Not a good weekend for the New Zealand trans-Tasman netball competition teams with the Central Pulse and the Southern Steel the latest to fall to defeats.
The Pulse's Robyn Broughton brought up her 100th trans-Tasman coaching assignment. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The two New Zealand sides were beaten by Australian teams last night with Steel falling to the Vixens 63-54 in Melbourne before the Pulse were edged 51-58 by the West Coast Fever in Wellington.
The Fever maintain their unbeaten record in Wellington.
In an epic contest, the Fever chalked up their seventh win to remain the benchmark in the competition but were forced to repel a relentless challenge from the home team.
In her 100th trans-Tasman coaching assignment, Robyn Broughton was left unrewarded but her Pulse team did deliver their best performance of the season after patchy recent form.
However, the loss leaves the team from the capital still struggling in fourth place in the New Zealand conference.
The Pulse's main area of concern was their dipping conversion rate, recording just a 75 percent success rate compared to Fever's 90 percent which effectively handed a 36-33 lead to the visitors at the last break.
Earlier the Melbourne Vixens found themselves back in business after returning to winning ways with a spirited win over the Steel.
Bouncing back from three straight losses, the defending champions overcame a lacklustre opening quarter with an increasingly confident outing against the visitors.
A decisive second quarter, when they scored 21 goals, changed the course of action for the home team who repelled a strong Steel challenge before running away with the match.
The Steel are third in the New Zealand conference, just edging the Pulse by way of a higher goal percentage.
Over the weekend the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic were beaten by the Firebirds in Brisbane, and the Northern Mystics went down to the New South Wales Swifts in Sydney.
