79 days to go until Netball World Cup 2015

To mark 79 days to go until Netball World Cup 2015, Netball New Zealand is celebrating the Silver Ferns team that won GOLD at the ’79 tournament.

It’s only 79 days until the Silver Ferns step onto the world stage in Sydney in the quest to bring home the elusive Netball World Cup. We look back at the ’79 tournament in which New Zealand made history at Port of Spain, 35 years ago.

While 1979 may seem like a long time ago, memories of coaching the New Zealand team to World Championship gold in a three-way tie with Australia and hosts Trinidad & Tobago still burn strong for Dame Lois Muir.

“Trinidad & Tobago had put so much into the World Championships in 1979 and they really believed they were going to win,” she remembers.

“The poverty around the place was terrible and we needed police protection to and from the game so it was serious stuff but Trinidad & Tobago were the pinnacle of everyone’s imagination.

Dame Lois Muir says there was tension between the countries which almost boiled over throughout the tournament.

“Margie Matenga had players standing on her foot when trying to take a penalty and Lyn (Gunson) had her skirt ripped off. We were putting up with a lot of stuff that the umpires didn’t even know existed!” she said.

“When we went in to the final itself, Trinidad & Tobago really believed they were going to beat us.

“I said to the players ‘if we don’t have the skills of the game to win this, I don’t know if I want to be involved in it’.

“I got to the stage where I said enough is enough, we’ve just got to win this but we’ve got to do it our way.”

The tournament ended in a three-way tie for the gold medal, something which may never again be repeated in world Netball.