THE 2023 Netball World Cup is almost here, and to help count down to the tournament, Rookie Me Central will be previewing all the competing teams and seeing how they might fair at the tournament.

Today it is time to take a look at Scotland.

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND AT THE NETBALL WORLD CUP

Scotland will certainly be looking to defy a bit of history at this year’s World Cup.

Despite competing at every edition of the tournament bar 2011, it has never finished higher than sixth, which is something it has achieved three times to date.

Last time at the World Cup though it finished 11th.

RECENT HISTORY

As a country that is not one of the top, dominant countries in world netball, regular matches have been even harder to come by for the Thistles than the top sides.

After a ninth placed finish at last year’s Commonwealth Games, the build up to this year’s World Cup for the Thistles has included warm up matches against the Welsh Feathers and an NSL All Stars side. They beat the All Star side fairly comfortably but narrowly lost to the Feathers.

KEY PLAYERS

For Scotland, it is really going to have to lean on its experienced heads including Claire Maxwell and Emily Nicholl to counter the fact that so many members of its squad are off to their first World Cup.

Seven members of the 12 player squad – including the likes of Iona Christian and Hannah Leighton – have not been to a World Cup before, so the experienced heads of the likes of Maxwell, Nicholl and Bethan Goodwin will be crucial if the Thistles want to create some history this tournament.

One thing that Scotland has as an advantage that not many other countries have how much time the players have played together this year. Games at international level have been few and far between for the Thistles, but with eight members of the squad coming from the Strathclyde Sirens in the Netball Super League – and a further two from the Sirens’ development program – these players have still played a lot together this year.

SCOTLAND FIXTURE (start times local)

Friday 28th July – 8pm – Malawi

Saturday 29th July – 4pm – Barbados

Sunday 30th July – 4pm – England

SCOTLAND SQUAD

Claire Maxwell, Emily Nicholl, Emma Barrie, Bethan Goodwin, Niamh McCall, Cerys Cairns, Emma Love, Iona Christian, Hannah Leighton, Hannah Grant, Cerys Finn and Rachel Conway

Reserves: Kelly Boyle, Anna Fairclough and Sarah Macphail