Zoe Davies slowly introducing winning Australian mindset to Leeds Rhinos Netball

That was the impression after just 15 minutes in the company of Zoe Davies this week, a 26-year-old Aussie who last year left her whole world back home - family, dogs, teaching career - to try her hand playing netball in England with Leeds Rhinos.

Whether it was her policy of not having any regrets, her resolve to keep at it when things didn’t start out so well, or the speed at which she is adapting to the game in England, the sheer force of her belief in the direction she is going helps to explain why the Rhinos are suddenly looking up again in Netball Super League and head to table-toppers Manchester Thunder this Saturday genuinely believing they can cause an upset.

It all began for Davies last Autumn after a treble-winning season with Collingwood Magpies in Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball.

A call came in from Liana Leota, who she had played under in Collingwood, and who had already lured her Magpies team-mate of last year, Geva Mentor, to Yorkshire’s leading netball franchise.

“It was a big jump,” Davies tells The Yorkshire Post. “When someone says ‘do you want to move across to the other side of the world’ you just think that could be fun. Then it gets closer and you realise you’re still excited but that you have no idea what’s going to happen.

“I’ve never been someone that’s travelled that far outside of Australia, but as an athlete you take the opportunity because you don’t know what’s going to happen and at the end of the day, athletes that don’t take those opportunities will always turn round and say they wish they had. I’m definitely someone that whatever door opens, I’m going to keep stepping through it because I want to better myself but also when I have children, or become a role model for the community, I want to be able to say to people even if you’re super uncomfortable, you’ll never go home and say I wish I’d done this or wish I’d done that.”

Settling in hasn’t been easy, and even now, nearly halfway through the season and a few months in, she hesitates and laughs nervously when asked if she has.

Finding something to do other than netball has been hard. In Australia she worked in a primary school and was studying to be a teacher. In England, Davies is only on an athlete visa so cannot get employment in a school without reams of red tape to be negotiated.

“The biggest thing is not having a routine here yet, I’m finding it difficult not having a full-time job,” she admits.

“But I’m glad I made the leap. It’s different in a lot of ways but at the end of the day netball is netball, it’s the same sport as it is back home and it’s how you put your foot forward.”

At least not having much to do is allowing her to focus solely on netball and getting up to speed with the English game.

And speed is the operative word - “I’ve been on a couple of teams where I was the fittest but doing the pre-season testing I realised we’ve got some pretty fit girls here”.

The biggest difference she is finding is the officiating. In Australia, umpires allow a more physical game than their English counterparts.

“In the SSN you get away with a lot more, not that it’s dirty but it’s more that you have to be the stronger player, the smarter player, the quicker player. Whereas here it’s hard to play on the body or incorporate little tactics because the umpires do call quite a lot.”

So none of that Australian street smarts, basically.

As she learned on the job, Rhinos lost five of their first six games, with the defender growing in influence with each game.

“I consider myself an athlete who doesn’t just sit down and say this is what I’m happy with, I’m someone who’s always looking at what’s next, what can I keep improving, how can I keep making myself better but also those girls around me better,” says Davies.

“When you’re losing, ask yourself why are you losing? We were losing because we weren’t trusting each other. We’re not going in saying they were just a better team, we were looking at why we were responsible. We were making mistakes, giving the opposition an extra goal.

“The last two wins our error rate has been a lot lower and that just proves the work we’ve been doing on ensuring we’re not throwing things away or making silly little mistakes has worked."

She has picked up plenty from playing with the likes of England Roses legend Mentor and Northern Ireland international Caroline O’Hanlon.

“Those guys say a netballer is at their prime between the ages of 28 and 32,” says Davies, “that’s purely because they’ve got the netball brain that makes them more experienced.

“They are passing that onto us slowly, they’re not overloading us. Now coming into the second half of the season you’re seeing individual players stepping up their game and adding a bit of individual flair because they’re trusting what the girls are saying to them. The girls are starting to adapt their game and if you want to grow as a netball player you have to adapt.”

With two successive wins that all of a sudden has Rhinos eyeing a top four challenge in the second half of the season, belief is high.

They will need every ounce of that at Manchester Thunder on Saturday.

“The biggest thing about taking on a team like Manchester is mindset,” says Davies. “You know they’re going to score on you, you know they’re going to stop you at times, so what are you going to do next? It’s all about having that pre-emptive thought of ‘that’s okay, we push on’.”

And there’s that Australian mentality again.