The Netball World Cup Sydney 2015
(NWC2015) was the 14th edition of the
INF Netball World Cup
The Netball World Cup is a quadrennial international netball world championship organised by World Netball, inaugurated in 1963 World Netball Championships, 1963. Since its inception the competition has been dominated primarily by the Australia ...
, the premier competition in international
netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...
. It was held from 7–16 August, in
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, Australia, which secured hosting rights after defeating a rival bid from
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, England.
Matches were played at
Allphones Arena and
Netball Central. Sixteen nations competed at the championships, including the top six teams from the
2011 World Netball Championships
The 2011 World Netball Championships () was the 13th edition of the INF Netball World Cup, a quadrennial premier event in international netball. It was held in Singapore from 3–10 July. All 48 matches were played at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. ...
in
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
. After two rounds in which teams competed in pools of four, Australia, New Zealand, England and Jamaica contested the semi-finals. Australia defended its 2011 title against New Zealand by a narrow 58–55 victory. The final at Allphones Arena was attended by 16,752 people, a world record for any netball game. Malawian shooter
Mwai Kumwenda
Mwai Kumwenda (born 27 September 1989) is a Malawi netball international player. She represented Malawi at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games and at the 2011 and 2015 Netball World Cups. Kumwenda was the top goal scorer at three succe ...
was the player of distinction.
Organisation
Hosting rights
Bids to host the 2015 Netball World Cup were submitted to the
International Netball Federation
World Netball, previously known as the International Netball Federation and the International Federation of Netball Associations, is the worldwide governing body for Netball. The INF was created in 1960 and is responsible for world rankings, main ...
(INF) in 2010. The two candidate cities chosen were Manchester, England and Sydney, Australia. In March 2011, INF delegates convened in Singapore, host nation of the 2011 World Netball Championships, to consider both bids. At the end of the conference, Sydney was announced as the host city for the 2015 tournament.
This is the second time that Sydney hosted the competition, and the third time in Australia. Sydney last hosted the event in
1991
It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...
, where
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
won a closely contested final against
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
.
Venues
The sixty four matches were played at the
Allphones Arena and
Netball Central in
Sydney Olympic Park
Sydney Olympic Park is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, located 13 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the City of Parramatta, City of Parramatta Council. It i ...
. Allphones Arena hosted the majority of the matches while Netball Central served as the official training venue for all sixteen participating teams. It also hosted pool matches, play-offs and placing games.
Broadcasters
This is a list of the broadcasters for the tournament in competing countries and regions.
Umpires
Seventeen umpires from six countries officiated matches at the tournament.
Teams
Qualification
Sixteen teams contested the 2015 tournament.
[ The home nation automatically qualified, along with the next five highest-ranked teams from the ]2011 World Netball Championships
The 2011 World Netball Championships () was the 13th edition of the INF Netball World Cup, a quadrennial premier event in international netball. It was held in Singapore from 3–10 July. All 48 matches were played at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. ...
:
* (host nation)
*
*
*
*
*
Qualification Tournaments
The remaining ten teams were determined by regional qualifying tournaments, with two teams selected from each of the five international netball regions; Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
Draw
There was no draw for the tournament, instead the 16 qualified teams were allocated into four pools (A, B, C and D) according to their INF World Rankings
The World Netball Rankings are published by the World Netball to make it possible to compare the relative strengths of internationally active national netball teams. Initially, rankings were based on the results from the World Netball Championships ...
of 1 July 2014, as per following criteria:
* Pool A – teams seeded 1, 2, 9, 10
* Pool B – teams seeded 3, 4, 11, 12
* Pool C – teams seeded 5, 6, 13, 14
* Pool D – teams seeded 7, 8, 15, 16
* Subject to a maximum of two teams from the same region per pool, in case of a third team from the same region, they are switched with the closest ranked team from a different pool. After the original allocation, Sri Lanka and Uganda swapped pools to comply with this rule.
Rankings reflect the teams' rankings in July 2014.
Format
The 2015 tournament consisted of 64 matches played over ten days from 7–16 August. It included three stages – a preliminary pool stage, a qualifying pool stage, and a knockout series of semi-finals and finals. The 16 participating teams were initially divided into four pools (A, B, C and D) of four teams. During the preliminary pool stage, teams in each pool played each other once. In every pool match, two points were awarded to a winning team, while no points were given to a losing team.
The qualification round consisted of two First Eight pools (E and F), which were formed from two teams with the highest number of points in each of the preliminary matches pools, and two Second Eight pools (G and H), formed from the bottom two teams in each of the preliminary matches pools. In this stage, teams in each pool played each other once.
The two teams with the highest number of points in each of the two First Eight pools advanced to the semi-finals. The winners of the semifinals contested the final, while the losers played for the bronze medal (3rd place). The bottom two teams in each of these pools entered a knockout stage to determine fifth to eighth place. The teams from the two Second Eight pools are similarly divided, eventually entering two knockout stages for 9th to 12th place and 13th to 16th place.
Preliminary round matches
Pool A
Pool B
Pool C
Pool D
Qualification round matches
Pool E
Pool F
Pool G
Pool H
Play-off matches
5th to 8th
9th to 12th
13th to 16th
Placement matches
5th place
7th place
9th place
11th place
13th place
15th place
Semi-finals and medal matches
At the conclusion of qualifying pool play Australia, England, Jamaica and New Zealand advanced into the semi-finals. This was the fifth time in the last five tournaments that the world's top four ranked sides had reached the semi-final stage. New Zealand led England throughout the first semi-final, pulling away in the last fifteen minutes to post a 50 points to 39 win. In the other semi final Australia eased past Jamaica 67 to 56, outpointing them in three of the four-quarters.
In the final Australia outplayed New Zealand in the first quarter to lead 16–7. Despite winning each of the next three-quarters New Zealand were unable to make up the difference. Australia extended their lead to 12 goals early in the second quarter, before New Zealand played their way back into the game. At half-time the score was 30 to 22 and at the start of the last quarter 43 to 37. With a minute remaining Australia led by just three goals, but were able to hold their nerve to record a 58 to 55 goal victory.
The defensive work of captain Laura Geitz and Julie Corletto
Julie Prendergast (born 31 October 1986) is an Australian international netball player. She played for the Australian Diamonds, Melbourne Vixens and NSW Swifts but has now retired. She usually played in the positions of goal defence and wing d ...
along with accurate goal shooting from Caitlin Bassett
Caitlin Bassett (born 23 May 1988) is a former Australian netballer, who played for Giants Netball and the Australia national netball team. Between 2017 and 2021 Bassett captained Australia in international netball tests.
Career
Caitlin playe ...
helped set up the Australian win. New Zealand goal attack Maria Tutaia
Solonaima Maria Folau (née Tuta'ia; born 18 February 1987 in Tokoroa, New Zealand) is a retired New Zealand netball player. She played regularly for the New Zealand national netball team, the Silver Ferns.
Early life
Folau was born Solonaima ...
said they were too complacent in the first quarter and could not handle the defensive pressure from Australia. Geitz praised her attackers for capitalising on every opportunity and also said that the "first quarter set us up nicely." The Australians shooters scored goals at a 91 percent success rate while their defenders held the New Zealanders to just 73 percent. Corletto retired after the game, ending a twelve-year career that includes 53 tests and three world titles. Australia has now won the World Cup three times in a row and eleven times in total. In the bronze medal match England beat Jamaica 66–44.
Semi-finals
Bronze medal match
Gold medal match
Final placings
Medallists
References
External links
NWC2015 website
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Cup
2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
International netball competitions hosted by Australia
2015 in netball
2015 in Australian netball
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...
Netball in New South Wales