The Netball Nations cup starts later on this week, with the first round of games being played Sunday the 19th of January, at the Motorpoint Arena, in Nottingham. This is a brand new competition in the sense that it replaces a former annual tournament called the Quad Series. After founding members Australia decided to drop out in 2019 there was a bit of rebranding and an invitation to a new national team for this inaugural competition.
We are now about to see the result of all of this, as off the back of the recent World Cup, England will be hosting the first ever Netball Nations Cup. They will be joined by three other teams for this four nations event, South Africa, New Zealand and Jamaica, who replace the Aussies this year. The format is quite simple. Each team will play the other once, in a round robin style set up, with each game at a different location within the country and points allocated for a win or a draw. The finals take place in London over the weekend of the 25th and 26th of January. This will be at the former Olympic venue, the Copper Box Arena, where we will find out who finishes top of the table and who finishes at the bottom on the Saturday afternoon. On Sunday the third and fourth placed sides vie for the wooden spoon, before the first and second placed sides play out for the gold medal.
The favourites for the tournament will be New Zealand, who are ranked second in the International Netball Federation World Rankings. However, the host nation England are ranked just one place below them in third and their home advantage may dividends. It’s a fairly strong tournament, as it turns out, as Jamaica are placed a sturdy fourth internationally, whilst South Africa find themselves in a respectful fifth position. This should be an intriguing and competitive event that could throw up some surprises.
For more information on the Netball Nations Cup, or if you want to buy tickets you can visit the England Netball website, www.englandnetball.co.uk
