• The Silver Ferns have been beaten 53-51 by an Australian side missing a number of key players - including sharp shooter Catherine Cox who withdrew with injury just before the game.

    Today the Silver Ferns arrived in Auckland, knowing that they have just two days to avenge their loss.

    "It's never easy against Australia, but we know that we didn't quite have our best game, Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken says. "But we believe the platform was there and now it's up to us to just get stuck in and do it."
    Defender Casey Williams received a nasty cut just five minutes into the match, but was quickly patched up and played on.

    "I was a bit freaked out when it first happened," Williams says. "Vision to my right was a little bit harder to see, but I had to keep going for the rest of the team."

    Despite the loss of Catherine Cox, the Australian rookies performed well - particularly goal shoot Kate Beveridge, who replaced Cox with ease.

    The ferns experimented with positional changes, with Laura Langman at wing attack and Irene van Dyk at goal attack. However, their weakness came from an inability to capitalise on turnovers and only scored in eight of their 22 opportunities.

    The Ferns have now lost six of their last seven games against Australia

    The Silver Ferns are not ruling out further changes ahead of the second test against Australia tomorrow night.

    The Ferns lost the first test against the Aussies, where they switched specialist goal shoot Irene van Dyk to goal attack, and Laura Langman to wing attack.

    And still reeling from Wednesday's loss, the Ferns have been dealt another blow - a training injury to Joline Henry.

    "She just got the finger on the end, needs a little bit of work," says coach Ruth Aitken, who has not ruled her out of tomorrow's match.

    But a relieved Aitken still has the task of turning around Wednesday's result. The Silver Ferns must capitalise on their turnovers and deal with positional changes, something they did not do well in Christchurch.

    "It's about wearing them down and keeping on our task," says Aitken. "We didn't take that last step that was needed."

    Which could spell even more changes to the team's line up as they attempt to plug holes in the attacking end.

    Changes would come as no surprise to the Australian team. Coach Norma Plummer is anticipating them, even though she won't be doing the same.

    "Game two, different tactics might be called," says Plummer. "Got to be prepared for it because of the limited time they've been in with the group."

    Australian sharp shooter Catherine Cox took full part in training today, and she is expected to be declared fit on Today Saturday 20/09/2008 on TV1 for New Zealand