The ultimate team sport: A guide to the Netball World Cup

With all the fuss about the football, did you know there's a Netball World Cup about to get underway in South Africa and New Zealand are the defending champs?

If not, here's some information to help get you on board with what should be a wild ride in Cape Town.

Why are we so obsessed with beating Australia?

You would be too if your big brother or big sister kept beating you in the most painful of ways over and over again by the slimmest of margins.

Since the Netball World Cup first started in 1963, Australia has dominated the four yearly event, winning 11 titles.

New Zealand has won five, including in 1979 when we were joint champions with Australia and Trinidad and Tobago when it was still a round robin format.

The third time we won it was in 1987 in Glasgow. It would then take another 16 years before we wrestled it off Australia again.

In 1991 after leading each quarter, Australia pipped the Silver Ferns by one goal in the dying seconds of the gold medal match.

Four years later in Birmingham, South Africa shocked the Silver Ferns in pool play, which meant we had to beat Australia to get to the final.

But Australia beat us by one goal to deny us the opportunity and we got our worse finish at a World Cup, with bronze.

Redemption was meant to come in 1999 in Christchurch and the Silver Ferns looked like they had sealed it when they were up by six goals going into the final quarter. But the Australians somehow managed to pip us by one goal in the dying seconds.

When the Silver Ferns finally got the better of Australia in Jamaica in 2003, few would have thought it would take another 16 years before New Zealand would lift the trophy again.

But the Silver Ferns would be the bridesmaids to their trans-Tasman rivals once again in 2007, 2011, and 2015.

The 2011 edition was particularly heartbreaking as the game went to extra time and you guessed it, the Aussies beat us by one miserly goal.

So it was like Christmas for New Zealand netball fans when the Silver Ferns beat Australia by one goal to lift the trophy in 2019.

If the Silver Ferns can win gold in South Africa it would be the first time they have managed to defend the World Cup.

Why is there so much whistle?

There are a lot of things you can't do in netball but that is what makes it the ultimate team sport.

For instance, you can't hold the ball for more than three seconds, you can't defend a player with the ball within three feet, and you can't take more than two steps while in possession of the ball.

But that's where your team-mates come to the party and help you out.

They will be available for you to throw the ball to, to get you out of all sorts of trouble.

But the by-product of a lot of these rules is that the umpire does have to blow the whistle and call for infringements like 'held ball' 'stepping' or 'obstruction'.

Is it a non-contact sport?

NO, it is NOT a non-contact sport and this is a common misconception.

The best way to describe it would be as a semi-contact sport - meaning non-deliberate contact, i.e. contesting the ball but not taking someone out like in rugby or league.

So the umpires will allow for a level of 'contesting' if two players are trying to jump for a ball for example and one nudges the other in the process.

They need to be satisfied that there is no deliberate contact, or that it is interfering unfairly with the other players ability to gain or maintain possession.

Players can be sent off if a contact is deemed as dangerous to another player.

What is the most common phrase netballers use?

'Here if you need.'

It's a reassuring phrase that all netballers know well; four simple words that mean your team-mate has got your back on court.

No one teaches it, it's just a phrase every netballer knows from primary school onwards.

It embodies the whole ethos of being a team-sport. Like when there's always a team-mate available for a pass when you're starting to panic.

Sum up the Netball World Cup for me

Unlike the Rugby World Cup, which can last for up to two months, the Netball World Cup just gets on with it.

If the Silver Ferns make the final, they will play eight games in 10 days.

There are 16 teams split between four different pools. New Zealand is on the same side of the draw as South Africa and Jamaica.

England and Australia will be jockeying for semi-final spots on the other side.

Australia are slight favourites, but Jamaica are looking scarily good and could actually win it for the first time ever.

And South Africa might pull off an upset now that wily Australian coach Norma Plummer is back in charge.

The Silver Ferns have a great shot of defending the Cup for the first time in their history.

The 10-day competition concludes with the grand final early on Monday, 7 August (NZ time).

The Silver Ferns start their campaign against Trinidad and Tobago on Friday night.

Preliminaries Stage 1

• Friday 28 July - Silver Ferns v Trinidad & Tobago - 7pm
• Saturday 29 July - Silver Ferns v Uganda - 7pm
• Sunday 30 July - Silver Ferns v Singapore - 9pm