ANZ Championship celebrates a great sporting rivalry

The ANZ Championship embraces the long-standing sporting rivalry between Australia and New Zealand this weekend, as the five teams from each country go head-to-head in the competition’s annual Rivalry Round.

Now in its third season, the ANZ Championship has already generated some intense on-court rivalries between teams. Last week, Round 3 perfectly showcased two of the intra-country contests, with the Adelaide Thunderbirds defeating the Queensland Firebirds by just one goal, while on the other side of the Tasman, the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic were able to hold off a late challenge by the vastly improved LG Mystics.

Rivalry Round extends these team rivalries to the national level. Australia and New Zealand are the world’s leading netball nations, having won virtually every World Championship and Commonwealth Games event between them. Whenever their national squads hit the court, viewers are guaranteed a great spectacle, as the players are determined to take the honours for their country.

All five games in Rivalry Round involve an Australian / New Zealand team match-up. At the conclusion of the round, the country to aggregate the highest number of goals across the round will be awarded the 2010 Rivalry Round Trophy.

In 2009, Rivalry Round came down to the wire. Going in to the final game between the Melbourne Vixens and Mercury Energy Tactix, New Zealand had a seemingly insurmountable lead of 19 goals. However the Vixens put on a dazzling display to defeat the Tactix by 28 goals, and Australia took out the inaugural Rivalry Round Trophy.

Things may be quite different this year, with three New Zealand teams in the top five after the first three home and away rounds. Most notably, the LG Mystics have finally stepped up with their re-vamped squad, and they now join the WBOP Magic and Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel as serious contenders for Finals play-offs.

Likewise, the Tactix showed an incredible improvement when they took on the unbeaten NSW Swifts last week. With their captain Maree Bowden currently now equal highest for goal assists across the season, the Tactix will be throwing everything at the reigning champions, the Vixens, when they play at home in Christchurch on Monday night.

Shortly after the Tactix meet the Vixens, the Firebirds will host the Mystics in Brisbane, in what is likely to be the Rivalry Round decider. Perhaps national pride will propel the Firebirds to their first win for season 2010.

The 2010 Rivalry Round Trophy will be presented by Jan Maggacis, President of Netball Queensland, at the conclusion of the Queensland Firebirds v LG Mystics game on Monday night.

ROUND 4: RIVALRY ROUND *

Saturday 10 April Waikato / Bay of Plenty Magic v West Coast Fever
2.20pm, Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton

NSW Swifts v Haier Pulse
2.20pm, Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre, Sydney

Sunday 11 April Adelaide Thunderbirds v Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel
2.20pm, ETSA Park, Adelaide

Monday 12 April Mercury Energy Tactix v Melbourne Vixens
7.20pm, Westpac Arena, Christchurch

Queensland Firebirds v LG Mystics
7.05pm, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Brisbane

* All times shown are local times

Every game of the 2010 ANZ Championship season will be broadcast by SKY Sport in New Zealand and Network Ten in Australia (through ONE and TEN). Live scoring and match reports will be available for every game on anz-championship.com.

Back Your Team and win!
ANZ Championship fans can be in the running to win the Ultimate Inner Sanctum Experience, including the chance to sit court-side and meet the players at a match, simply by voting for their favourite ANZ Championship team. All they need to do is visit anz-championship.com, become a registered user, and start voting!