Netball Super League | Netball World Cup 2023: How does it work?

Taken during Round 1of the Netball Super League at the Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham, England on 11th January 2023.

The Netball World Cup 2023 will see South Africa host the tournament for the first time in its history, as well as celebrate the 60th anniversary of the competition.

16 teams from across the globe will go toe-to-toe for netball’s ultimate prize from 28 July to 6 August 2023 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) and there will be lots of Netball Super League (NSL) icons set to take on the World stage!

Netball World Cup 2023 Squad Announcements 🙌

Keep up to date with the announcements of some NSL stars appearing in this year’s @NetballWorldCup as they happen in this thread 👇#RoadToCapeTown | #NWC2023 pic.twitter.com/LlNQYYqWfs

— Netball Super League (@NetballSL) May 18, 2023

For the 2023 Netball World Cup, the format will be the same as the tournament in 2019, which sees the teams compete in three stages at the competition:

Preliminaries Stage One: 28 – 30 July

Preliminaries Stage Two: 31 July – 3 August

Play-offs and Placings matches: 4 – 6 August

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the 2023 Netball World Cup…

How long is each match?

Matches will be 60 minutes in duration, consisting of four quarters of 15 minutes.

Intervals between the first and second quarters and the third and fourth quarters will be four minutes.

The half-time break (between the second and third quarter) will be a total of 12 minutes.

How many points does a team get for a win in the Preliminaries Stage One and Two?

In Preliminaries Stage One and Two, teams will be allocated points dependant on their outcome: two for a win, one each for a draw and no points for a loss.

At the end of each preliminary stage, teams will be ranked according to points and this will determine their progression through the tournament.

If two teams are tied on points, the team who has the higher goal average (which is calculated by goals for divided by goals against) will be ranked higher.

If goal averages are equal then goal difference, (the difference between the goals scored and the goals conceded) will be applied and if this is the same, the result of the match between the teams will be used to determine the higher placed team.

If the result was a draw or there are more than two teams equal on points, the team who scored the most goals will be ranked higher.

If the two teams are still equal after this, a coin toss will determine the top team.

What happens if there is a draw?

Matches in the preliminaries may result in a draw but all play-off and placings games will be played to an end result.

If a game concludes in a tie in any play-off or placing match, extra time of two seven-minute halves will be played.

In the event of a tie remaining at the end of extra time, play will continue until one team has a by two goals.

Preliminaries Stage One (28 – 30 July)

Teams will compete in four round-robin pools (A, B, C and D) which all contain four teams.

Teams were assigned to their preliminary pools by seeding based on their world rankings.

The top eight teams were pre-assigned to pools with one team from the 9th-12th seeds and one from the 13th-16th seeds drawn randomly into each pool.

The top three finishers in each pool will then progress to the Preliminaries Stage Two to compete for the title.

Pool A: Australia, Tonga, Zimbabwe, Fiji

Pool B: England, Malawi, Scotland, Barbados

Pool C: Jamaica, South Africa, Wales, Sri Lanka

Pool D: New Zealand, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore

Preliminaries Stage Two (31 July – 3 August)

In stage two of the competition, the top three teams from Pools A and B will form Pool F, and the top three teams from Pools C and D will form Pool G.

The bottom four finishers from Pools A-D will compete for 13th-16th places in Pool E.

When teams in Pools F and G have already played each other in the Preliminaries Stage One (e.g. A1 has already played A2 and A3), these results will carry through to the Preliminaries Stage Two.

Play-Offs and Placings (4 – 6 August)

The teams finishing first and second in Pools F and G will go through to the semi-finals, with the top team in each pool facing the second places team in the other pool.

Pools F and G

The winners of each semi-final will compete for gold in the final, with the losers playing for bronze.

The teams who finish third and fourth in Poolss F and G will compete for final positions, fifth to eighth – third in one pool plays fourth in the other – with the winners playing off for fifth place and the losers for seventh.

The teams that finish fifth in Pools F and G will play off for ninth and tenth places.

The teams that finish last in Pools F and G will play off for 11th and 12th places.

Pool E

The top two teams from Pool E will play off for 13th and 14th places and the bottom two teams will play off for 15th and 16th place.

You can view the full competition schedule here.

Make sure you’re following @NetballSL on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok for any updates on how your NSL stars are getting on at the 2023 Netball World Cup!