World Netball (WN) has released the latest WN World Rankings which reflect matches played from the 5th December 2021 up until the 31st January 2022. These include matches played at the recent England Netball Quad Series and Wales Netball Quad Series.
Despite the intensity of competition on the court this latest update sees no change to the relative ranking positions of the top six teams, with Australia retaining 1st place, New Zealand in 2nd, England in 3rd , Jamaica in 4th, and South Africa and Uganda in 5th and 6th place.
During this period WN World Ranked number one Australia played their first international match since March 2021, and went on to win the England Netball Quad Series unbeaten, increasing their rating from 199 to 201. England finished the Series in second place and beat WN World Ranked number two, New Zealand, in the process, closing the gap even further between the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams. South Africa were the fourth team competing in the Series, however they failed to secure a win against any of the top three, meaning their rating decreased by one but their ranking stayed the same.
The first change in the table can be seen at 34th where Papua New Guinea have replaced Gibraltar. Gibraltar were defeated by Wales, Republic of Ireland and Isle of Man at the Wales Quad Series, leading to them dropping five rating points and consequently moving down to 35th in the table. Meanwhile, three victories from Wales at the same Series meant that their rating increased by one from 109 to 110 keeping them securely in 9th place above Trinidad and Tobago. The Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland recorded one victory each, before drawing against each other 48-48 on the final day of the competition. Those results meant that the Isle of Man gained two rating points, whilst the Republic of Ireland gained one.
In 2021 due to COVID the WN Board decided to defer the World Rankings Annual Update from July 2021 until after the qualification date for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The top six Commonwealth Games Association’s (CGA’s), as per the WN World Rankings on the 28th July 2021, were invited in October 2021 to participate in the games, and the remaining six CGA’s were given until the 31st January 2022 to qualify. The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) will now use these rankings to identify the final six CGA’S who are eligible to be invited to the games, which will take place between the 28th July – 8th August 2022. The CGF will invite the final eligible CGA’s in February 2022.
These decisions were made to protect the integrity of the rankings for the benefit of Member nations and provide additional time for fixtures to be played before the 2022 domestic netball season begins. The full announcement on these policies can be found here.
You can view the full WN World Rankings table here.
You can view the top six Birmingham 2022 qualifiers here.
