Australia overcame rivals New Zealand 58-55 to win their 11th title in front of netball record crowd of 16,849 at Allphones Arena.
Congrats to @AussieDiamonds! 3rd Netball World Cup, beating NZ in front of a record crowd! @netballworldcup pic.twitter.com/JpDYwMFJLf
— ConsuladoEspañaMelb (@ConsuladoEspMel) August 16, 2015
The Silver Ferns had come into the final unbeaten after a shock win over Australia in the group stages, but a nine-goal deficit from the first quarter left New Zealand unable to catch the Commonwealth champions.
Australian goal attack Natalie Medhurst stressed how it was their plan to hit New Zealand hard and exert pressure from start to win the game;
“We really wanted to set it up in that first quarter and intensity was what we addressed. We really needed to hit them hard and really put that pressure on them from the start,” said Medhurst.
Australia now holds the Big Two titles, the Commonwealth Games and World Cup, concurrently, for the first time since 1998/99. Australia Coach Lisa Alexander has been reappointed for another four years after guiding the Australian diamonds to the 2015 Netball world cup trophy.
New Zealand coach Wai Taumaunu had earlier indicated that a World Cup final is totally different from a Test match because you can’t wake up the next day and play it all over again. Taumaunu though failed to guide the Silver Ferns to the victory and will have to wait for the Liverpool 2019 Netball World cup.
Meanwhile England beat Jamaica 66-44 to take bronze as they finished third in the Netball World Cup.
Wales ended the competition in seventh after winning their play-off 64-41 against Uganda to claim their best finish at a World Cup since 1991 – when it was also hosted in Sydney.
Scotland ended the tournament 12th after losing their 11th-place play-off 51-41 against Fiji.
South Africa narrowly beat Malawi 48-46 to secure fifth spot, while Trinidad and Tobago ended ninth after beating Samoa 64-51.
Meanwhile Barbados ended 13th with a 53-38 win over Zambia and Sri Lanka finished last after losing 59-32 to Singapore.
Read more at ncw2015