KEY POINTS:
When Australian taskmaster Marg Caldow took over coaching England in 2004, her goal was straightforward - world domination of netball by 2007.
Together with England Netball, she has gone all out to achieve it, and financially nothing has been spared.
They train like no other team - fortnightly
national weekends and weekly elite trainings for the last three years.
This year alone, the English side has played all other nations ranked in the top five in their build-up to these world championships. They are determined to turn their ranking of fourth into first in a fortnight's time.
And if they do, no longer such a long shot after beating the Silver Ferns this year for the first time in 32 years, it will be the reward of eight years' planning.
Ironically, two famous New Zealanders had a bit to do with it - Wai Taumaunu, as England's performance director, and Lyn Gunson as England coach.
During her five years in England, former Silver Ferns captain Taumaunu created the basis of the Superleague - a strong, two-round championship involving the top players in the UK.
Before that, there was no real competitive structure to support international play, other than the odd weekend inter-county competition.
Together Taumaunu and former New Zealand coach Gunson identified the core talent who make up today's English team.
If you thought England netball were the poor cousins of the teams Downunder, forget it. Over the past decade, the sport has got seven-figure grants from Sport England and lottery cash. They may be the most resource-rich team in the world.
In the last few months, the English travelled to Australia to train, went to Jamaica for a three-test series (winning 3-0) and simulated the world championship week in a training camp. Most recently, they toured the country playing tests against England A before invited crowds, who were urged to scream and cheer as if they were in Auckland.
Caldow, a former Australian captain who has won the world championships three times, is known as a demanding coach, driven towards the ultimate goal. She returns to Australia after this tournament.
She's unhappy with her team's fourth ranking and believes England are realistic second seeds behind Australia. She puts the Silver Ferns one rung further down.
The England players have experience through their midcourt and Geva Mentor and Sonia Mkoloma have a six-year partnership in the defence circle. This is Mkoloma's third world championships.
But they have only begun to boast accurate shooters. Goal attack Pamela Cookey is the latest talent, but the shooting end was dealt a blow last month losing Rachel Dunn to a serious knee injury.
Another shooter, Asha Tett was dropped last week for under-performing, making room for midcourter Sara Bayman.
The English arrive in Auckland on Sunday and play a warm-up match against Samoa before meeting Barbados, Malaysia and fifth seeds South Africa in pool play.
If all goes according to Caldow's master plan, England will meet Australia in the semifinals before a final encounter with the Ferns. The five-goal win over New Zealand in May has made them all the more confident and dangerous.
