England lose netball World Cup final with collapse in third quarter

England’s hopes of winning their first Netball World Cup were dashed in Cape Town after they fell well short to heavyweights Australia, who produced a convincing performance to win their 12th title.

The Roses had never competed in a World Cup final and created their own slice of history as the first side other than Australia and New Zealand to feature in the sport’s showpiece event. 

England started with positive intent and kept within touching distance of the Diamonds, but in a frenetic third quarter - often called the championship quarter because it is where a match is won and lost - they collapsed as Australia established an unassailable 10-goal lead.

England, who had recovered a nine-goal deficit in a rare victory over Australia in the pool stages, have shown an aura and belief throughout their World Cup campaign and had been tipped to back up their high-flying form with a gold medal. 

But with Australia leading 46-36 heading into the final quarter, recovering a deficit that ran into double digits was always going to be a step too far for Jess Thirlby’s determined outfit, who were forced to settle for silver. 

“We are obviously gutted with a losing margin like that in our first final but such is the difference between seasoned finalists and a team in their first final,” said Thirlby. 

“The win on Thursday, we hit some of our biggest stats ever against Australia, and still only won by one, so we weren’t complacent about things. Today was always going to be a tough ask, you just can’t throw ball like that against Australia in a final. If we do that we need to find a way to win it back. Unfortunately both of those things eluded us for long periods during the match.”

Netball is a momentum-heavy game, where turnovers are celebrated louder than goals, and England suffered an early blow when they unexpectedly lost possession in the opening play of the match off their own centre pass. 

It prompted Thirlby to make an early impact change, throwing on Fran Williams for Layla Guscoth to shore up the defence. The change was a tactical masterstroke that worked in England’s favour, but in reality it papered over cracks in the Roses’ occasionally static game. 

Williams, one of the standout performers of the tournament, helped England to weather an early storm as they clawed their way back into a closely-contested first quarter that ended 13-goals apiece. 

England had not put a foot wrong all tournament, having only lost one quarter across their seven matches. They claimed their first win over top-ranked Australia for the first time in 13 attempts at the tournament in the pool stage before knocking out reigning champions New Zealand in a blockbuster semi-final to advance to the final. 

But in the white heat of a major final, they at times looked overwhelmed by the occasion. They continued to grow into the second quarter, but for all the aura and belief that they showed, Australia kept calm and carried on with their high possession game and used their experience of playing in World Cup finals to their advantage. 

Their head coach, Stacey Marinkovich, began tinkering with her side in response to the introduction of Williams and the 11-time world champions stemmed England’s attacking flow. 

It meant England had to dig deep in a ferocious third quarter, but instead they capitulated as Australia found their groove and carved the Roses open, flying into an eight-goal that they would continue to stretch. 

The world’s top-ranked team had victory within their sights when Sarah Klau, Australia’s defensive lynchpin, entered the fray and from that point onwards the game began slipping away from England, who had to settle for silver.

England are a team that has perennially been semi-final bridesmaids at major tournaments. They have won bronze at the last three editions of the Netball World Cup and had never advanced the sport’s showpiece event, so this was a considerable improvement on their previous performances. 

“We spoke a lot about how this is the first time it has been done [a Roses team in the final],” said England’s Imogen Allison. “I am super proud of all of us to be honest. We have to take this and run with it. If this is the first time in a final, the next time we are getting the gold.”