New Zealand playing Cook Islands on 21 September 2025.
Photo: Facebook / World Netball / Mark Rodriguez
Cook Islands is the only Pacific Island team that has secured their top eight spot at the Netball World Youth Cup in Gibraltar.
The islanders are second in Pool A behind New Zealand, and have three wins from four matches.
That includes the two-points advantage awarded to them from their clash against Zambia, following the later’s non-appearance at the event.
Cook Islands head coach Lux Letoa, who is assisted by former national skipper Luciana Nicholas, hailed the players for the wins.
“Our athletes have shown tremendous dedication throughout the first half of the tournament, consistently strengthening their team connection and holding one another accountable for their performance and overall contribution on court,” Letoa told Cook Islands News.
“Luci and I have been very clear with our expectations leading into each game, and to their credit, the athletes have responded.”
Fiji still has an outside and tougher chance to qualify from Pool D if they beat South Africa in their final pool at game on Thursday morning.
Malawi, who beat Fiji 52-51 on Monday night, lost to South Africa in the top-of-the pool clash on Tuesday, leaving them tied with Fiji on four points each.
Had Fiji won that clash they would have already secured their top two finish from the pool.
Now they have to take on the fiery South Africans.
Malawi has Barbados to tackle. Whoever wins from Fiji or Malawi will secure second spot and qualify for the second-round ranking for spots one to eight.
On current results Malawi is tipped to qualify, with Barbados yet to win a game.
Samoa and Tonga are headed to the positional play-offs after their loses on Tuesday night.
Samoa were beaten 64-36 by Australia.
Tonga suffered the same fate at the hands of England, losing 72-25.
The results mean both teams will drop to the bottom of the competition play-offs.
Revised schedule
With the revised schedule approved by World Netball, following the non-appearance of Zambia and Sri Lanka, that will mean Samoa will play-off for ninth to 12th position, as a third placed finisher in their pool.
Tonga, as a fourth placed team at the end of the first round, will drop to playing off for 13th to 18th position.
The new format will see teams finishing third playing off in a pool, in a round robin format, for 9th to 12th position.
Fourth placed teams will be slotted into two pools to play-off for 13th to 18th position.
World Netball said in a statement that the changes to the schedule will be implemented from stage two of the competition, which begins on Thursday 25 September, in order to retain the competition structure and minimise disruption, whilst also maximising the number of matches all teams will play.
“The process for the top eight during stage two will remain the same, with the top two from each pool competing in Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Play-off games, culminating in medal matches for the top four teams.
“Draws will not be permitted in these games.
“Those playing for positions nine to 18, will now be split into two groups 9th-12th and 13th-18th.
“The teams that finish 3rd in each of the original pools in stage one of the competition, will be placed into one pool containing four teams where they will each play three games in a round robin format.
“Finally, the teams that finish 4th and 5th in their stage one pools will be split into two new pools, where they will compete for positions 13th-18th. These teams will complete a round robin, playing two games each, then being ranked in their pool E or F before having one final Play-off match against their equivalent from the other pool.”
Tonga unhappy
But the revised schedule, without consultation with member associations, has not gone down well with Tonga Netball.
Chief executive Salote Sisifa, who is also interim President for Oceania Netball, said the revised schedule denied teams from achieving higher status.
The initial schedule had third and fourth placed teams going into a play-off for ninth to 16th positions, with the bottom four placed teams heading into their own pool to compete for placings in the 17th to 20th positions.
“It’s messy ugly and unjust,” Sisifa said.
“Ripping countries off the opportunity.”
The final round of pool matches will be held on Wednesday night and Thursday morning New Zealand time.
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