Netball World Cup 2019: Proteas squad, fixtures and preview

The Proteas head to the Netball World Cup in Liverpool knowing they face a real battle to get out of their group after being drawn alongside consistent Jamaica.

Should the Proteas not top their group they will likely be left to face hosts England in the quarterfinals. South Africa do sport a recent victory over Tracey Neville’s charges in Quad series action though and have always been competitive in international competition.

The Proteas are not no-hopers here but will have to do exceptionally well to match the best performance by the team that came in 1995, when South Africa lost the final. A victory over group favourites Jamaica would go a long way towards establishing the team’s title credentials.

Jamaica and England are the teams favoured to break Australia’s iron grip on the Netball World Cup. The English will take tremendous confidence from their achievements at the Commonwealth Games last year. England have the strongest team on paper but will be under pressure to succeed at home and end a long wait for a World title.

Australia still begin the tournament as the clear favourites, seeking to extend their record with a 12th World Cup title. Australia’s chief concern will be that they have been drawn in probably the weakest group of the competition alongside Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka and World Cup debutants Zimbabwe.

Like Australia, New Zealand have a relatively weak group and are unlikely to be tested before the second preliminary round.

Netball World Cup format

Preliminaries Stage One (12-14 July)

Teams will compete in four round-robin groups each consisting of four teams.

Teams were assigned to their preliminary groups by seeding based on their world rankings. The top eight teams were pre-assigned to groups, with one team from the 9^th-12^th seeds and one from the 13^th-16^th seeds drawn randomly into each group. The top three finishers in each group will then progress to the Preliminaries: Stage Two to compete for the title.

Preliminaries Stage Two (15-18 July)

In the second stage of the competition, the top three teams from groups A and B will form group F, and the top three teams from groups C and D will form group G. The bottom four finishers from groups A-D will compete for 13^th-16^th places in group E.

Where teams in groups F and G have already played each other in the Preliminaries Stage One (i.e. A1 has already played A2 and A3), these results will carry through to the Preliminaries Stage Two.

Play-offs and Placings (19-21 July)

Groups F and G

The teams finishing first and second in groups F and G will go through to the semi-finals, with the top placed team in each group facing the second placed team in the other group. The winners of each semi-final will compete for gold in the final, with the losers playing for bronze.

The teams finishing third and fourth in groups F and G will compete for final positions fifth to eighth – third in one group plays fourth in the other – with the winners playing off for fifth place and the losers for seventh.

The teams that finish fifth in groups F and G will play off for ninth and 10^th places.

The teams that finish last in groups F and G will play off for 11^th and 12^th places.

Group E

The top two teams from group E will play off for 13^th and 14^th place and the bottom two teams will play off for 15^th and 16^thplace.

Proteas fixtures

South Africa vs Trinidad and Tobago Friday 12 July 18:25
South Africa vs Fiji Saturday 13 July 18:25
Jamaica vs South Africa Sunday 14 July 18:00

Proteas squad

Erin Burger, Izette Griesel, Maryka Hotzhausen, Chawane Khanyisa, Phumza Maweni, Bongiwe Msomi (c), Lenize Potgieter, Karla Pretorius, Renske Stolz, Shadine van der Merwe, Ine Mari Venter, Vimbela Zanele.