Guide: Regional Qualifier – Oceania

The final whistle may have gone at the 2018 Commonwealth Games but the netball isn’t stopping on the Gold Coast! This week sees the Netball World Cup 2019 Regional Qualifier – Oceania take place at Phyllis Latour Doyle Highwire Trust Arena in Papakura, Auckland, New Zealand from 17-21 April.

Five teams – Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Fiji – will go head-to-head for two qualifying spots at the World Cup tournament, which takes place in Liverpool, England next July.

The top two placed teams from the Regional Qualifier – Oceania will join England who qualify automatically as host nation and Scotland and Northern Ireland who qualified through the Regional Qualifier – Europe event in January.

Find out more about the qualification process for the World Cup here.

THE SCHEDULE

Tuesday 17 April

Samoa v Tonga                                       6:00am (UK), 5:00pm (local)

Papua New Guinea v Cook Islands    8:00am (UK), 7:00pm (local)

Wednesday 18 April

Tonga v Fiji                                            6:00am (UK), 5:00pm (local)

Samoa v Papua New Guinea              8:00am (UK), 7:00pm (local)

Thursday 19 April

Tonga v Papua New Guinea               6:00am (UK), 5:00pm (local)

Fiji v Cook Islands                               8:00am (UK), 7:00pm (local)

Friday 20 April

Cook Islands v Samoa                        6:00am (UK), 5:00pm (local)

Papua New Guinea v Fiji                   8:00am (UK), 7:00pm (local)

Saturday 21 April

Cook Islands v Tonga                         1:00am (UK), 12:00 noon (local)

Fiji v Samoa                                          2:30am (UK), 1:30pm (local)

THE TEAMS

At 12 in the world, Fiji are the top-ranked side in the five-team qualifier – ahead of Samoa at 15, Cook Islands at 17, Papua New Guinea at 18 and Tonga who are unranked – but arrive in Auckland following a challenging Commonwealth Games, at which they didn’t win a game and picked up injuries to key players.

Samoa and Fiji both qualified for the 2015 World Cup in Sydney, where they finished in 10th and 11th places respectively.

Cook Islands squad: Ashleigh Iro (captain), Eri Te Ana Short, Luciana Nicholas, Anania Piri, Daimzel Rongokea, Alanna Smith, Marjorie Toru, Jasmin Forbes-James, Princess Tikitau, Alex Iro, Maria Milani, Rochelle Teiri

Papua New Guinea squad: Neritha Adula, Rayleen Andrew, Tiata Baldwin-Ovia, Hana Barretto, Nancy Beaso, Mary-Ellen Bonser, Julie-Anne Diro, Jacklyn Lahari, Mayleen Nona, Serena Ovia, Boio Peter, Jeperth Tulapi

Fiji squad: TBC

Tonga squad: TBC

Samoa squad: TBC

HOW TO FOLLOW THE TOURNAMENT

Watch live online on the Netball World Cup 2019 Facebook page.

Updates on NWC2019 Twitter and Facebook