Eleanor Cardwell: Positives to be taken after World Cup campaign

The Vitality Roses were beaten 61-45 by Australia, who claimed their 12th world title with victory in Sunday’s final in Cape Town.

England had won every game on their path to a first World Cup final, including a win over Australia in their final pool match.

Blackpool-born Cardwell, appearing in the competition for the first time, maintained England’s players should feel pleased with their performances.

The 28-year-old told England Netball: “There are so many positives. This is my first World Cup and, for a lot more of the girls, it’s their first World Cup and it’s everyone’s first World Cup final.

“Last year at the Commonwealth Games we came fourth and it was heartbreaking.

“Now, it’s heartbreaking that we haven’t won gold but we’ve got silver and we can be really happy with ourselves and what we’ve done over the past 10 days.”

England had gone into the game with seven wins from as many games in South Africa.

Jess Thirlby’s players were victorious in all six of their group outings before seeing off New Zealand, the reigning champions, in Saturday’s semi-final.

England’s head coach echoed Cardwell’s belief that her team will eventually realise the scale of their achievement in reaching the final.

They equalled England’s best World Cup finish, having been runners-up in the round-robin tournament of 1975.

Thirlby added: “I am incredibly proud, despite the final result.

“We absolutely deserved to be there. We had to battle to get there and it’s just proven to us that you’ve got to be able to go again in a big game against the number one and we just fell short today.

“We’re obviously going to be gutted with a losing margin like that in our first final but such is the difference between a team that has been in 12 of them and a team that have just broken into their first one.

“It’s a tough lesson of course, but over the next three days, I’m sure it will sink in, in terms of that history that we’ve made.”