The sixteen teams entered to contest the 2007 World Netball World Championships , beginning in Auckland on Saturday, have arrived in New Zealand.
The second contingent of the Malawi team arrived in the early afternoon with the first group of the African team, who play New Zealand in Saturday’s opening match at the Trusts Stadium, Waitakere, arriving late last night.
Botswana were the last team to touch down at Auckland International Airport this afternoon after travel delays, which meant they missed the Captains’ Call media conference at Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour.
Despite an initial setback in losing 80-21 to the Australian side in a warm-up match played at the Trusts Stadium on Tuesday, the South African side will be anxious to start their first game against Malaysia on Sunday.
Netball Australia quotes their captain Liz Ellis as posing a timely warning to the tournament’s favourites: "I think this is the most open World Championships that I have been involved in," Ellis said.
"People want to keep talking up a potential final between Australia and New Zealand, but I think we would be remiss not to have learnt some lessons from our rugby playing colleagues – You have to get to the final first before you start thinking who you are going to play and whether you are going to win it."
On Monday the South African side face the Caribbean side of Barbados, and their final pool-stage match is scheduled for Tuesday against England.
The Australian team is second-ranked behind top seeds and hosts New Zealand, while South Africa’s pool-stage opponents Barbados and England are ranked 10 and 4 respectively against SA’s fifth-place ranking, while Malaysia are currently not ranked.
South Africa must finish among the top two sides in its Pool, in order to progress to the Quarter-Finals and further elimination matches.
Click here to visit the South Africa team page on the World Netball Champs website, and visit this page to send our team your support.
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