England Netball confirm 2020-2021 Roses

England Netball has today announced the names of the players selected for the Vitality Roses programme agreement for the 2020-21 international season.

There are multiple routes of entry into the England set up for the country’s best netball players, including the P1 route designed for UK based athletes and the P2 option for English athletes who spend large parts of the year playing in the Suncorp Super Netball and ANZ leagues.

The 16 players selected into the Vitality Roses programme via the P1 route are:

Serena Guthrie, Jodie Gibson, Vicki Oyesola, Razia Quashie, Imogen Allison, Gabriella Marshall, Sophie Drakeford-Lewis, Kadeen Corbin, Natalie Panagarry, Beth Cobden, Francesca Williams, George Fisher, Jade Clarke, Yasmin Parsons, Eleanor Cardwell, and Laura Malcolm.

Eight players who currently play in the Australian Suncorp Super Netball League have been selected for the Vitality Roses programme via the P2 route:

Joanne Harten, Helen Housby, Stacey Francis, Layla Guscoth, Kate Shimmin, Geva Mentor, Chelsea Pitman, and Natalie Haythornthwaite.

Fixtures for the next international season are yet to be confirmed due to the Coronavirus outbreak, although England Netball is planning for a number of return-to-court scenarios whilst following Government guidance closely. The Vitality Roses’ return to training roadmap will be released soon.

Jess Thirlby, Vitality Roses Head Coach, said: “I am really excited to be revealing the names of the athletes that I’ll be working closely with throughout the 2020-21 international season.

“It is wonderful to see some experienced names coming back into the programme after taking a well-deserved break following the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup, including the likes of Jo Harten and Serena Guthrie.

“We have a real mix of new and experienced talent in this group, from rising stars like Razia Quashie, to Jade Clarke who has 176 caps for England under her belt. It’s a really strong and diverse group to be working with, which is exciting and shows the strength in depth we have in character and ability.

“We are working hard to establish clarity regarding what will happen with 2020-21 international fixtures due to the current climate and as soon as we can safely all come back together, we will be raring to get back out there in front of the Netball Family.”

England Netball has also announced the names of eight players that have been selected for the Roses Futures programme, which is designed to maximise players’ preparation and conditioning, and therefore develop them towards the Roses programme through exposure to high level training and international match play experience at identified opportunities. This programme also allows players to focus on a dual career, supporting full time education or work alongside a commitment to developing as a player within the Roses set up.

The athletes named in the Roses Futures programme are:

Amy Carter, Beth Ecuyer-Dale, Kira Rothwell, Olivia Tchine, Zara Everitt, Jessica Shaw, Iona Christian, and Halimat Adio.

In addition to the names selected for the Roses programme, there is also a P3 option whereby athletes not in the Roses programme can trial for internationals. Athletes are only eligible to trial via this route if they fit one or more of the following criteria; they have undertaken more than 65% of match play minutes during the most recent Vitality Netball Superleague season and have evidence of being in situ in a fulltime career and/or fulltime study, which prevents them being a part of the Roses programme in its entirety and/or proven international experience in the past 18 months.

Alternatively, an athlete may also be eligible for the P3 route if selectors or the Head Coach identify and invite them to be considered based on their Vitality Netball Superleague performances, or if they are already a part of an England Netball programme and could benefit from international exposure.

Due to the pandemic leading to the cancellation of the 2020 Vitality Netball Superleague season, players will be considered for the P3 route based on their court time in the 2019 season and the 2020 season up until the pause in the league.