15 Mar 2011

Yvonne Willering looking forward to Fiji return

11:29 am on 15 March 2011

The former Silver Ferns netball coach Yvonne Willering arrives in Fiji on Tuesday to assist Fiji's national team.

Willering, who led Fiji to the Manchester Commonwealth Games and also the 2003 South Pacific Games, will spend four days working with head coach Gabriel Qoro offering her expertise where required.

Willering is a former Fiji coach, as is the Melbourne Vixens mentor Julie Hoornweg, who will also spend some time with the team next month.

Yvonne Willering says she has fond memories of her time in charge of Fiji and is looking forward to helping out where she can.

"Both Julie and myself are pretty aware that we don't want to come in there and tell them 'well this is the way we play it in New Zealand' or 'this is the way we play it in Australia'. I think that the Fijians have this wonderful natural flair to their game anyway - so if we can just harness that a little bit and become a disciplined unit - so I guess a lot of our focus will be trying to get them to be as good as they can be but also just have an awareness of those around them and that's why I think it's good that we're going in there with prior knowledge."

Yvonne Willering says the team will also be travelling to New Zealand and Australia to play some local team which will help them significantly ahead of the World Champs in July.