For the last two weeks we’ve been in the grips of the Fifa Women’s World Cup. But slightly further afield, a different variety of World Cup is underway – and we still have a chance at this one.
For someone who loves watching sport as much as I do, it feels weird to say there’s almost been too much of it recently. The Football Ferns kept us all holding our breaths as they fell agonisingly short of becoming the first senior New Zealand football side to make it beyond the World Cup group stage. The All Blacks thrashed the Aussies to claim another Bledisloe Cup in rugby union, and the Warriors have shocked not only their haters, but their fans too with a stunning season so far.
And all the while, buried under the piles of other sports news, at a stadium in Cape Town, the Silver Ferns are defending their World Cup crown, competing for their first ever back-to-back titles after beating Australia in the 2019 final.
The competition will be all over by 5:30am on Monday, so with time running out to catch the action, here’s everything you need to know.
Before I set my 4am alarm to watch the finals, do we actually have a shot?
Short answer? Yes.
Long answer: the Netball World Cup is set up like a high school sports tournament, meaning teams play almost every day, sometimes (like today) playing twice within less than 24hrs. Somewhere in between they recover, review games, train, eat and apparently sleep – it’s a big ask for these athletes. So far in the competition we’ve been relatively safe. Three pool games we’ve won by upwards of 49 goals. A decent challenge from the Ugandan She-cranes came to just a 10-goal Silver Ferns victory, and this morning’s nailbiter against host nation South Africa, who are currently fifth in the world, ended in a draw (we are currently ranked second so a win was expected). At 9pm tonight, however, we face world number three Jamaica, which, if we win, should be our toughest battle until (hopefully) the grand final.
What stands in our way?
Injuries have rocked the NZ camp in recent days. Superstar shooter Grace Nweke, who stands at 192cm and has mega hops, has been ruled out with a knee injury sustained during her first eight minutes on court in a game versus Singapore that we won by 61 goals. To say that hurt (her knee, my heart and our overall chances) would probably be accurate.
But we have a replacement, her name is Tiana Metuarau (despite commentator Jenny Woods calling her Metiria Turei at one point during the Wales v NZ match), and the Ferns’ three other shooters are seasoned veterans – two of whom were in the squad that won this tournament four years ago.
We have an experienced defending end and a super zippy midcourt including 2019 veteran Gina Crampton and “Princess of Porirua” Whitney Souness (who commentator Jenny Woods has called Whitney Houston multiple times over the last few years – honestly, is Jenny Woods trying to do some sort of alternative commentary nicknaming thing? If so, I’d love to hear the rest.)
Shit! What happens if we lose tonight?
It’s not the end of the road, though we’ll probably have to pull off an upset to make it to the finals. Australia are almost sure to top their pool, with England coming in second. That means if we lose to Jamaica, we’ll be taking on world number one, tournament favourites and our eternal foes Australia in the semi-final. That would not be ideal.
Anything else we should know?
In 2019 the Silver Ferns went into the World Cup as underdogs – and people really did not believe they had a chance at even making the finals. After a few years where they had dropped as low as fourth in the world rankings, the Ferns had a new coach in Noeline Taurua, and were out to prove they were better than a dismal medal-less showing at the previous year’s Commonwealth Games.
And they did. They won for the fifth time ever in a match that was decided by just one goal and went down to the last second, with me and many other New Zealand fans screaming at the TV all the way.
There’s no reason they can’t do it again. So New Zealand, set your alarms. We’ve got another team of Ferns to back.
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