CAPE TOWN -- Malawi goal shooter Joyce Mvula, who played for the Manchester Thunder for six seasons, is confident the intel she gained from the Netball Super League will be vital when her team face England at the Netball World Cup in Cape Town.
Mvula won two titles with the Thunder between 2017 and 2022, and while she played in New Zealand this past season she told ESPN she will be returning to England's pro league in the wake of the World Cup.
Mvula told ESPN: "It helps [to have played in England], because I know the play. That's why the [warm-up] game was hard for the New Zealand team, because I know their plays as well. The leads I share to the girls - they take it and use it and that's how we defeat the team."
READ: Everything you need to know about the Netball World Cup
Malawi [ranked sixth in the world], who are in Pool B, will fancy their chances against Scotland (ranked 10th) on July 28 and Barbados (ranked 14th) on July 30, but will be underdogs against third-ranked England in their second fixture of the tournament on the 29th.
Nevertheless, Mvula encouraged them to play to their strengths: "Every team is good and they have different players as well, so I think we should just go hard, know our strategy and keep to our strategy. [Even against England], we should play how a Malawi team plays.
"We should just use that and I think we'll be good. Everyone [in the Malawi team] is a hard worker. Everyone wants to win."
Now one of the senior players in the team aged 29, Mvula is aiming to help lead Malawi to an improvement on their sixth-place finish in the last three World Cups, most recently at the 2019 tournament in Liverpool.
"I think we should work hard to go for top four, top five - we have been on sixth place for a long time. We are not improving. It's either we go down [or up] and it's possible [to improve]," she said.
Mvula, who skyrocketed to the top of the game she began playing aged 13, became the first Malawian to play in the Super League, after being spotted at the 2015 World Cup by Thunder scouts.
The likes of Towera Vinkhumbo, Takondwa Lwazi, Caroline Mtukule and Loreen Ngwira have all played for British teams since Mvula made the jump and she is proud to have helped pave the way for her compatriots.
She said of the Malawi players: "When you're doing good, people have that thing: 'Oh, let's try Malawian players.' I think our hard work opened the way for others and [Super League teams] still come for Malawian players, so hopefully after this World Cup, I think more players will go there."
According to Mvula, netball is popular in Malawi, but that does not yet reflect in terms of the sponsorship funds invested into the game. As a result, plenty is at stake for them as they seek to make a statement at this World Cup.
"It is [a big sport in Malawi], but they don't consider that it's big because the sponsorship is like that. I think they should consider that this is a big team. We make them proud, so they should come out and help us," she said.
A top three finish in the group will see the Malawi Queens, as they are affectionately known, advance to the second round of preliminaries as one of 12 of the original 16 teams still in contention for the World Cup.
The 12 remaining teams will be split into groups of six and the top two in each group will play the semi-finals, which Mvula and the Queens will be desperate to feature in at the very least, and perhaps even cause a shock.
All that is certain is that when Malawi come up against major sides like England, they will rely heavily on their star goal shooter's experience.