World Netball (WN) has today updated the WN World Rankings to include the results from the international series that took place from the 30th September to the 10th December, with 84 matches taking place across the five Regions. This takes the number of matches played since the annual update on the 1st March 2023 up to 202.
The top positions stay the same with the recent Netball World Cup 2023 winners Australia remaining 1st, followed by New Zealand, England, and Jamaica.
The first change in ranking can be seen at 16th where Fiji replaces Samoa, following the Fiji Pearls finishing second at the Pacific Games in December. During the competition they won all their games in the pool stage, as well as their semi-final before losing to 8th ranked team Tonga in the Final.
Grenada and Namibia were also rewarded in the WN World Rankings for their recent success at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) International Series and Africa Netball Cup respectively with both teams moving up two places leaving Grenada 19th and Namibia 20th.
Slightly further down the table, Singapore moves up one place to 25th following their victory at the Nations Cup in October, whilst for Papua New Guinea their Nations Cup and Pacific Games results saw them jump two places up to 34th as they won four out of five of their ranking matches at the Nations Cup, only losing to Singapore in the Final, and then went on to finish 4th at the Pacific Games in November.
Meanwhile three new teams entered the rankings (Canada at 36th, Eswatini at 37th and Dominica at 40th ) after reaching the minimum number of games required (8) to qualify for a WN World Rankings. This takes the number of WN World Ranked teams up to 44.
British Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, and Solomon Islands also played their first ranking matches since becoming Full Members of WN in this period, and they are now in the list of 12 unranked teams who will join the WN World Rankings when they have played the minimum number of games.
International Netball signs off 2023 with the Northern Ireland Warriors versus the Republic of Ireland Emeralds two match series from the 16th and 17th December. What a fantastic year it has been!
To view the updated WN World Rankings, visit our website here.