Netball World Cup: NI to take on current world champions

Northern Ireland start their World Cup bid on Friday by taking on the world's best.

Dan Ryan's side play Australia in their opening game in Liverpool.

Aussie and former Manchester Thunder coach Dan took over from Elaine Rice as head coach before Christmas and has been preparing the squad for their biggest competition ever.

Northern Ireland are ranked eighth in the world and are an amateur side.

Meanwhile, down under, the Diamonds are full-time professionals.

Australia have held the world champion title since 2007 and the sides last met on the Gold Coast at the Commonwealth Games last year.

The Warriors were beaten 94-26 by the hosts but still managed to move up the world rankings, slotting into eighth position.

Despite the challenge ahead against Dan's native country, he says he will not be focusing on the scoreline and is hoping the standard will raise the Warrior's game:

"Look we have to keep everything in perspective, every game is like a final for us.

"Anytime we get the chance to play against some of those top five countries is going to be awesome.

"Our first game is against the world number one Australia which is going to be awesome to see us tested against the world's best."

The competition takes place over 20 thrilling sessions from 12-21 July at the Liverpool Arena.

Northern Ireland Warrior's face lower ranked Sri Lanka on Saturday and Zimbabwe on Sunday in stage one of the preliminary rounds.

But the head coach says despite their lower rank, they hope to learn lessons from the best side in the world:

"We're not looking further beyond our other two pool games against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe and they're going to pose really difficult propositions for us.

"We need to be ready and we will be and hopefully we can do really well."