Australia were crowned Netball World Cup champions for the 12th time after defeating England 61-45 in the final in Cape Town.

The last Netball World Cup final was in Liverpool four years ago, and New Zealand won by just one goal. Australia made sure that wouldn’t happen again when they beat England 61-45 in the Final of the Netball World Cup 2023.

England was in their first Netball World Cup final after beating the defending champions, New Zealand, in the Semi-Final. The Australians were in their ninth straight gold-medal match, having never finished lower than second in the tournament’s 60-year history.

Australia came out strong and had a two-goal lead after the first few plays. Steph Wood was the driving force behind the Diamonds’ early attack. The England coach, Jess Thirlby, responded right away by putting Fran Williams in goal defence instead of Layla Guscoth. The move worked, as the Roses were able to close the gap and tie the score at 12-12, but they missed their chance to take the lead while the Australians were doing well to keep possession. The teams were tied at 13-13 at the end of the first quarter, so there was nothing to choose between them.

After the break, the Diamonds looked like they had more control because they were patient and worked their way through the England defence. Even though the Roses kept working hard to turn the ball over, they didn’t always take advantage of the chances they created. This was because Jo Weston and Courtney Bruce did a good job defending at goal defence and custodian, respectively.

So, the Diamonds got closer to winning and went into halftime with a four-goal lead.

England beat Australia by one goal in their final group game on Thursday in Cape Town. At halftime, Australia had a six-goal lead and wouldn’t have wanted to let it slip again.

As usual, the Diamonds had learned from their mistakes. They put their foot down in the third quarter and always seemed to be one step ahead of the Roses. Their connections looked good, and they were getting more confident, which made them even more dangerous when they attacked. Thirlby kept making changes to the England team, and even though there were some great individual plays from the Roses, it didn’t stop the flow of goals from Australia. Kiera Austin scored at the end of the game, giving her team a 10–0 lead going into the last break.

That was always going to be a big gap for England to close in just 15 minutes, but to their credit, they kept fighting until the end. But when the Australians were close to winning the title they had last won in 2015, the best team in the world just kept doing what they do best, building on their lead to make sure they won for a record 12th time.

Photo by Nic Bothma/BackpagePix