Magic welcome home game

There will be no change for Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic’s first Tauranga game of the ANZ Championships this weekend.

Magic will have the support of a local audience as they face Central Pulse at TECT Arena tonight.

After a four straight loses at the beginning of the season, Magic have come away victorious from their past five matches and are hoping to continue their winning streak this weekend.

The local team is currently sitting on equal points on the table with Pulse but they’re determined to hold their ground.

While aware of what they need to achieve in the final four games of the season, Magic coach Noeline Taurua says the team are not getting too far ahead of themselves.

’’I think there’s so much happening and probably more to come which has made it a really exciting competition.

’’It’s unpredictable and for where we’re sitting at the moment it’s just one week at a time and not getting caught up in anything apart from what we want to achieve and working hard to make that happen.

’’In previous years, I would, from round one, be following the table, and have all the scenarios planned but this year I haven’t even looked at it, that’s all been fairly non-existent in our environment.

’’There’s still the byes to come, there’s still Australian teams having to play each other and who’s to know what’s going to happen.

Noeline says Pulse will be fighting hard for the win.

’’I think they will be confident coming up against us.”

In terms of continued overall improvement, Noeline would like to see more discipline on the final execution at the attacking end while on defence, continued contesting of the ball.

Irene Van Dyk is looking forward to playing at home on Sunday.

“It’s always nice to play at home; we’ve had a lot of away games.

“The nice thing in Tauranga is we train where we play so it really feels like home.”

She is enjoying training and playing at Tauranga’s TECT Arena which she says is “beautiful, absolutely gorgeous and the crowd is really close”.

Magic will play at TECT Arena again on Saturday, June 23 against the Thunderbirds.