this tournament to go," captain Liz Ellis said. "To win a world championship final, you have to be consistent, you can't let yourself go down in any quarter, you can't let yourself feel the tired legs, you can't let yourself drop at any stage."

Wing defence Selina Gilsenan proved her fitness for the final by coming on for the last quarter, her first since spraining her ankle against Scotland on Tuesday. Gilsenan has been an important member of the team that has won six of its past nine Tests against NZ, the world and Commonwealth champion.

The host also will choose from a full list after scraping past a brave Jamaica. The Silver Ferns struggled to contain prolific teenage shooter Romelda Aitken and trailed for most of the first three quarters, finding their groove only late in the game and appearing almost dangerously reliant on Irene van Dyk (41 goals at 93 per cent).

The Australians would have been well satisfied with most of what they saw.

"The final tomorrow is going to be pretty tough - it'll be a step up again," NZ assistant coach Leigh Gibbs said. "(Australia's) lines are different, more direct, while they do play extremely fast. It is a different kind of timing, so while we'll have to make adjustments, the good thing is that our players have had a lot of practice at that this year."

And so ended the penultimate day, when the best match of the tournament delivered a third consecutive Australia-NZ final. It was the one we had all anticipated and which now, inevitably, has been confirmed.

© 2007 The Age

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