Led
by a razor-sharp midcourt, New Zealand notched their biggest win over Australia in 14 years and opened the door to regaining the Constellation Cup, although there are still three matches to play in the series.
New Zealand have won the silverware just twice in 13 series - the last time in 2021 - but produced the sort of performance coach Dame Noeline Taurua has often spoken of but not seen delivered in recent years.
The last time the Silver Ferns beat their transtasman rivals by this many was in 2010, when they prevailed 59-40 in Wellington.
Victory was set up by a dominant second quarter, won 17-9 to power the home team 34-25 ahead at the break.
Australia reduced the difference to seven goals after the third quarter and came within five in the early stages of the final stanza before New Zealand found a second wind and surged home, winning the closing stages 13-4.
Taurua maintained the same seven on court throughout the contest right until the final minutes, when centre Maddy Gordon was replaced in the midcourt by Claire O’Brien.
Gordon was one of the stars of the match, along with wing attack Kimiora Poi, with both providing zip through the court and feeding accurately to shooters Grace Nweke and Ameliaranne Ekenasio.
Nweke landed 50 of 53 shots while Ekanasio’s shooting support comprised 14 goals from 15 shots.
Australia were placed under pressure in possession and conceded an uncharacteristic 16 turnovers in general play, with their team putting up 62 shots in total, compared to New Zealand’s 68.
Goal defence Karin Burger and wing defence Kate Heffernan led the way on defence, with Australian coach Stacey Marinkovic forced to change her lineup through each of the first three quarters in a bid to find a better attacking formula.
Captain Ekenasio told Sky Sport the performance was a brilliant way to respond to the 2-1 home series loss to England earlier this month.
“I’m real proud of the group, we’ve had a tough couple of weeks and I feel like that what we’ve been putting out in training so I’m stoked,” she said.
“We’ve been through some pretty heavy stuff in the last couple of days and had to become super-vulnerable with each other. Getting real with each other has been the game-changer - we played for each other tonight which was the difference.”
Diamonds counterpart Liz Watson had few excuses.
“They obviously played extremely well and we didn’t to be honest, so lots to learn from that game,” Watson said. “There’s obviously three to go so we’re looking for a better performance next time.”
The second test is in Auckland on Wednesday, followed by matches in Perth and Melbourn
