Scottish Thistles Road To Vitality Netball World Cup 2019
18th March 2019
This year the Vitality Netball World Cup 2019 took place in Liverpool from 12th to the 21st July 2019. Heres what the Scottish Thistles #RoadToLiverpool looked like from the Vitality Netball Superleague to The Vitality Netball World Cup.
VNWC Regional Qualifiers
Our Scottish Thistles qualified in 9th Place at the Netball World Cup 2019 Regional Qualifiers – Europe. The Thistles won both their matches over the weekend, defeting Wales 52-40 in the opening game of the weekend, and claiming a 52–31 victory over fellow World Cup Qualifier’s Northern Ireland at the final day of competition in Perth.
To read the mini-match reports from that qualifying weekend click here!
Strathclyde Sirens and the Vitality Netball Superleague
The 2019 Vitality Super League competition was also utilised as preparation by our national athletes for the NWC2019. The competition provided a unique platform for our players with quality match play every week, whilst intense and pressured matches play which provided a real test to the athletes. It was a platform to improve their performance and do so alongside National and Superleague coaches.
For a rundown of the Sirens Superleague season click here!
Scottish Thistles V Gibraltar
In preparation for the Netball World Cup the Thistles also held an International Test Match against Gibraltar Netball. This test took place on the 23rd March in Oriam, Edinburgh. For the Thistles this was an opportunity for the team and management to test out combinations and utilise their long squad in continuation of their #RoadToLiverpool campaign.
You can read a full match report here!
Vitality Netball World Cup 2019
Preliminaries Stage One – 12th to 14th July
First up, the Thistles competed in Preliminaries Stage One, of the NWC2019. Scotland was randomly selected for Group D, with games against England, Uganda and Samoa. If you want to relive the Scottish Thistles #NWC2019 opening campaign, or missed-out on any of their matches, we’ve got you covered! We’ve put together mini-match reports to give you a succinct overview of each match in Scotland’s #NWC2019 campaign – take a read here!
Preliminaries Stage Two – 15th to 18th July
The matches for Stage 2 were determined by the results of Stage 1. Scotland, who came 3rd in Group D, were then drawn to face South Africa, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in Group G for round two of the #NWC2019. This was a category that proved to be a real challenge for the Thistles who suffered defeat at the hands of the South African and Jamaican teams who, at the time of writing, are placed 5th and 2nd in the INF World Rankings. Nevertheless, Scotland showed that they could stand tall against these top teams particularly in their match against Trinidad and Tobago, one of the closes of the competition, which seen the Thistles draw 43-43.
To read mini-match reports from Stage 2 click here!
Play-offs and Placings – 19th to 21st July
Scotland finished 6th in Group G to play Barbados for the 11th/12th play-off. In the end excellent play in second and fourth quarters made the difference for the Thistles, who were able to see off Barbados and claim 11th as they ran out 53-42 winners. Scotland were able to maintain a tight grip on their final match which seen them claiming 11th in the NWC standings, an improvement upon their 12th-place finish in 2015.
To read our mini-match report click here!
Throughout the competition we had the most incredible support from our amazing Thistles Army who followed the Thistles throughout their #RoadToLiverpool! We couldn’t have done it without you #BackingPurple!
