Sport

Silver Ferns nervous ahead of Fiji test

16:07 pm on 23 July 2015

Silver Ferns coach Wai Taumaunu admits she has a few nerves ahead of what should be a straightforward win for New Zealand in the team's one-off Test against Fiji in Wellington on Thursday night.

While they are unlikely to be tested by the Fijians, Taumaunu is keen to see how her rejigged mid-court and attacking circle shape up.

Given they only have three tests before next month's world cup in Sydney, Taumaunu knows they need to get things right quickly.

"It's a first hit out so it's nice it's in a smaller environment; we can try new things and that's what we've been doing at practice," she said.

"I've seen [Fiji] - they've just come from the Pacific Games, where they won quite convincingly. They looked very similar to the team we played earlier in January but clearly quite a lot better.

"They've had a lot more time together, they shot very accurately and I thought they performed very well in beating Papua New Guinea."

Wai Taumaunu concedes she's nervous ahead of the test against Fiji. Photo: Photosport

Taumaunu knows the expectation is that the Silver Ferns will win convincingly and she's not shying away from that - but said she had not set a winning margin she would like to see.

"No, not a set scoring goal but certainly some rations in terms of how many times we get the ball into the circle and the percentage of shots, those sorts of things... If we get good flow on, the score will flow," she said.

The Silver Ferns' other two tests ahead of the world champs are against South Africa on Sunday in Hamilton and again in Auckland on Sunday.