THE New Zealand Open men's team repeated their Day 1 feat over Australia when they defeated them again in the Day 3 feature match by 56-45.

The evening game had the Australians leading after half-time, but they only had themselves to blame as they let New Zealand run away in the third and final quarter scoring 15-11 and 17-7 against them.

Tactical changes in mid-court by the men in black and improved defense in the third quarter saw them race away with the game to establish an even bigger score-line than the 48-42 scored in the first game.

In the third, New Zealand Centre Detroit Sterling moved to Wing Attack, with two fresh legs in Jason Lines and Barry Brown coming in to Centre and Wing Defender to fire up the pace of the game.

Perhaps Australia's close game with Fiji on Monday evening was a telling factor.
But their opponents height factor proved a crucial point with Jonathan Geldard and
Andrew Jarvie finding the lobbed high balls in clear space to slot in.

Australia made changes in the final leg with Mark Bomanis and coming in to Center with Center Andrew Mitchell moving into Wing Defender.
But by then New Zealand had already established their lead.

Australian captain Sikeli Seru at GD had a good game but could not contest against the towering Geldard.

Australia displayed great skill on court but New Zealand's game was more poised towards their flair and tendency to take risks while getting from one side to the other.

For New Zealand Geldard scored a total of 48 points with the shorter Jarvie who sneaked in the ball to him managed only eight points.

Australian Goal Shooter James Mathew and Goal Attack Dan Ryan between them scored 24 and 21 points respectively.

Day four will see Australia taking on Cook Islands at 9.30am (Fiji Time) while New Zealand takes on the ever-improving Fijians at 4.30pm (Fiji Time)

The other feature match of the evening was in the Under 23 category where Australia comfortably shoved off a determined challenge from Fiji II 52-26.

Australia suffered a scare in the first quarter as Fiji leveled 7-all, but four position changes for Fiji after halftime when they were in contention saw Australia run away.

On Day 4, Australia U23 plays the Fiji 1 team at 1pm (Fiji Time), while the Fiji U23 Two team faces New Zealand at 9.30am (Fiji Time).