The Silver Ferns, with an oddly familiar new-look midcourt, struggled throughout to find consistency in the first of three tests against a team featuring a potent combination of mainly Australia, English and Jamaican players.
Trailing 25-22 at halftime, the Silver Ferns never stopped trying but just couldn't seem to find any rhythm against a World 7 team with a fiendishly simple game plan: do the basics well.
New captain Casey Williams put it in a nutshell: "We just couldn't get our groove on out there."
In contrast, the World 7's no-frills approach worked a treat. With only limited time together, coach Julie Fitzgerald's decision to hold fire on the bells and whistles paid dividends right from the first pass.
"We knew we were a new combination and there wasn't a lot of room for any fancy plays -- just that short, sharp game and keeping hold of the ball was what we really needed to do," the NSW Swifts coach said afterwards.
World 7 captain Natasha Chokljat said keeping the game plan simple had cut down the room for error.
"We worked each other's timing out, and we just kept rotating through the short, sharp play and driving the ball down court -- just giving that easy option.
"It's a possession game, and that's what we were working on."
Aitken has demanded a two-year commitment from her players as they work towards defending their Commonwealth Games gold medal and wresting the world championship title from Australia.
With that in mind, the New Zealand coach was reigning in her natural disappointment at yesterday's loss.
"We did want to use this series as an opportunity to try things. They didn't all work, that's for sure, and we've got to work harder to make that happen," she said afterwards.
Restraint wasn't part of the New Zealand game plan last night, but team work was, and that was where the Silver Ferns fell short.
"We were really hoping we'd go out and make a statement as a united group -- we wanted to play some open netball and attack the ball on defence," Aitken said.
"I felt everyone was working hard but I felt they were working in isolation. We certainly have to get those communication lines going."
New Zealand were without veteran midcourter Julie Seymour, who has retired ahead of the birth of her fourth child, but the return of Temepara George from her two-year self-imposed exile was expected to fill that gap.
Laura Langman reverted back from the attacking midcourt to wing defence last night, George came in at centre and Liana Barrett-Chase filled the wing attack role. Individually, all three are hugely talented players, but for whatever reason they just didn't gel last night.
New Zealand's circle defence -- Williams and Katrina Grant to start with, then Williams and Joline Henry for the last 30 minutes -- slowly played into form. But Samoan shooter Cathrine Latu, an often under-rated player, was in superb form and her holding game, elevation and accuracy played a huge part in the World 7 win.
Silver Ferns shooter Irene van Dyk, was a shade below her best with an 81 percent success rate, and although Maria Tutaia struggled somewhat with her accuracy at 77 percent, she still got through some good work outside the circle.
Aitken's game plan wasn't conservative, as she looks to introduce more variety into the Silver Ferns' game, and assess how players react to that.
"We had said we wanted players to play into space and to have a go. That was our game plan -- it wasn't to be a restrained kind of game," she explained. "We certainly feel that fast midcourt will have benefits for us, but it's only in its infancy."
The difficulty was not in the inception, but in the execution, which was patchy at best, especially as the transition from defence to attack stuttered only occasionally into life.
And although the Silver Ferns managed to force a respectable supply of turnover ball, they too often struggled to convert that possession into goals.
"I don't think we played to our strengths enough, especially in terms of our ability to lose players and get some length to our game," Aitken said.
"It's just those confidence things. This is a starting point for us, and it'll be the true mettle of the team and their character as how they respond to this disappointment."
