Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel v Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse
June 1, 2025
If it was a case of luck, the Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel would understandably be left wondering who smashed the damn mirror.
Unfortunately, in sport you have to make your own luck.
A damaging first quarter ultimately determined the Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel’s fate – the Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse inflicting a 70-45 punishment in round four of the ANZ Premiership.
Despite a sold out crowd of 2800, a stunned lull fell on ILT Stadium Southland as the Pulse scorched out to a 12-goal advantage just 10 minutes into proceedings. There’s no denying it was brutal as the Pulse punished every nervous mistake.
Pushed into a dire situation the Steel were forced to take risks with the 2-point super shot and struggled to sink them with just two out of six contributing to the score.
In fact, in all aspects of the game, nothing fell the Steel’s way from the outset and a 21-goal deficit greeted them at halftime.
The chance to reset worked wonders and a completely different Steel emerged from the changing room with a bold new intensity to dominate the third spell 21-14 and close the gap to an assailable margin. It finally felt like a game of contrasting halves was conceivable.
Alas, the gremlins returned in the final phase and the Steel lacked the energy to combat a Pulse team refusing to halt its momentum, succumbing 5-18 to rub an extra dose of salt in the wounds.
Head coach Wendy Frew’s assessment was honest.
“I’m really disappointed with that performance. I think as players and management, and myself as a coach, we need to have a really good look at it – look at where we went wrong, look at our preparation, look at our trainings, look at everything to determine where what happened and to make sure we come back firing against the Tactix,” she said.
“Apart from the third quarter where we had a bit of excitement there, it felt like nothing was going right at all. There were a lot of lessons but, in saying that, for this group of girls I expected better. It’s going to hurt and it’s going to hurt a hundred times harder than last week.
“At least against the Mystics we put a performance in that we were proud of and we were competitive. Tonight, it was lots of turnovers, lots of mistakes, we took the wrong options on attack and on defence we weren’t united so it’s pretty hard to get over the line when we weren’t connected and we were doing those small things wrong.”
Honouring the legacy of the late Robyn Broughton, who coached both teams during her long career, the Pulse defused a resurgent third quarter revival from the Steel to stamp their overall dominance with a withering 18-5 fourth quarter burst.
Playing at their spiritual home of Invercargill for the first time this season, the Steel have shown promising signs in returning to their form of old but apart from winning the third quarter 21-14 were largely outclassed by a slick Pulse team.
In registering their highest winning score since 2018, the Pulse dominated across the court, with all in yellow-and-black executing their roles with authority and efficiency. In a consummate team performance, shooter Amelia Walmsley was the key target and rock under the Pulse hoop when converting 50 goals from 51 attempts, to crack her second half-century of the season.
The Steel welcomed Abby Lawson back from injury and into the starter’s bib at goal defence while on-going injury ruled midcourter Kate Heffernan out for a fourth straight week. The Pulse called on a growing settled line-up with midcourters Whitney Souness and Maddy Gordon gathering increased playing minutes in the lead-up.
With enticing match-ups littered across the court, it was the Pulse who settled quickest, seamlessly finding their attacking flow and defensive prowess in the opening minutes to rock the Steel.
The visitors’ back four of Kelly Jackson, Parris Mason, Fa’amu Ioane and Gordon produced an effective wall to cause disconnect and turnover opportunities in the Steel attack line. Dominating the midcourt, Gordon and Souness found perfect positioning for the feed while play-making goal attack Tiana Metuarau’s vision provided on-point long-range ball into the accurate shooting hands of Walmsley.
A ballooning scoreline prompted a tactical timeout and rearranged midcourt for the home side who had plenty of work in front of them when trailing 19-7 at the first break.
Another quick start when scoring the first three goals on the resumption, the Pulse were briefly stalled by a more determined defensive effort from the home side.
Rangy defenders Lawson and Kate Lloyd made the Pulse shooters work harder for their keep while on attack the Steel were able to get more ball into the hands of key strike weapon Aliyah Dunn under the hoop.
But the Pulse responded with a five-goal unanswered run to double their first quarter lead when bolting into the main break with a 38-19 advantage, spearheaded by a faultless 27 from 27 return from Walmsley.
The only option for the Steel was to keep plugging away and that’s exactly what they did during a heartening third stanza response which got the crowd on its feet.
Finding better flow on attack through Kimiora Poi and Serina Daunakamakama, effective ball placement and positioning provided more opportunities for Dunn while the defensive efforts of Khanye-Lii Munro-Nonoa and Carys Stythe handed vital turnover ball into the home team’s hands.
Two super shots by Georgia Heffernan and one to Dunn galvanised the Steel’s efforts while their lift rattled the Pulse enough to cause several turnovers.
Metuarau settled the visitors with her fourth super shot of the match on the buzzer to help the Pulse retain their edge when heading into the last break with a handy 52-40 lead.
The Steel’s next home game looms against the VIP Frames and Trusses Tactix on Saturday. Tickets are on sale from the venue or www.southernsteel.co.nz.
Official Result and Stats:
Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel: 45
Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse: 70
Shooting Stats – Steel:
Aliyah Dunn 22/24, super shot 2/10
Georgia Heffernan 12/14, super shot 3/6
Summer Temu 1/1, super shot 0/1
Shooting Stats – Pulse:
Amelia Walmsley 50/51, super shot 0/0
Tiana Metuarau 10/12, super shot 5/8
