England Netball has announced the names of 15 athletes that will be traveling to Australia and New Zealand for a behind closed doors tournament later this month.
The Vitality Roses squad, which includes Vitality Netball World Cup bronze medalists Fran Williams and Natalie Panagarry, will play and train against Australia’s development team in Canberra, before both sides travel across to Auckland to face the New Zealand A side.
The Roses, who will be going on tour for the first time with their new Head Coach, Jess Thirlby, will depart the week commencing 23 September and return on 13 October.
The players selected for the tour are as follows:
|
Imogen Allison |
Team Bath |
WD/C |
|
Summer Artman |
Team Bath |
GK/GD |
|
Eleanor Cardwell |
Manchester Thunder |
GS/GA |
|
Amy Carter |
Manchester Thunder |
C/WD |
|
Sophie Drakeford-Lewis |
Team Bath |
GA/WA |
|
George Fisher |
Saracens Mavericks |
GA/GS |
|
Laura Malcolm |
Manchester Thunder |
C/WD/WA |
|
Gabby Marshall |
Saracens Mavericks |
C/WD |
|
Victoria Oyesola |
Loughborough Lightning |
GD/WD |
|
Natalie Panagarry |
Loughborough Lightning |
C/WD |
|
Jessica Shaw |
Loughborough Lightning |
C/WA |
|
Kate Shimmin |
Adelaide Thunderbirds |
GK/GD |
|
Olivia Tchine |
London Pulse |
GS/GA |
|
Razia Quashie |
Saracens Mavericks |
GK/GD |
|
Fran Williams |
Wasps Netball |
GD/WD |
Jess Thirlby, Vitality Roses Head Coach, said: “It is very exciting to be taking this team on tour to Australia and New Zealand to compete against both team’s equivalent emerging talent.
“We have some new faces within the Roses programme now and this is a great chance to expose those players to new styles of play and competition, whilst giving them the opportunity to learn from some of their more experienced teammates, for instance Natalie and Fran who had the amazing opportunity to compete in the Vitality Netball World Cup earlier this year.
“I’m very much looking forward to my first international tour as Head Coach of the Vitality Roses and can’t wait for what the future holds for this team.”
Jess will be joined by former England player Sonia Mkoloma as Assistant Coach for the duration of the tour. Sonia has competed in three Netball World Cups and Commonwealth Games and has been inducted into the England Netball Hall of Fame.
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