KEY POINTS:
Samoan hopes of sneaking up one spot to fifth in the world were dashed by a four-goal loss to South Africa at Trusts Stadium yesterday.
The match was tight throughout, but the South Africans, who arrived in Auckland ranked fifth, edged clear near the end.
"Today's game was
really important, not only for our ranking but also the girls' morale going into our final match," South African captain Bronwyn Bock-Jonathan said last night.
They face Malawi - who beat them at the African qualifying tournament last year and the Commonwealth Games - for fifth and sixth spots today.
The loss puts Samoa up against the Cook Islands for seventh and eighth placings today.
The Cooks lost 61-47 to Malawi yesterday but will still jump in the rankings from their 11th before the championships.
Earlier, minor placings were resolved.
Fiji beat Botswana 65-20 to finish ninth, the Africans ending an encouraging 10th having come from nowhere at their first world champs.
Trinidad and Tobago took 11th with a 48-45 win over Wales; Barbados, seventh when the champs began, ended a disappointing week with a 51-45 win over Scotland in the game for 13th and 14th; and Singapore were delighted with their first win in their final game to take 15th, after a 59-44 win
Afterwards Singapore coach Kate Carpenter suggested a possible adjustment to the tournament's structure.
Carpenter, whose skilled but slight Singapore team have missed out on a couple of a wins by just a goal or two, said there could be a case made for introducing a system of bonus points.
"There's such a big difference after the top four and a big drop off to the rest. So I guess there might be some discussion about how it could be done better. We were talking about this yesterday and we said 'what about bonus points?'
"The rankings don't necessarily reflect the strength of teams. We've had good performances, but we haven't had a good result all week. We were two off the Cooks, and one off Barbados yesterday," said Carpenter, who starts as coach of the Wellington-based Central franchise in the new transtasman netball league next month.
She said the possibility of introducing a bonus point system would be worth the international federation's consideration.
"I think that they're welcome to new ideas, especially perhaps given that we are hosting the next world championships."
Singapore had to work for their win today, with Malaysia working them hard in the second quarter after an indifferent start. Carpenter was satisfied with the win, after Singapore came into the tournament unranked and with an all-time best of 12th in 1999.
"We had a really good build-up, we've just been unlucky with results and unlucky with injuries.
"We've had to rotate players and some haven't been fit for games.
"We're there - that's the disappointing thing about the matches: we've been closer than some other teams ranked higher. But that's just how it works out."
- Additional reporting NZPA