Netball World Cup Round-Up
It’s been a fast and furious Netball World Cup so far out in Cape Town, with three current Saracens Mavericks stars making their mark on the tournament.
For Goal Shooter Ine-Mari Venter, this has been a once in a lifetime chance to represent her country at a home world cup.
She made an immediate impact too, with a Player of the Match performance against fellow Maverick Christina Shaw and her Welsh teammates.
Despite running the host nation close, Wales suffered defeat to Jamaica in their next match, putting huge pressure on their final group stage fixture against Sri Lanka.
A victory in that match saw them progress to the next stage, alongside the SPAR Proteas, with a chance of a top ten finish.
For Sasha Corbin and sister and former Maverick Kadeen, this world cup has been a chance to play together on the international stage, having switched from previously representing England, to now representing Barbados.
Ironically, it was the Roses that the pair came up against first and, despite some vintage play from Sasha Corbin, they fell short against Jess Thirlby’s side.
Defeats to Scotland and Malawi consigned Barbados to the 13-16th place play-off pool in stage two. However, they are a side on the up and constantly improving, as they proved with two victories over Zimbabwe and Singapore.
Those two victories meant that Barbados would face Zimbabwe again, this time for the right to finish 13th in the tournament.
It wasn't to be though for Corbin and her teammates, as they suffered a defeat in the final match of her career, securing a 14th place finish.
In the battle for the top ten, Wales secured a crucial victory over Trinidad and Tobago to secure their spot in the 9th place play-off against Tamsin Greenway’s Scotland side.
For Venter and South Africa, they started the second phase off with an impressive victory over Trinidad and Tobago, before scoring a last-second leveller against the reigning champions, the Silver Ferns.
A nail-biting victory over Uganda followed, but it wasn’t quite enough to reach the semi-finals, as they missed out to the Silver Ferns by the narrowest of margins.
South Africa now face Tonga this afternoon, for the chance to play in the 5th place play-off.
It’s been a fantastic week and a half so far of Netball World Cup action. All eyes now are on the placings finals over the weekend.
