Rookie shooter Grace Nweke has shown her international potential, imposing her presence on South Africa during the Silver Ferns' 54-43 victory at the Northern Quad Series.
After opening their tournament with losses to trans-Tasman rivals Australia and hosts England, the reigning world champions desperately sought a positive result to build confidence in a squad missing several key veterans.
They got that against the Proteas, who have only ever beaten the NZ women once - famously, at the 1995 world championships semi-finals, led by future Ferns legend Irene Van Dyk.
New Zealand wasted little time stamping their mark on proceedings, scoring five unanswered goals to open a 15-9 advantage in the opening quarter. That margin doubled by halftime (31-19) and almost reached 20 late in the third quarter, but was waved off by umpires, when Nweke stepped out, trying to deflect the ball to Tiana Metuarau.
But the Proteas dominated from that point, taking back three goals before the end of the period and then outscoring their opponents 16-11 over the final 15 minutes - their first won quarter of the tournament.
"I'm not too sure about that performance," admits coach Dame Noeline Taurua. "There were some good patches and, defensively, they turned over some good ball.
"Probably what I'm a bit disappointed about was our basic skillsets to some degree. We need to be better and even though we did win, I think we should have won by more.
"There are some things some individuals need to tidy up and we'll talk about that, and come back tomorrow and try to be better."
Both sides were guilty of turning over way too much ball, but without the intense pressure exerted by the Aussies and Brits, Nweke was able to find her feet at this level, after promising so much in the domestic ANZ Premiership for so long.
She looked far more assured, shooting faultless until the final seconds of the second quarter and missing only once again in the third, before she was subbed off.
Fellow rookie Metuarau also showed some clever touches, when she entered the contest at halftime, while combeack defender Phoenix Karaka combined expertly with Sulu Fitzpatrick for the entire 60 minutes, eventually earning Player of the Match honours.
"We've got some others that we'll see what we can do to consolidate," says Dame Noleine. "I'm really pleased with both Sulu and Phoenix coming back in.
"For Phoenix, that was her first game for a while and Sulu has had a bit of knee injury, so we'll get a lot of confidence from that.Defensively, they had quite a nice combination and rhythm in the circle."
Dame Noeline was also able to hand centre Mila Reuelu-Buchanan an international debut.
"Fantastic," assesses Taurua. "I thought she did really well - she added a bit of pepper in there and her feeds to the circle were quite nice."
New Zealand have missed the tournament final, which will be contested by Australia and England, and will take on the Proteas again on Thursday (NZ time).
NZ 54 (Nweke 30/32, Metuarau 15/16, Wilson 9/13) South Africa 43 (Venter 31/36, Rademan 7/10, Burger 5/5)
Join us at 6:30am Thursday for live updates of the Silver Ferns v South Africa Quad Series playoff
