After months of build-up and anticipation the Vitality Netball World Cup has finally arrived as England’s Roses prepare to build on their Commonwealth Games gold medal success from 2018.

Hosted at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena, the World Cup returns to home soil for the first time since 1995 when Birmingham staged 9thedition of the tournament.

Led by Head Coach Tracey Neville, who following the World Cup will step down from her role after four years in charge, England are among the fancied favourites to take the title having risen to no.3 in the current world rankings.

With ten days of scintillating netball to look forward to, here’s everything you need to know about this year’s World Cup.

Competition Format

A new competition format introduced by the International Netball Federation (INF) for 2019 will see the world’s best 16 teams compete across the following three stages as they each bid to life the World Cup trophy in 10 days’ time.

• Preliminaries Stage One: 12-14 July

• Preliminaries Stage Two: 15- 18 July

• Play-offs and Placings matches:

Preliminaries Stage One: 12-14 July

Teams will compete in four round-robin groups (A, B, C and D) which each consists 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 9th-12th seeds and one from the 13th- 16th 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. 

Group A: Australia, Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka

Group B: New Zealand, Malawi, Barbados, Singapore

Group C: Jamaica, South Africa, Trinidad & Tobago, Fiji

Group D: England, Uganda, Scotland, Samoa

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 13th-16th places in group E. 

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

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

Points

Points In Preliminaries Stage One and Preliminaries Stage Two teams will be allocated points: two for a win, one point each for a draw and no points for a loss. 

At the end of each preliminary stage, teams will ranked according to points and this will determine their progression through the tournament.

 If two teams are tied on points, the team with the higher goal average will be ranked higher. If goals averages are equal then goal difference will be applied and if this is the same the result of the match between the teams will be used to determine the higher placed team. If the result was a draw or there are more than two teams level on points, the team scoring the most goals will be placed higher.

If the two teams are still equal after this, a coin toss will determine the top team. 

Drawn matches

Matches in the preliminaries may result in a draw but all play-off and placings games will be played to a result.

If a game is tied at the end of the fourth quarter in any play-off or placing match, extra time of two seven-minute halves will be played.

In the event of a tie remaining at the end of extra time, play will continue until one team leads by two goals.   

England’s potential route to the final 

Preliminaries Stage One

12.07.19          England v Uganda       19:00

13.07.19          England v Scotland     15:00

14.07.19          England v Samoa        11:00

Preliminaries Stage Two

15.07.19          Stage two match        15:00 

17.07.19          Stage two match         15:00 

18.07.19          Stage two match         20:00

Semi-Final

20.07.19          Semi-final 1                 11:00

                        OR

20.07.19          Semi-final 2                 15:00 

Final

21.07.19          Final                            17:00

England Squad 

Serena Guthrie (Captain) *

Jade Clarke (Vice Captain) *

Rachel Dunn

Layla Guscoth

Jo Harten *

Natalie Haythornthwaite *

Helen Housby *

Geva Mentor *

Natalie Panagarry

Chelsea Pitman*

Eboni Usoro-Brown * 

Fran Williams

*Returning member of Gold Coast 2018 squad