Goal attack Tiana Metuarau is a key cog in an ever-improving Pulse attack line. Photo: PhotoWellington
Building into some quality form, Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse are eagerly awaiting their ANZ Premiership netball league re-match against the Northern Mystics in Wellington on Sunday.
The match marks the halfway point of the campaign, this year’s season being reduced to just two rounds and putting the squeeze on the importance of winning each outing.
The Pulse and Mystics sit second and third, respectively, on the points table, equal on points but with the Pulse enjoying a better goal differential. The Mystics outshone the Pulse by 11 goals three weeks ago but a lot has changed since then.
``One less round has certainly made the situation a little bit more intense,’’ play-making Pulse goal attack Tiana Metuarau said.
``You don’t get another round to save yourselves, so every game is a must-win and we want to put ourselves in the best possible position for whatever the end of the season will look like……and put ourselves in a good position for the business end.
``We want to go all the way, of course, and we’ve been chipping away since the first game, so we’re excited for this weekend.’’
With the Pulse’s attack line of Maddy Gordon, Whitney Souness, Metuarau and Amelia Walmsley playing a full 60 minutes together for the first time since 2023 in last week’s match-up against the Steel, the signs for further progress are encouraging.
And they are confident the necessary improvements and adjustments will happen second-time around against the Mystics, who have their own problems with uncertainty around the hand injury sustained by key shooter Donnell Wallam.
``During our pre-season we were so disrupted and a huge portion of our starting seven were on managed loads or weren’t playing at all and I’ve only played about six or seven ANZ games in the last two years post my injury last year, so like anything, the more you do it, the better you get at it,’’ Metuarau said.
``And so with the more game time we’re getting as a team and as a group, I feel like we’re making huge improvements and progress to be heading in the right direction.’’
The Pulse got the confidence-booster they were after against the Steel, negating the influence of what can be an intimidating Invercargill crowd and showing character to come back from a strong third quarter surge from the home side to finish with a bang when posting a 25-goal winning margin.
``We all did our jobs really well, and that’s what netball is. If you do your job well, you should win and that’s what happened at the weekend,’’ Metuarau said.
``Scoring a couple of super shots in the third quarter gave us a bit of confidence as well. With the new rules, anything within 10 goals is a somewhat pressured situation. You only have to score five two-pointers to catch up, so it’s a different dynamic but definitely to head into the last quarter with over 10 points was really good for us.’’
A dynamic on-court presence, Metuarau, 24, notched 100 games for the Pulse earlier in the season, playing a total of 119 so far during her career after also spending 2021 with the Steel, and nowadays is somewhat of a veteran after bursting on to the scene as a 16-year-old schoolgirl in 2017.
Happy with her form and how she’s tracking this season, Metuarau had her best super shot return with five from eight against the Steel and while enjoying the associated buzz has some reservations.
``I’m still very much in the mindset that it changes the game because teams can score twice as many points with doing half the amount of work type of thing,’’ she said.
``The frustrating thing is if you’re able to get a buffer, then the opposition start hitting all these twos, it takes away from that traditional piece of the game, all the intricacies and things that go with it, so that’s the only thing I have against it.
``But it is exciting and it definitely makes you feel good when you knock down some twos.’’
After successive weekends playing in Auckland followed by the long haul south to Invercargill, the Pulse can’t wait to play their first match in Wellington and their much-loved home at TSB Arena on Sunday.
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