New Zealand beat England 61-58 at the Copper Box Arena, London, despite the Vitality Roses putting on an impressive defensive performance on head coach Jess Thirlby’s birthday.
The first game of this three-Test series was England’s first game since February, compared to New Zealand’s nine games in two months, which evidently has given them that crucial experience going into this weekend.
However, the scoreline undersells the performance from the home side who impressed in both defence and attack in a game that really only came down to small mistakes.
“It’s difficult. You look at the numbers, and they tell us we’ve done better than we normally do in our centre pass to goal,” Thirlby said.
“And Helen [Housby] was outstanding with how she fronted up at the post, but it wasn’t pretty at times.
“We expected it to be hard and then we didn’t finish quarters off, it was just moments.
“So I think tomorrow we don’t have to overreact, of course, it stings and we’re here to try and win but the margins are tiny and it was moments where I we just need to smarten up and take some responsibility for the sloppy things.
“I think we could have avoided an offside on our centre pass, a shooter to shoot the ball when we’ve got a penalty pass or shot, you know.
“These are things the girls will know and already saying they’re just costly and it did cost us the win tonight, but tomorrow’s another day, we look forward to the challenge.”
Funmi Fadoju impressed against the tall New Zealand side, flying through the air to earn multiple interceptions
Both sides gave the ball away 15 times throughout the game, but the Silver Ferns were more successful in feeding the ball to the shooters and converting points.
One of the first turnovers of the game came from debutant Jaz Brown as goalkeeper, who played a majority of the game until she was substituted for Razia Quashie in the fourth quarter.
Brown really shone throughout the game alongside the flying Funmi Fadoju, who despite being six inches shorter, posed New Zealand goal shooter Grace Nweke, who stands at six foot three, a real challenge.
On the other end of the court, Housby and Liv Tchine proved to be a formidable duo as they fed off each other’s confidence as the time ticked on, taking shots at the goal from further and further away.
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Tamsin Greenway discusses New Zealand’s coaching drama and England’s confidence following last year’s victories, which have set the stage for an intense Roses vs Silver Ferns Test series this weekend
New Zealand head coach Yvette McCausland-Durie said: “I think we had opportunities to settle a lot earlier, a lot of ball, but the defence of England, they really put pressure on you in terms of where that placement opportunity is.
“We really wanted to play a little bit flatter, but I just thought Grace took some amazing ball in there today, and she’s just so solid.
“And defensively, they worked hard to try and confuse space at that end, so I thought it was a really quality match from both teams.
“For us, it’s really the finesse [we need to work on], the finishing pieces, our organisation in terms of our centre-pass first and second phase, and just to be really calm when we’ve got ball in hand.”
The two teams will play again tomorrow for the second game of the series, live on Sky Sports Mix with forward centre pass at 3pm, they will then travel to Manchester for the final fixture on Wednesday.
