Connection And Consistency Key For Pulse Against Tactix

Maximising their own strike power is top of the agenda for Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse in seeking to resurrect their ANZ Premiership league netball fortunes against the Tactix in Christchurch on Sunday.

The defending champions slipped to their first loss of the season in the latest round, forced on to the backfoot through much of the match and left to play catch-up against the well-performed Stars.

The Tactix are not short of their own strike power with a wealth of international talent littered across their court, the Pulse hoping to have ironed out areas of concern and put themselves in a position to play off the front foot.

``Consistency within games is one of our big pieces, so the ability to find the task, start really strongly and then hold that connection with each other is what I want to see from us,’’ Pulse coach Yvette McCausland-Durie said.

``So, it’s a matter of how do we play to our strengths, how do we maximise that rather than just waiting for the opposition to come to us and trying to respond.

``Playing catch-up for a whole game is very hard.’’

The Stars were expert in denying any latitude, exposing chinks that had surfaced in the Pulse’s opening two wins but, who on this occasion, were unable to turn the tide.

``There were a number of things that weren’t a surprise and which we’ve been poor at in the previous two games but we’ve had the ability to be able to get away with it,’’ McCausland-Durie said.

``There were a number of aspects, our turnover to score and our centre pass efficiency hadn’t been great in the previous two matches but we’ve been just slightly better than the opposition. So, there’s a number of things that we’ve been working on and they’ve remained at the forefront but they got punished in the last game.

``We just got really disconnected and away from our tasks which makes you lose confidence in what you’re doing and then you try other things. It wasn’t anywhere on the court, in particular, we just weren’t at our best in any area.

``In general, it was a good learning curve for them all. It just needed everyone to step up and do their bit.’’

The coach praised her midcourt of Whitney Souness, Maddy Gordon and Fa’amu Ioane, who worked tirelessly while reinventing themselves in finding ways to get ball into the circle which proved a real struggle at times. And while well beaten in then end, there were opportunities to be had.

``We fought back well,’’ she said. ``We got within one at one point and we were in the fight. Getting a (bonus) point was the goal but then we fell away again in the back end.

``At the time, the players were really gutted with themselves in terms of a lot of it being fixable and within our control, so it’s really frustrating but (after a session of analysis) eyes are already on the next task and bouncing back.’’

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