THE IRISH NETBALL team tomorrow morning set off to Singapore for the Nations Cup tournament.

The annual event, which sees them face sides including Samoa, Botswana, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and the hosts, takes place from 7-13 December.

It is the third successive year in which the Irish side have been invited to compete at the tournamrnt, with the team hoping to improve on their current 28th-place world ranking.

Speaking to TheScore.ie ahead of event last month, team member Sinèad O’Connor said that her side were hoping to build on the partial success of last year.

“They really recognised us last year. The other team managers were commenting [about us], they knew the Irish were there to really go out and go hard. I think they underestimated us a bit, because we beat USA, who were ranked 18th last year. Everyone’s jaws dropped. It was also a lot closer between us and Singapore last year [than the year before].

“There’ll be some brilliant players [this year]. The first year, we were a little bit intimidated, but the second year, we were much improved. This year, we’re going out heads held high. Our goal will be to improve on that performance that left them talking last year and not just finish fifth out of six, the top three [would be achievable].”

For more information on Irish netball, click here. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Originally published Wednesday,  21.50

We’ll Leave It There So: No bust up for Keane, Munster’s midfield worries and all today’s sport>

Was the Russian athletics federations paid €450k to cover up a positive doping case?>