Commonwealth Games netball: England's Vitality Roses beaten by Australia in Glasgow for first defeat of tournament
England suffered their first defeat of the Commonwealth Games after going down 66-47 to reigning champions Australia in Glasgow.
The Vitality Roses trailed 18-11 after the first quarter and 35-24 at half-time before a series of handling errors helped Australia stretch their lead to 56-35 with 15 minutes left.
England won the final quarter 12-10 but the damage was already done as they were unable to back up their opening 83-34 victory over Northern Ireland on Saturday.
England, for whom Olivia Tchine scored 23 goals, face Malawi on Monday before further Group A games against Tonga on Wednesday and South Africa on Thursday.
The top two sides in Groups A and B after all the sides have played the others in their pool once each will advance to the semi-finals.
The Vitality Roses took Commonwealth Games gold on the Gold Coast in 2018, beating host nation Australia in the final, but did not medal in Birmingham four years ago.
Speaking after Sunday's defeat to Australia's Diamonds, England captain Fran Williams said lessons would be learned: "That's definitely not the result that we came for but it's also not the performance.
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"We were far off our best and never really got momentum. It's really tough when a game blows out like that in the second half.
"You've got to make sure that you're still going after those small wins and little fights. That's why I'm so proud of the last 15 minutes in terms of getting a quarter win at the end when it was tough.
"It's great we've had that exposure against a team that's probably setting the standard in the competition. We've got the learning from the experience so we can move on.
"There's no point dwelling on it. It's about taking what we need from it and bringing it into [the Malawi match]. That will help us drop any disappointment. You've got to look forward."
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26 of July 2026
