Aussie U21’s defeat Kiwi counterparts

Australia’s 21 and Under team has avenged last year’s semi-final defeat at the World Youth Championships by defeating New Zealand’s under-21s in the first of a two-match Test series in Brisbane tonight.

The Australians gave coach Lisa Alexander a perfect start with a 48-36 win over their great rivals in front of a strong crowd at the Insports Cornubia centre in Brisbane’s south.

The match started nervously for the Australians when hometown girl Laura McMeniman spilt the very first pass of the match but the home team settled quickest to charge into an early lead.

McMeniman showed her early fumble was easily forgotten as she and goal defence Johannah Curran snared some vital early intercepts to halt New Zealand’s early raids.

Those turnovers allowed the home team to take advantage and despite a brief period with the scores at five-all, Melbourne Allied Pickfords Kestrel Caitlin Thwaites made her physical presence count up front to give the Australians a 12-10 lead by quarter-time.

The Kiwis responded at the start of the second quarter forcing a number of turnovers and snatching a 13-12 lead.

But Australia quickly settled and then hit back in style, slick passing in the final third allowing them to grab back the lead and then extend it to a six point gap.

Wing attack Kimberlee Green was key to the revival, linking well with Thwaites and goal attack Kate Beveridge as the Australians went into the halftime break 22-16 up.

Both coaches then rang the changes in the third term with Sydney Swift Vanessa Ware coming onto the court at wing attack while Green moved into centre and Renae Hallinan took a break.

For the Kiwis, the impressive Jessica Tuki was replaced with Jade Topia while Hayley Crofts swapped wing defence for centre with Rawinia Everitt.

The Australian changes worked better as the home team took full control in the third term, taking their lead into double figures for the first time as they got it out to 12 at one stage of the quarter.

New Zealand shooters Paula Griffin and Topia combined well though in the final stages of the quarter to bring the difference back to ten by the final change.

But Australia were in cruise control and closed out the match in style with Brisbane-raised AIS Canberra Darters star McMeniman taking a breather for the final quarter as Hallinen returned to the court at wing defence.

The Kiwis tried but with Thwaites shooting at 76% for the night with 31 goals from 41 attempts and Beveridge supporting well with 17 goals from 21 attempts, the home side sealed the match to take a one-nil lead in the series.

For New Zealand, Griffin shot well, scoring 26 goals from 32 attempts at 81 per cent while Tuki and Topia scored eight and two goals respectively.

McMeniman said she was pleased to have had a winning start to the series in front of her hometown crowd.

“It was really very exciting to play here in front of a Queensland crowd with faces I know cheering me on,” she said.

“New Zealand had a very different line-up to the last time we played them and we’ve got plenty of fresh new faces as well so we really just tried to focus on the things we could control and our own game.

“Caitlin Thwaites and Kate Beveridge are good figures to have in the forward line, they’re big and strong and it took a while for the Kiwis to learn to combat that which allowed us to settle quicker than them.”

New Zealand coach Yvettte McCausland-Durie gave seven squad members their first taste of international netball and said despite the loss her team had learnt plenty from the game.

“We played well at times but we lost our way a bit in the third quarter and never really recovered,” she said.

“I thought the experience was the thing, there were a lot of girls out there new to international netball and gaining that experience is the key for us on this series.”

Game two of the series will be played at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday night as the curtain-raiser to the first Test between Australia and New Zealand.