International Series: What’s coming up in December?

England’s Vitality Roses vs South Africa’s SPAR Proteas

Announced during the Netball World Cup in the summer, the Vitality Roses take on South Africa at the start of December. The fixtures which are being held on Tuesday 5, Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December at Manchester’s AO Arena and Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena contain a whole host of NSL stars to look out for.

Five of the team who helped take England to their first-ever Netball World Cup Final feature in Jess Thirlby’s squad, whilst it will be a first home international series for Halimat Adio, Sasha Glasgow, Berri Neil, Jayda Pechova and Alicia Scholes.

This is the SPAR Proteas second international series since the World Cup in the summer, facing Australia in a three game test series only last month. This will be the third time that South Africa have met England this year. During the Quad Series in January, the teams drew their fixture in the round-robin stage before England came out victorious in the third-place play-off.

In case you missed the squad announcements, you can see England’s team here and South Africa’s here.

England’s Head Coach, Jess Thirlby said:

We’ve been looking forward to this home series since the summer and whilst we’ve already been incredibly busy since the success of the World Cup campaign competing in an away series in New Zealand and the recent Fast5, there is nothing like playing at home.

Curtain Raisers

Before the main event between England and South Africa, several curtain raiser matches will be held at one of the Nottingham Motorpoint Arena matches. On Sunday 10 December, NSL team London Pulse, who enjoyed the best ever finish last season, will face the Northern Ireland Warriors (who also features stars from our league) at 11:45am.

Although the fixture won’t be televised, you can keep up to date with the action and score on the relevant social media channels, @Pulse_Netball and @netballni.

Northern Ireland Warriors vs ROI Emeralds

The final series in 2023 sees the Northern Ireland Warriors face the ROI Emeralds on 16 and 17 December at the Ards Blair Mayne Wellbeing and Leisure Complex in Belfast. Amongst the 15 selected, are four NSL stars, chosen to represent the Warriors.

New signing for Severn Stars, Niamh Cooper steps out once again for the Warriors after an impressive stint at the Commonwealth Games and a series against Uganda in Northern Ireland last year.

Sister duo Michelle and Emma Magee are no strangers to the world stage as both have represented Northern Ireland in the past at the Commonwealth games and the Netball World Cup in 2019. With both representing Leeds Rhinos next season, their on court connections are about to grow even stronger with further international experience under their belt.

Caroline O’Hanlon is also coming back to represent her country, preparing to captain the Warriors to a successful series against the ROI Emeralds. O’Hanlon has represented Northern Ireland in three Netball World Cups, two European Championships and captained her side in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which was her third time at the Games. Alongside netball, O’Hanlon works as a GP as well as playing Gaelic Football for Armagh Ladies.

Be sure to keep an eye on @netballni social media for game and score updates.

😲TEST SERIES SOLD OUT😲

Amazing by our netball family to sell out our test series v @NetballIreland in Dec!

We’ll be sharing some REALLY exciting Test Series content in the lead up to the match, so keep your eyes peeled! 👀

💚@_SportNI @TNLComFundNI #performancesport

— Netball NI (@netballni) November 21, 2023

To keep up with the latest news and content, make sure to follow the @NetballSL on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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