Netball World Cup

The team is now ranked one place behind Malawi after losing their last game 54-64 to them.

Tonga now also places one place ahead of Wales after the competition.

The ladies in red and white dresses won three out of 9 games they played all together.

Meanwhile, Australia is ranked first ahead of England in second and Jamaica in third place.

Jess Thirlby’s side, hoping for a flourish to end their historic World Cup campaign, battled valiantly for the full 60 minutes but the world No 1 side were of a different class, turning the screw on England in the second half to storm to their 12th world title.

New Zealand finished second in their side of the draw after being beaten by Jamaica, while England upset Australia on the other side to finish top of the pool.

It means the Silver Ferns will meet England in the semi-finals tonight, while Australia and Jamaica will duke it out in the second semi-final in South Africa.

New Zealand's aim was always to finish top of their pool so they would get a slightly easier semi-final against, what they expected would be, England.

"A lot of our strategy has been set up for England," Dame Noeline said.

It was the Malawi Queens who held on for a 56-51 victory in a match that was closer than appeared in the final scoreline.

It was neck and neck in the opening quarter of the encounter as the two sides matched each other’s physicality and intensity. They went into the first break level on 13-13.

The Malawi Queens came out firing in the second quarter and stormed to an eight-goal lead before Tonga could even score their first goal of the period.

The team’s star goal shooter, Uneeq Palavi is currently second in the Goal/Attempts table.

Palavi managed to score 186 goals out of 203 attempts in the competition so far.

She is trailing behind Aussie star, Sophie Garbin who is leading with ladder after scoring 188 goals out of 207 attempts.

Tonga’s Centre, Hulita Veve is currently ranked 3rd with 16 points in the intercepts table.

Veve is trailing behind Courtney Bruce of Australia, who is in second with 19 points.

Felistus Kwangwa of Zimbabwe currently leads with 22 points.

In mourning the loss of her mother just weeks ago, Gerrard has also found peace and purpose on the court.

Gerrard said has always wanted to represent her mother’s homeland for a long time.

“I wanted to represent Tonga a long time ago but I got to experience the green and gold dress. And all the pathways and resources they had had given me which led to be where I was at that time.”

The team has won three out of the total of five games they played.

The ladies from the pacific island kingdom won against Fiji 56-51 in their first game. They also defeated Zimbabwe 55-46 and also Scotland 55-47.

They lost two games so far to Australia 85-38 and England 46-72.

Tonga will be facing Malawi in their next game on Friday.

The Tala slumped to a 72-46 defeat to one of the title favourites England in their first match of the second stage of pool play.

Unique Palavi had another strong game, shooting 41 goals from 43 attempts.

She has 186 goals so far, two behind Australia's Sophie Garbin.

Fiji meanwhile, lost 89-28 to England in Cape Town.

Both teams have a rest day on Wednesday local time.

The 21-year-old is arguably the side's most important player and her World Cup ending injury has sent ripples through the tournament.

Nweke came off with what looked like a minor knee issue in the Silver Ferns' game against Singapore on Sunday.

It was only as a precaution that the shooter got scans.

But the results came through late on Sunday night (South African time) and revealed a partial tear in her patella tendon.

The majority of the team found out the next morning before their game against Wales.

Tonga were impressive in the opening term and trailed by just two goals at the first change, leaving a “frustrated” Diamonds coach Stacey Marinkovich to rev up her side on the bench.

And the speech worked as the Diamonds went on a 10-goal run to open the second, forcing Tonga to bring Tuivaiti onto the court at goal shooter.

The former Silver Fern and Samoa representative brought the fireworks with look-away balls and over the shoulder passes to excite her teammates and crowd.