Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own goal ring. It is one of a few sports created exclusively for women and girls and remains primarily played by them, on indoor and outdoor courts, especially in schools and most popularly in the Commonwealth of Nations.
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 October. France won the hosting rights in 2003, beating a bid from England. The competition consisted of 48 matches over 44 days; 42 matches were played in 10 cities throughout France, as well as four in Cardiff, Wales, and two in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Netball World Cup is a quadrennial international netball world championship organised by World Netball, inaugurated in 1963. Since its inception the competition has been dominated primarily by the Australia national netball team and the New Zealand national netball team, Trinidad and Tobago is the only other team to have won a title. The most recent tournament was the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, which was won by Australia.
The Netball at the 2006 Commonwealth Games was the third Commonwealth Games tournament. The preliminary matches were held at the State Netball and Hockey Centre with the finals being held at the multi-purpose Melbourne Park in the inner city.
The 1999 World Netball Championships was the tenth edition of the INF Netball World Cup, a quadrennial premier event in international netball. It was held in Christchurch, New Zealand from 21 September to 2 October 1999 and featured 26 teams with the debut of Niue, Tonga and Zambia. All matches were held at the Westpac Arena.
The 2011 World Netball Championships was the 13th edition of the INF Netball World Cup, a quadrennial premier event in international netball. It was held in Singapore from 3–10 July. All 48 matches were played at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Singapore was chosen as the host nation at the 2007 IFNA Congress in Auckland.
Indoor netball is a variation of netball, played exclusively indoors, in which the playing court is surrounded on each side and overhead by a net. The net prevents the ball from leaving the court, reducing the number of playing stoppages. This gives indoor netball a faster pace than netball.
The first Rugby Union World Cup was held in 1987, hosted by Australia and New Zealand who pushed for the tournament to be approved. Since the first tournament, 9 others have been held at four-year intervals.
Netball is the most popular women's team participation sport in Australia. In 1985, there were 347,000 players. In 1995, there were over 360,000 Australian netball players. Throughout most of Australia's netball history, the game has largely been a participation sport; it has not managed to become a large spectator sport. In 2005 and 2006, 56,100 Australians attended one to two netball matches. Of these, 41,600 were women. 46,200 attended three to five netball matches, with 34,400 of those spectators being women. 86,400 attended six or more netball matches, with 54,800 spectators being female. Overall, 188,800 people attended netball matches, with 130,800 being female. In 2005 and 2006, netball was the 10th most popular spectator sport for women with Australian rules football (1,011,300), horse racing (912,200), rugby league (542,600), motor sports (462,100), rugby union (232,400), football (212,200), harness racing (190,500), cricket (183,200) and tennis (163,500) all being more popular. The country set an attendance record for a Netball match with a record crowd of 14,339 at the Australia–New Zealand Netball Test held at the Sydney Super Dome game in 2004.
The Malawi national netball team, nicknamed "The Queens", represent Malawi in international netball competitions.
The Fast5 Netball World Series is an annual international Fast5 netball competition that was contested for the first time in October 2009. The new competition features modified Fast5 rules, and has been likened to Twenty20 cricket and rugby sevens. The competition is contested by the six top national netball teams in the world, according to the INF World Rankings.
Fast5 is a variation of netball featuring shortened games and goals worth multiple points. The new format was announced by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) in 2008, and was primarily developed for a new international competition, the Fast5 Netball World Series. The rules were revamped for 2012, with the variation being renamed Fast5.
The 2011–12 OFC Champions League, also known as the 2012 O-League, was the 11th edition of the Oceanian Club Championship, Oceania's premier club football tournament organized by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), and the 6th season under the current OFC Champions League name. It was contested by eight teams from seven countries. The teams were split into two four-team pools, the winner of each pool contesting the title of O-League Champion and the right to represent the OFC at the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup.
The 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the twentieth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The competition took place for the first time in New Zealand, the third time on Oceanian soil after Australia staged the 1981 and 1993 editions. A total of 52 matches were played in seven host cities.
Netball in Fiji is a popular sport, with a men's and a women's national team. Netball games are most often played by girls on Saturdays during the winter, though games can be played at all times of the year. Women's participation in netball is comparable to men's participation in rugby.
Netball in Oceania is generally regarded as a woman's sport. Women's sports in Oceania have traditionally had a very low profile. Despite this, netball is popular in Oceania, with its growth partly because of New Zealand encouraging the game and providing money for the training of coaches, umpires and other netball development needs. In New Zealand and in neighbouring Australia, netball is one of the most popular sports played by women.
Netball is a popular participant sport in some parts of the world, particularly in countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. According to the IFNA, over 20 million people play netball in more than 72 countries. IFNA member nations are divided into five regional groups: Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
The Netball World Cup Sydney 2015 (NWC2015) was the 14th edition of the INF Netball World Cup, the premier competition in international netball. It was held from 7–16 August, in Sydney, Australia, which secured hosting rights after defeating a rival bid from Manchester, England. Matches were played at Allphones Arena and Netball Central. Sixteen nations competed at the championships, including the top six teams from the 2011 World Netball Championships in Singapore. After two rounds in which teams competed in pools of four, Australia, New Zealand, England and Jamaica contested the semi-finals. Australia defended its 2011 title against New Zealand by a narrow 58–55 victory. The final at Allphones Arena was attended by 16,752 people, a world record for any netball game. Malawian shooter Mwai Kumwenda was the player of distinction.
The 2011 World Netball Series was the third edition of the World Netball Series, an annual international netball competition held under fastnet rules. The 2011 event was held in Liverpool, England, which also hosted the event in 2010. The tournament was contested by the top six national netball teams from the previous year, according to the IFNA World Rankings.
The 2012 Fast5 Netball World Series was the fourth staging of the annual World Netball Series, and the first to be played under the new Fast5 rules, which replaced the older fastnet rules introduced in 2009. The tournament was held at Vector Arena in Auckland, the first time it had moved from its previous host nation England.
New Zealand 
Australia (9th title)
Jamaica 
