ANZ Championship team Southern Steel displayed sharp pre-season form at the weekend, winning all four matches at a tournament in Christchurch.

On Saturday they defeated Canterbury Tactix 56-40, and Eastwood Ryde (from the NSW state league) 54-31. They then backed up on Sunday to beat Tactix 58-38, before accounting for Eastwood Ryde 30-27 in a shortened 40-minute game.

Tactix showed improvement through the weekend, holding Steel to 12-11 in the opening quarter of their first match, and proving competitive for the first half of the second match with a half-time score of 25-23.  

Steel and Tactix now head to the Queenstown Pre-Season Tournament, Friday 19-Sunday 21 February, where they will meet Northern Mystics, Central Pulse, Queensland Firebirds and the Australian Institute of Sport team, but will not play against each other.


SLIDESHOW IMAGE: Southern Steel and Silver Ferns mid-courter Wendy Frew (nee Telfer) during the 2009 ANZ Championship. (PHOTO: Michael Bradley)