Ferociously athletic ... Australian defender Mo'onia Gerrard takes part in a training drill. Photo: Leilani Hatch/Manawatu Standard
SINGAPORE: Australia's unpredictability is probably the biggest difference between the defending champions and world number one New Zealand, says former Silver Fern Belinda Colling.
Colling, who played 91 times for New Zealand between 1996 and 2006, said a young Australian team were less well known than the Silver Ferns' established side.
The Diamonds have seven players who are at their first world championship.
''There's that element of surprise or unexpectedness about the Aussies. That can be a good or a bad thing. The series prior showed that the teams are level-pegging at this stage, and it can go either way.''
Colling was part of the New Zealand team that lost in heartbreaking circumstances in Christchurch in 1999 and won in Jamaica in 2003.
The ability to handle the increased intensity of a world championship would be the key for whichever team won this year's edition, Colling said.
''These big tournaments, it's about who is going to absorb the pressure and stress on that big day. Both teams have got to make the final yet, and they both have a hurdle before they get there.''
Australian coach Norma Plummer is taking no chance with her team's world title defence, and has studied up on their first opponent at the world championship.
The Diamonds are expected to cruise through their pool games, starting with world No.11 Samoa today.
They then face Northern Ireland tomorrow and Sri Lanka on Wednesday, with Australia's first real challenge not expected until the semi-finals on Saturday, when they are likely to face Jamaica.
But Plummer said she wanted her players to be fully prepared for their matches against the minnows, and has studied footage of the Samoans playing the Australian under-19 team.
Samoa, whom the Diamonds have faced at the past two world championships, managed only ninth at last year's Commonwealth Games after finishing fifth at the 2006 Games.
''I'm always really respectful of any team that's in a world championship - you just never know,'' Plummer said before a training session in Singapore.
She said she was hoping one of the pool opponents would challenge her world No.2-ranked side.
''You often hope that you get a couple of teams that are really quite good so that you get a better game out of it,'' she said. ''You don't want to be winning by 113 to 10. That does nothing for you. You need good competition.''
Plummer is expected to give most of her players a run in the opening match at Singapore Indoor Stadium, with goaler Erin Bell to make her Test debut and defender Mo'onia Gerrard set to claim her 50th cap.
After making her Test debut in 2004, Gerrard has established herself as one of the world's most ferociously athletic defenders.
However, the 30-year-old believes it's memories rather than numbers that are most important.
''I'm not really one for milestones,'' Gerrard said. ''It's the moments that you cherish the most leading up to a campaign like this, and the memories.''
AAP
