The Aussie Stingers have sent a warning to their international rivals after dominating Japan 17-6 in their opening game of the FINA World League Intercontinental tournament in Auckland New Zealand.
Proving their depth in offense, eight different players scored during the encounter as a strong opening half set the Australians up for victory, asJapan wasunable to mount a challenge to the lead throughout the match.
Despite the win, coach Greg McFadden was cautious in his praise of the teams’ efforts, saying they will be looking to make further improvements ahead of their second game against hosts New Zealand tomorrow.
“I’m fairly happy, it’s our first game and the Japanese are a hard team to play against. They don’t play conventional water polo, they’re very mobile and drive a lot and you need to be on your toes, so we played well in that regard,” McFadden said.
“It was our first game with Gemma (Beadsworth) back in the team, so we need to work on our communication as a team, and adjust to playing together again, which will help mitigate our silly mistakes.”
The Stingers opened the scoring with 2012 Olympic bronze medallists Holly Lincoln-Smith and Nicola Zagame combining to score, while 2013 FINA World Championship silver medallist Isobel Bishop and two time Olympic bronze medallist Gemma Beadsworth (WAIS) also scored for Australia to lead 3-1 at the first break.
It was the second term that would prove to be the game breaker for the Stingers as they scored five goals to Japan’s two, fellow 2013 FINA World Championships silver medallist Hannah Buckling scored twice for the Aussies to lead 8-3 at the main break.
Although it was another strong passage of play in the third stanza for Australia, Japan found a way to score back to back goals mid way through the period.Despite their efforts,it wasn’t enough to make significant inroads into the Stingers’ lead, which extended to 12-5 at the final change.
Needing nothing short of an almighty comeback in the fourth quarter, Japan was unable to slow the strike rate of the Stingers, who scored a further five goals from five different players to win the game 17-6.
Stingers captain Rowie Webster was pleased with the result, echoing McFadden to say that more game time as a team will only help to eliminate errors.
“We had a good result in the end. Our game plan had been to defend well to keep Japan to a low score,” Webster said.
“While we probably didn’t achieve our defensive objectives as hoped, we haven’t played a lot of international water polo together, so the win will be confidence boosting ahead of our second game.”
The Aussies Stingers’ next opponent at the FINA World League Intercontinental tournament will be hosts New Zealand, with the game scheduled for 3.30pm Perth time.
WAIS athlete Zoe Arancini scored twice for Australia in their win, whilst goalkeeper Lilian Hedges joins Gemma Beadsworth in the Stingers squad.
-WaterPoloAus
