England have moved up to second in the Netball world rankings following their series win against New Zealand, with their squads for the Jamaica series and Fast5 World Series announced.
England move up the rankings off the back of some impressive wins against Australia and New Zealand. They claimed their first win against the world No 1 in Australia since the Commonwealth Games gold medal match in 2018 before losing the series 2-1.
Thirlby’s side then earned an impressive 2-1 victory over the world No 2 New Zealand lifting the Taini Jamison Trophy after taking an unassailable 2-0 lead.
Now, they turn their focus to the Netball Horizon Series against Jamaica, which takes place on November 16 and 17 at the AO Arena in Manchester then 25 and 26 in Kingston, Jamaica, with Jess Thirbly selecting a 15-player squad for the contest. 10 players have then been selected for the FAST5 World Series in New Zealand on November 9-10.
14 of the squad from the Vitality Roses’ recent tour to Australia and New Zealand have been named in the squad to face Jamaica. Meanwhile, Halimat Adio has also been named in the squad via the “P3 route””, by which athletes not able to be in the full time Vitality Roses programme due to work or academia can be considered for selection”.
FAST5 is a shorter, fast version of the game with five players on each side. England, who finished in third place last year, will come up against the other sides ranked in the world’s top six nations: Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, South Africa and Uganda. The squad includes a mix of Vitality Roses and Future Roses, marking the first call up to a senior England squad for Future Roses Sophie Egbaran, Harriet Jones, Sophie Kelly, Isabella Phillips and Emma Rayner.
Vitality Roses Head Coach Jess Thirlby commented: “To have established a new groundbreaking series against Jamaica will not only prove valuable to our own preparations for the Netball World Cup in 2027 and beyond but also adds what will be a hotly anticipated series to the international calendar between two nations with aspirations to challenge the world order in the years to come.
“The history between our two nations speaks for itself. In recent years we have enjoyed series wins at home, but we are under no illusion that this new format, involving playing away in Jamaica, poses very different challenges and that the Sunshine Girls have arguably the best shooter and defensive unit in world netball right now.
“This is exactly why we want to play them and to do this so soon after playing both Australia and New Zealand allows us to continue that momentum against another world-leading team.
“A third of our selected team have never played against Jamaica before and the remainder of the squad have only done so between one to five times, so this will be a brilliant opportunity for us to strengthen both our understanding and experience of the dynamic Jamaican style of play, full of flair, speed and athleticism. I’m really looking forward to what will be an incredible match up.”
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