Wales stood tall against the Kiwi netball challenge on the Gold Coast.

New Zealand are ranked number two in the World behind Australia and won 70-44, but there were positives for the Welsh girls.

Captain Suzy Drane and her team won a quarter against New Zealand for the first time in the history of Welsh netball, taking the second 13-9.

Their 44 goals is the most Wales have scored against the powerful Kiwis and this was the closest ever match between the countries.

“We have to take the positives, especially from that second quarter,” said Drane. “It’s important that we also take the frustrations to drive us on for our next game.”

Wales play Scotland next and that is a match head coach Julie Hoornweg and her team believe they can win.

Hoornweg used all 12 of her players against the Kiwis, giving everybody a taste of Commonwealth Games hockey.

That experience could be crucial when Wales take on the Scots.

Wales drew first blood against New Zealand with a Chelsea Lewis goal within 10 seconds, but it was a nervy start for the players in red.

A few early shots went awry as the Silver Ferns’ Maria Folau embarked on a long-range shooting masterclass. Wales did eventually find fluency in the quarter, but the Kiwis leapt into an early 23-14 lead.

The second quarter began with a stark improvement in the Welsh defence.

After a powerful first quarter performance, the players in black became overly reliant on Folau’s shooting and Wales were able to exploit their one-dimensional opponents.

Cara Lea Moseley and Lewis were fed a near constant stream of ball to cut the deficit right down as the period wore on.

Kelly Morgan was at her disruptive best and Nia Jones made the sneakiest of interceptions in front of the post.

Wales won the second quarter 13-9 and made history with a first ever period triumph against the Silver Ferns.

New Zealand rang the changes for the second half and made an explosive start. At one point they outscored Wales 10-1.

Hoornweg had to react to the new look Silver Ferns and made changes, sending on Leila Thomas and Georgia Rowe.

The tactic proved effective as Wales brought their tally up to nine goals for the period.

Any hopes Wales had of repeating the second period’s heroics were quickly receding and New Zealand scored another five goals in quick order.

Wales were able to build their own score and surpass the 39 goal mark, making it a best-ever goals tally against New Zealand. Hoornweg gave a run out to the remainder of her substitutes as the match came to a conclusion and Wales made a third entry into the history books with a closest ever score margin against a titan of World netball.

Wales will be buoyed ahead of tomorrow’s match against Celtic rivals Scotland (Saturday, 9.30am UK time).

Quarter scores (Wales score first): 14-23 (14-23); 13-9 (27-32); 9-20 (36-52); 8-18 (44-70).

Scotland, beaten 74-28 by England, now focus on their crunch clash with Wales.

Captain Claire Brownie believes the Scots can still finish in the top eight at the Commonwealth Games despite losing heavily to England in their opening match.

“We’re feeling really good, we knew it was going to be a tough game,” she told BBC Scotland.

“England are going for gold and they’re really experienced.”

“We have 12 players out on court and for some of them it’s their first time being at the Commonwealth Games , it was a really good game for us to work on, so it’s a positive step forward.”

“We’re the best prepared team we’ve ever been, really excited to be here and we feel like we’re in a really good place.

“We’re looking to get into the top eight and if we do that then that’ll be a real building block for the future.”

Wales are in Pool B of the 2018 Commonwealth Games Netball competition. Their scheduled matches are as follows, all times shown are UK:

Friday April 6: Wales 44, New Zealand 70.

Saturday April 7: 9.30am Wales v Scotland

Monday April 9: 4am Wales v England

Tuesday April 10: 11.30am Wales v Uganda

Wednesday April 11: 10am Wales v Malawi

Following the pool matches Wales will play a medal/classification match against their positional counterpart from Pool A.

Day one netball results: Jamaica 88, Fiji 30; England 74, Scotland 28; New Zealand 64, Uganda 51; Australia 94, Northern Ireland 26.

Commonwealth Games netball groups:

Pool A: Australia, Jamaica, South Africa, Barbados, Fiji, Northern Ireland.

Pool B: New Zealand, England, Malawi, Wales, Scotland, Uganda.

World netball rankings: 1 Australia; 2 New Zealand; 3 England; 4 Jamaica; 5 South Africa; 6 Malawi; 7 Uganda; 8 Northern Ireland; 9 Scotland; 10 Wales; 11 Barbados; 12 Fiji.

Welsh netball squad at the Commonwealth Games: Fern Davies, Suzy Drane (capt), Bethan Dyke, Kyra Jones, Nia Jones, Chelsea Lewis, Sarah Llewelyn, Kelly Morgan, Cara Lea Moseley, Georgia Rowe, Leila Thomas, Amanda Varey.

Scotland squad: Claire Brownie (capt), Fiona Fowler, Lynsey Gallagher, Ella Gibbons, Bethan Goodwin, Niamh McCall, Nicola McCleery, Hayley Mulheron, Samantha Murphy, Emily Nicholl, Jo Pettitt, Bethany Sutherland.