Monday 17 June 2019 11:45, UK
Scotland have moved up to eighth in the International Netball Federation Rankings, with Northern Ireland shifting back to ninth.
The latest set of rankings, reflecting matches played since the March 3, sees the Scottish Thistles progress to their highest ever ranking following a recent Test match against Gibraltar.
Gail Parata's outfit secured 62-33 win over their opponents as they continue their preparations for the forthcoming Vitality Netball World Cup in Liverpool.
The Scottish Thistles are housed in Group D alongside England's Vitality Roses, Uganda and Samoa in the Preliminaries Stage One. They will commence their campaign on the opening day against Samoa, with every match of the competition being shown live on Sky Sports.
"We set ourselves the ambitious target of reaching eighth in the world by 2019 at the start of our last strategic plan back in 2015, and it is testament to the hard work, dedication and expertise of the entire Netball Scotland performance team, programme and players that we have realised this goal," said Claire Nelson, CEO of Netball Scotland.
"With world netball now more competitive than ever it is imperative that we continue to build on our recent successes as we strive to become one of our sport's top netballing nations."
Elsewhere in the rankings, Fiji's win over Singapore sees them move up one position to 13th place and Zimbabwe drop to 14th.
The Isle of Man and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) gained an INF World Ranking for the first time. The Isle of Man enters in 21st, equal with Grenada, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) arrive at 35th.
The next set of official INF World Rankings will be published after June 30.
Watch every match of the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup live on Sky Sports. Coverage starts on Friday, July 12 plus keep up to date with all of the latest competition news, results and enjoy in-depth features at SkySports.com/netball
