South Africa vs Wales Prediction & Betting Tips - Netball World Cup 2023

Prediction published on 27/07/2023, 12:00  by Devesh Jaganath | Modified on 27/07/2023 at 12:00

The 2023 Netball World Cup hosts, South Africa, will get their tournament underway when they take on Wales on Friday. The South Africans are currently ranked fifth in the world, while Wales are ranked ninth. This is the first time that South Africa will host the Netball World Cup, and they will be hoping to crown the occasion with their first-ever World Cup title. The SPAR Proteas’s best result at a World Cup came in 1995 when they were the runners-up to the Australians. They also managed a third-placed finish way back in 1967 but more recently came fourth in 2019. Since then, South Africa have put on a few notable performances, coming second at the 2022 Fast 5 Netball World Series, which included wins over New Zealand, Uganda, and England. Thereafter they won the Diamond Challenge at home but struggled at the Quad Series earlier this year, failing to win any of their four matches. Still, they will be full of confidence in this match as they are unbeaten against this opponent in their last seven encounters dating back to 2014. 

Meanwhile, Wales will be making their 13th appearance at the Netball World Cup this year; however, they had to wait a while, having failed to qualify for the tournament back in 2019. Wales’ best-ever finish in a World Cup was sixth, which was back in the 1970s, while in more recent times, they managed a seventh-placed finish in 2015. Their last competitive tournament was the Commonwealth Games last year, where they came eighth in the final standings. Their record was two wins and three losses during the group stages, which included a 69-51 loss to South Africa. They were eventually knocked out in the classification round by Malawi. They will find it hard to win this match, and with three teams qualifying from each group, Wales will likely be targeting their clash against Sri Lanka as one they must win.