WALES were beaten 89-24 by the reigning world champions Australia and will now meet Malawi in the qualification round in Sydney as they continue to battle for their highest ever finish at the Netball World Cup.
The Australian Diamonds have picked up a head of steam since losing to arch-rivals New Zealand in the preliminary rounds and their victory over Wales made it a clean-sweep for them in the ‘First Eight’ section and clinched a semi-final spot against Jamaica.
In the other semi-final, New Zealand will meet England, while South Africa will face Uganda in the qualification round on Saturday.
Sunday sees the play-off matches and final, with the winners of the game between Malawi and Wales meeting the winners of the match between South Africa and Uganda for fifth and sixth and the losers fighting it out for seventh and eighth.
Wales came into the tournament ranked eighth in the world and are guaranteed to finish higher than they did at the last World Cup in Singapore four years ago.
Their best placing was sixth in 1975 and 1979, while they last finished as high as seventh in Australia 24 years ago.
That was the last time Wales had met Australia in the World Cup and this was a seventh straight defeat to the top side in the world at the tournament.
The two nations also met at last year’s Commonwealth Games, when the Aussies triumphed 63-36.
“We started strongly competing with Australia goal for goal for the first 10 minutes of the first quarter,” said Trish Wilcox, Welsh Netball’s head of elite performance.
“Unfortunately, we lost our composure making a number of errors which we will need to put right.
“It was an opportunity to give all 12 players exposure not only to playing the number one team in the world but in front of a record netball crowd. “This young group of players will only learn and grow from this experience.”
Wales, featuring Caerleon goal shooter Georgia Rowe and Cwmbran goal attack Emma Thomas, take on Malawi at 4.30 pm local time tomorrow (7.30am in the UK).
They have only met Malawi once before at the World Cup, losing 55-52 in a pool match in 2007.
Wales (v Australia): Georgia Rowe, Sara Bell, Nichola James, Kyra Jones, Suzy Drane, Lateisha Kidner, Rosanna Pretorius, Bethan Dyke, Chelsea Lewis, Emma Thomas, Stephanie Williams, Kelly Morgan
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