The 2012 World University Netball Championship was hosted at the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town, South Africa between 2 July and 7 July 2012. The tournament was organised by the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire and University Sports South Africa. It was the inaugural tournament of the World University Netball Championship. It was won by Great Britain who defeated the host nation, South Africa 53–49 in the final. Jamaica finished third after defeating Northern Ireland 41–30 in the bronze medal match.

Participants

Initially, eighteen countries indicated that they would send teams. However by June 2012, when the draw was made for the tournament, only seven had confirmed their participation. These were South Africa, Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Jamaica, Namibia, Uganda and the United States. Australia and New Zealand where among the countries that had dropped out. Before the tournament started, a late entry by Zimbabwe saw the number of participants increase to eight. It was initially planned that Ireland would send an All-Ireland team, featuring players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. However no players from the Republic were selected for the final squad. As a result, it was a Northern Ireland team, in effect, that competed in the tournament.

Format

When there was just seven teams due to participate, it was planned for all seven teams to play each other once in a group stage. The top four teams would then qualify for the semi-finals. However with the addition of Zimbabwe it was decided to split the eight teams into two groups of four. All eight teams qualified for the quarter-finals, with the final group tables deciding the quarter-final draw.

Matches

Group A

PosTeamPldWDLGFGA%Pts
1South Africa3300260736
2Northern Ireland32011971004
3Zimbabwe3102742272
4United States3003641950
South Africa57–47Northern Ireland
Zimbabwe35–34United States

South Africa110–12Zimbabwe
Northern Ireland67–16United States

Northern Ireland83–27Zimbabwe
South Africa93–14United States

Source:

Group B

PosTeamPldWDLGFGA%Pts
1Great Britain33001531216
2Jamaica32011561204
3Uganda3102127932
4Namibia3003721740
Great Britain46–44Jamaica
Uganda44–4Namibia

Jamaica44–39Uganda
Great Britain62-33Namibia

Great Britain45–44Uganda
Jamaica68–35Namibia

Source:

Quarter-finals

South Africa67–26Namibia
Northern Ireland45–43Uganda
Jamaica87–15Zimbabwe
England82–14United States

Semi-finals

Great Britain52–37Northern Ireland
South Africa41–39Jamaica

Placement matches

Namibia96–21Zimbabwe
Uganda72–18United States

7th place

Zimbabwe43–41United States

5th place

Uganda51–38Namibia

Bronze medal match

Jamaica41–30Northern Ireland

Final

Great Britain53–49South Africa

Final placings

PlaceNation
Great Britain
South Africa
Jamaica
4Northern Ireland
5Uganda
6Namibia
7Zimbabwe
8United States

Source: