Bailey Mes was in trouble, with the umpires giving away several offensive penalties. Photo: Photosport
The Silver Ferns will seek clarification from Netball World Cup umpiring officials after a rash of penalties against shooter Bailey Mes in their 55-48 win over Jamaica.
Tuesday night's hard-fought win in Sydney sets up a likely semi-final against England on Saturday.
The Silver Ferns trailed by three goals at half-time with coach Wai Taumaunu perplexed by some of the calls against Mes.
"The defensive penalties were fairly obvious, she was late and she was too close.
"The offensive penalties we have sought clarification. It would seem that she is leaning backwards in rebound position, we're told."
New Zealand held off a strong challenge from the Jamaicans who led 27-24 at half-time, after Taumaunu started with the same lineup that beat Australia at the weekend.
The match was closer than the seven-goal winning margin might suggest, with New Zealand turning over possession and giving away too many offensive penalties.
"Jamaica are a very talented and athletic team with a very good shooter, so it was a very rigorous assessment of us," said Taumaunu.
"Our second quarter was pretty disappointing... losing (that) quarter by six was a pretty big wake-up call, but I was pretty pleased with the way we responded."
Taumaunu decided against making changes at half-time, saying she wanted her players to make adjustments themselves.
"We have some newcomers to world championship netball and they haven't played Jamaica before.
"I thought it was really important we got them through that, and I thought so long as we had a better third quarter we could play ourselves out of it, and we did," said Taumaunu.
Australia beat England 51-41, meaning the likely semi-final lineup on Saturday will be New Zealand against England and Australia against Jamaica.
New Zealand's edged Malawi 57-49 on Wednesday night, with their final game ahead of the semi-finals against Uganda on Friday.
