Shooter Helen Housby was pleased to help England bounce back from their painful three-goal semi-final loss to New Zealand to claim Netball World Cup bronze.

Housby, from Drumleaning, near Wigton, finished with a perfect record of 29 goals from her 29 attempts in the Roses’ 58-42 win over South Africa on Sunday in Tracey Neville’s final game in charge, at the home tournament in Liverpool.

“It was heart-breaking [to lose the semi-final] but that’s sport and we know how it is and we were on the end of the result in a positive way back in the Gold Coast [winning Commonwealth Games gold last year], so it can go the other way very easily, so it’s difficult," said 24-year-old Housby, Cumbria’s reigning Sports Personality of the Year.

"But we got ourselves back up and we knew there was still a medal to play for and we went for it."

Despite winning the same final medal as they have done since 2011, raucous final moments served to illustrate just how far Neville has brought her England squad, and the domestic sport as a whole, since she started in the role four years ago.

Rachel Dunn said: “You walk into that stadium and, just the roars you get, I don’t think there’s anything like that. There’s nothing like a home World Cup.

“Every time we’ve walked out, the crowd have been immense.

“It has just been an amazing experience for the last nine days.”