World Netball (WN) has today updated the WN World Rankings to include the results from the PacificAus Sport Series and the Europe Netball Open Challenge, the first two international events to take place since the annual update on the 1st March 2023.
The two events saw 16 international teams from WN Member countries take part in 44 matches.
The latest update sees no change to the positions of the top teams with Australia remaining 1st, New Zealand 2nd, England 3rd, Jamaica 4th and South Africa 5th.
Malawi and Tonga also remain in their respective 6th and 7th positions. However, Tonga has reduced the gap from ten ranking points to just one point after they finished the PacificAus Series unbeaten; beating Malawi 41-54 in the Final.
Another team that has been rewarded for their success at the PacificAus Sport Series is Samoa, who have moved up one place to 17th after they won four out of their six games, notably beating Fiji 64 – 55 who beat Samoa to a place at the VNWC2023 at the Oceania qualifier.
Following the Europe Netball Open Challenge in June, many changes were then seen further down the table.
Israel re-entered the rankings at 40th, as they reached the minimum number of matches (6) required to have a ranking. This takes the number of WN World Ranked countries up to 46.
The biggest change in the table can be seen at 33rd, with the hosts of the Netball World Youth Cup 2025, Gibraltar, climbing five places to claim this position, after they finished Europe Netball Open Challenge – Division 2 – unbeaten. Elsewhere, Republic of Ireland moved up four places from 30th to 26th after they finished second in Division 1 of the same event, only losing to the eventual champions UAE who remain in 25th place.
The Europe Netball Open Challenge also saw new WN Full Members France play their first international ranking matches. France has now played five ranking matches in total, so have not yet reached the minimum (6) required to have a ranking.
From the 3rd – 7th July netball will be included in The Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC Games) for the first time, these matches are the last planned WN World Ranked international matches ahead of the Vitality Netball World Cup 2023 which is taking place in Cape Town South from the 28th July – 6th August 2023.
To view the updated WN World Rankings, visit our website here.
To find out more about the Vitality Netball World Cup 2023, click here.
