Netball: Tracey Neville challenges England to stop being the ‘nearly’ team

New national netball coach tells Stuart Robertson her plan to avoid being also-rans again at World Cup

(GETTY IMAGES)

One bad day at the office, one loose pass. Sometimes these are the only things that stand between all your dreams coming to fruition and the numbing realisation that you may forever be haunted by those most unwelcome sporting words “if only...”

England’s netballers, habitual bronze medallists on the international stage, know the latter phrase only too well, but are now hoping to discover better times under their new coach, Tracey Neville, who was handed the reins in the wake of a disappointing Commonwealth Games and a series defeat in Jamaica.

England fell agonisingly short in Glasgow last year, losing to world powerhouses Australia and New Zealand by a single point in each game, before under-performing against Jamaica in the bronze-medal match. And Neville, who starts her time in charge and the build-up to August’s World Cup with the first match of a series against Trinidad & Tobago in Bath tonight, can empathise with their feeling of disappointment after last month seeing her other team, the reigning domestic champions Manchester Thunder, suffer a shock semi-final defeat that ruined a previously unbeaten season.

“Where did England go wrong? I think it’s like me – you can have one bad day at the office and you miss the opportunity to get into the game you really want to get into,” she said.

“I think we weren’t used to being in the situation of having one goal in it with the likes of Australia and New Zealand so the more practice we get in those circumstances will set us in good stead.

“England have had a habit of losing the game in one quarter. I think for us at the World Cup the key thing is to get on the pace of the game early and really be strong from the start and continue that momentum.”

In Glasgow one misjudged pass and a breakaway score by New Zealand was all that separated England from the final and guaranteed silver. Instead they went home empty-handed. “You look at Australia taking out games, you look at New Zealand who can under-perform and win,” said Neville. “We under-perform and we truly under-perform so it’s about learning how to grind out wins.”

As England begin their build-up to the World Cup, they will do so without some of their elite players, including Geva Mentor and Jo Harten, who are still competing in the Australian and New Zealand leagues. Neville, though, does not see this as a negative.

“I think it’s an opportunity because it really gives other players the momentum to push forward,” she said. “It’s about challenging players to step up. I know every single one of them and I know they want it, they want to perform for England. I do think they want to right the wrongs if that is possible to say.”

And the new England coach knows that “righting the wrongs” this summer will do much to raise the profile of the sport. The appointment of Neville, a member of a sporting family dynasty that includes her footballing brothers, Gary and Phil, has helped gain national headlines and she is acutely aware of the opportunity within touching distance in Australia this August.

“Success breeds success,” she said. “If we won gold it would escalate everything in the country. England have never won a gold. There’s been enough excuses, it’s now a case of you’ve got the court, you’ve got the bib, let’s go out and do it.”