Netball World Cup: England's Roses lose to 12 times champions Australia

England will have to wait a bit longer to lift their first Netball World Cup trophy, as Australia came out victorious at Sunday's final.

It was the Roses' first ever World Cup Final, and having beaten the Australians in the group stages they were feeling more confident than ever.

But 12-time champions Australia dominated the match on Sunday, and ended up winning 61-45.

It's still the Roses' best performance at the tournament since 1975, and they'll be heading home with a silver.

"We are obviously gutted with a losing margin like that but such is the difference between seasoned finalists and a team in their first final," said England head coach Jess Thirlby.

"Today was always going to be a tough ask, you just can't throw ball like that against Australia in a final.

"If we do that, we need to find a way to win it back. Unfortunately both of those things eluded us for long periods during the match."

Australia's Diamonds have been dominant in the netball world for quite some time, and although they took th ecrown this weekend, England's performance against them in the group stages and in their semi-final against New Zealand show they're potentially starting to catch up to their rivals.

"We had the better of them the other day and they had the better of us today," said England shooter Eleanor Cardwell.

"There's so many positives. This is the first World Cup final for every name on the team sheet and a lot of those Diamonds players have a whole lot of experience.

"I am super proud of us making history. Last year at the Commonwealth Games we came fourth and were gutted. This year we've got a silver medal."

The first quarter seemed fairly level, with England confident after their earlier performances and Australia fuelled by anger at having been beaten by the Roses in the group stages.

It ended 13-13, but from that point on England seemed to lose their footing.

Coach Thirlby tried changing the formations to put the team on the defensive, but errors from the Roses allowed the Diamonds to gain a four-point lead before half-time, and by the end of the third quarter they were ten points ahead.

From that point Australia took control and silver was the best the Roses could manage.

England mid-court player Imogen Allison said. "We spoke a lot about how this is the first time it has been done [a Roses team in the final], I am super proud of all of us to be honest. We have to take this and run with it. If this is the first time in a final, the next time we are getting the gold.