Tonga’s national women’s netball team has claimed a double win at home in the Oceania Women’s Netball Championship in Nuku’alofa.
The Tala has not only secured an invite to the 2027 Netball World Cup but it’s also taken the Oceania title, after beating Samoa 71-63 on Friday evening.
Tonga finished the week-long competition undefeated.
Coach, Jaqua Pori Makea-Simpson said the team is over the moon.
“Feels good waking up today,” she said. “An epic performance to close out an undefeated week.”
Tonga led that game 31-24 at halftime.
Tonga secured its world cup spot by beating Fiji 72-60 in a close match on Thursday, that win coming on the back of victories over Papua New Guinea, 71-47 and the Cook Islands 81-55.
The Tongan Tala was also the only Pacific team at the recent Commonwealth Games, by virtue of its top 10 placing in the World Netball rankings.
Meanwhile, Samoa also celebrated getting the second world cup invite available to Oceania at the event.
Despite losing to Tonga on Friday, Samoa recorded wins over PNG, 72-56, a close 56-50 win over Fiji and a 72-50 defeat of the Cook Islands.
Tifaimoana Samoa head coach Natalie Mathews said although the team lost the final match to Tonga she was proud of the team’s performance.
“Proud of our seniors for leading from the front and our debutants will be better for the experience on the biggest stage there is, ” she said.
Fiji ended up as the third-best team in the Oceania competition, their young side managing to beat both Cook Islands and PNG.
The Fijian Pearls beat the Cook Islanders 65-63 and PNG 61-40.
Cook Islands managed a win over PNG 64-54, with PNG returning home from the event without a win.
The Netball World Cup will be held in Sydney from 25 August to 5 September 2027.
