New Zealand posted an important 60-29 win over Scotland at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games netball tournament today.
Retaining an unchanged line-up for all but the last three minutes of the match, New Zealand built on their lead at each quarter break.
After losing to Malawi the day before, an under-pressure New Zealand responded with an encouraging outing against Scotland to keep their hopes of making the play-offs alive.
New Zealand didn’t have things all their own way - Scotland continue to improve under their coach, former New Zealand international Gail Parata.
With captain Katrina Grant leading the way, New Zealand’s intentions were clear early on.
Grant and Temalisi Fakahokotau provided a steady stream of turnover ball as they put the clamps on anything aerial from Scotland.
Centre Shannon Francois showed plenty of vision in delivering a string of long, accurate pin-point feeds into Maria Folau and Te Paea Selby-Rickit, the shooting duo powering New Zealand into a commanding lead.
After scoring two goals in the opening two minutes, Scotland were kept scoreless for the rest of the quarter as New Zealand swept to a healthy 19-2 lead.
Resuming with the same line-up, the New Zealanders faced a stiffer challenge from Scotland during the second term.
However, ever-present and energetic wing defence Samantha Sinclair remained a constant asset for the New Zealanders, who headed to half-time leading 32-13.
On attack, New Zealand remained intent on playing the game at speed where they executed a number of sharp passages of play in pushing out to a 44-21 lead at the last break.
New Zealand coach Janine Southby was clearly relieved at the turnaround in her team’s fortunes.
“We certainly knew we had let ourselves down against Malawi. The players were very honest in what they saw and what they needed to do to improve and they did that tonight.
“We got a whole more gains on defence, which was great, and had a really strong start. Unfortunately we weren’t as consistent across all four quarters as we would have liked.”