The Netball World Championships - Reason to Believe, or Another Fizzled Attempt?

We couldn't get America's Cup back (a very dubious "World Cup" of ours). We came second in A1GP (the true annual World Cup season for motor sports) behind Germany, got knocked out of both Cricket World Cups (the 50-over version and the inaugural Twentry20 version), and don't mention about the All Blacks again. However, will the Netball World Championships be any different?

Rocky: Yes. The huge difference between this to other sports would be that we are the defending champions, and after the Fijian political turmoil, we have been granted home court advantages, OK, the major drawback was that the event shifted back by over 4 months, giving other teams more time to prepare as well, but this should .even up the competition as well.

Tim: No way they will repeat. Silver Ferns struggles against Australia is obvious, but to the shock loss to England, and potential problem against "The Sunshine Girls" of Jamaica won't surprise me. Australia's rebuilding phase is long complete after their series win over Silver Ferns, it makes their Commonwealth Games win in 2006 a very, very distant memory. Worst of all, they have positional uncertainties across the board, most notably with Temupara George's shock announcement that she is unavailable for selection for the team, but the reason was that she moved to Queensland to be with her partner, North Queensland Cowboy's Sione Faumuina and her family? That was a shock if you look at it from a purely sporting point of view.

Worse of all, given as recently as this month, Laura Langman's injury could bring George back into the frey - if she still wants to - and the most experienced mid-court players like Julie Seymour are showing her age in struggling to keep up with the faster pace of the, for example, youthful Jamaica. And besides, upsets could become more likely, there is less of a chance for Silver Ferns to repeat.