NORTHERN Ireland’s hopes of a top-eight finish have ended following defeat to high-flying New Zealand at the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool.
Despite defeat to reigning champions Australia and a shock loss to Zimbabwe in the first preliminary stage, Northern Ireland did enough to earn a top-12 place thanks to victory over Sri Lanka.
However, the fortunes of the team didn’t pick up in the second preliminary group stages.
Defeat to Malawi in the opening game of the second preliminary stage gave Northern Ireland a real mountain to climb and yesterday’s 28-77 defeat to New Zealand put a top-eight placement beyond Northern Ireland.
Dan Ryan's team were well beaten by New Zealand but will take encouragement from a strong finish to the game, with Ciara Crosbie scoring six goals from nine attempts, while Emma Magee was on target with 14 from 22.
"The last quarter was awesome," Ryan told the BBC.
"When a scoreline blows out like that, sometimes it's about how you conduct yourselves. They fought to the very end and that's all you can ask for.
"Ciara Crosbie, who hasn't seen much game time this World Cup, came onto the court and she got out there and opened up the circle, ran the base-line, pinged the ball around and some beautiful passages of play.
"I'm happy with how we finished the game, obviously some errors here and there as they put us under a lot of pressure, but I'm glad they finished it off with our highest-scoring quarter of the match."
Northern Ireland now turn their attentions to Barbados on Thursday morning, where a win would ensure a top ten-finish for the side.
However, defeat to Barbados will result in Northern Ireland finishing outside the top-ten at this year’s World Cup.
