NEVILLE ON A MISSION TO DISH UP MORE GOLD
England coach’s World Cup bid
FOR Tracey Neville, winning is like eating the best steak. And she is desperate for another mouthful. Her chance begins today, when she leads England’s netballers into a World Cup which offers their best opportunity yet of global glory.
And although Australia arrive in Liverpool seeking revenge after England’s last- gasp Commonwealth victory last year, Neville is after a dish best served hot.
‘ It’s like going to your best restaurant, you choose the dish you like and you think, “I want to go back there again and experience that dish again”,’ explains Neville.
‘There’s no one who has won who doesn’t want to experience that winning feeling again. If you have a taste of your best steak, you want
another mouthful. That’s exactly where the girls are.’
Heading into 10 days of unrelenting competition, she and her 12-strong squad are not lacking in sources of motivation.
First there was the torment of watching Neville’s twin brother Phil and his Lionesses fall at the semi- final stage in football’s Women’s World Cup.
On that crushing defeat by the USA, Neville says it showed the ‘cruel’ side of sport, and adds: ‘The baton they’ve passed to us is the interest they got in the sport, the skill that they played with. We are riding off that. Hopefully we can do them proud, as they did us.’
Then there is a feeling voiced by several of the team that they need to prove their Commonwealth gold last year was no fluke by beating the world’s best on home turf.
And there is Neville’s impending departure — she announced last month that she is stepping down to focus on starting a family. Serena Guthrie, who will be captain for the first time at a big tournament, says the team have an extra edge because they want their head coach to go out ‘on a high’.
For so long, England were the nearly-theres, the ones who could never make it beyond the last four. At the last two World Cups, they finished third. But on the Gold Coast last year, they removed that monkey from their back.
Neville says: ‘The girls felt more pressure when, for about 20 years, we failed to get past that semifinal. Getting to the semi-final last year, they’ve experienced both. And that was one of the objectives for me as a coach. If you want to go win a gold medal, you have to have experienced it and they got to experience it last year.
‘My four-year plan was always building up to the World Cup, and winning that gold medal. So four years I have been waiting for this. We can’t wait to get started.’
The packed nature of the World Cup format requires a different type of player from the Commonwealths, and Neville has responded by dropping her injury-hit captain Ama Agbeze and picking the inexperienced pairing of Fran Williams and Natalie Panagarry.
Yet her squad also boasts immense experience, with 35-yearold jade Clarke having won 161 England caps.
Tonight, the Roses begin their campaign against Uganda. Neville has been building to this point since she first pulled on an England netball dress aged 16. ‘It’s about winning every day,’ she says. ‘As a team, we’ve got to win every day.’ TV: England v Uganda, LIVE on Sky Sports Main Event from 6.30pm.