Off The Court: England's 'fear' of Australia and New Zealand has gone, says Nat Panagarry

Natalie Panagarry joined Off The Court to discuss being selected as part of the Vitality Roses full-time programme for the 2020-2021 season and said the "fear" of Australia and New Zealand has gone.

Loughborough Lightning's captain was announced as being part of Jess Thirlby's 24-player squad for the forthcoming international season and will once again be a full-time athlete.

She was a member of Tracey Neville's squad for the 2019 Netball World Cup and made her international debut back in 2016 against Australia.

Of late, Panagarry has been going through the process of rehabilitation from a foot fracture which she suffered during Lightning's opening match of the Vitality Netball Superleague season.

Having sustained such an injury, and with all netball being on hold right now, the mid-courter was extremely happy to hear of her inclusion in Thirlby's latest squad.

"I'm really thankful and grateful to be selected again [for the Roses]," she said the latest episode of Sky Sports' Off The Court.

"It's always the dream, every year, to get selected for the full-time programme. With my injury and not being able to put in performances, I'm grateful to still be in."

Vitality Roses set to return to training

Jess Thirlby is "hopeful" the Vitality Roses will be back playing competitive netball before the year is out and welcomes a return to training.

On top of her joy at being selected, Panagarry and her fellow full-time internationals have now been given sight of a pathway back to training.

This starts with individual-based training at two Elite Training Centres in Bisham and Manchester on July 21 before progressing to training in Loughborough in early August.

With the significant impact coronavirus has had in England, the country's elite netballers have had to watch their counterparts on the other side of the world race ahead of them in terms of domestic match play.

The ANZ Premiership has been back for just under a month and Suncorp Super Netball has an anticipated start date of August 1. Despite being only able to watch others press on, Panagarry does not believe England's enforced absence will hinder the outfit.

Guthrie returns to Roses programme

Serena Guthrie and Jo Harten return to England Netball's Vitality Roses programme for the 2020-21 international season.

"It's something that we're going to now have to deal with," she said. "You can see the other side of the world playing again and are watching that with very jealous and envious eyes at the moment!

"We're going to have to get straight back in when it's possible and when we can start training, get that intensity going. I've no doubt that we'll be ready when the international season hopefully does restart."

International netball fixtures for 2020 and 2021 are up in the air at the moment. The Roses were due to take part in the Quad Series in late September and October, however, that was cancelled.

It has been recently reported by Newshub in New Zealand the Silver Ferns may be in talks with England due to new uncertainty surrounding their Constellation Cup against Australia.

Nothing has been confirmed yet by any governing body, however, the Roses' head coach Jess Thirlby has said she is 'hopeful' her players will be able to play for England before the year is out.

Historically Australia and New Zealand both had strong holds on England.

"When I started playing [for England] there were something along the lines of 50 goals between the likes of Australia and New Zealand and us," former England coach Neville told Sky Sports.

"All of the time we were trying to reduce that deficit, we were trying to create a threat and I was trying to be better as an athlete."

A few years on from that point, with Neville at the helm as head coach, players moving to play their domestic netball in Australia and New Zealand and key victories occurring, the deficit reduced, and a mindset shift happened.

"A lot of us, who have been in the [Roses] programme for a while, will say that the 'fear' has definitely gone," Panagarry said.

"We can put performances out there and get the wins [over Australia and New Zealand]. The girls proved that at the Commonwealth Games and unfortunately, we were just unlucky in the semi-final at the World Cup.

"There's so much talent and so many young players coming through who I'm really excited about.

"I'm lucky to have that experience and a little bit of an older head to maybe guide some of those players. I think that the future, what we have in the Superleague and in the Roses programme, is really exciting."