KEY POINTS:
Trust an Aussie to tell it like it is. When Norma Plummer delivered her damning indictment of the state of the world championship this week, she didn't miss.
The Australian coach gave the 16-team format a right hook, bemoaning the fact that her team had reached last night's semifinal against England without breaking a sweat.
She'd sat through a week of embarrassing mismatches and clearly had had enough. Lord knows what she'd have made of the 24 teams who rocked up to Jamaica for the 2003 championships.
The big guns - England, New Zealand, Australia and Jamaica - should have played each other once in the preliminary stages to give them at least one decent hitout, she reckoned. And as for 16 teams, forget it.
If the international body needed graphic evidence that something needs to be done, it came in the quarter-finals on Thursday. The closest margin was Jamaica's 31 goals against Samoa.
Netball shares rugby's dilemma. Rugby's World Cup in France had 20 teams. Some games were horrible. Just as at the Trusts Stadium, too often you'd arrive knowing the result, the only issue being the size of the win or, more pertinently, the chasm of the defeat.
But the issue for both sports is this: do you offer the incentive for the lesser nations to test themselves against the heavy hitters, or make the world championship a narrower, more elite event? In the International Rugby Board's case, they are deciding between 20 and 16 teams for New Zealand in 2011.
Netball should be looking at eight. The top four - and show me another sport where the gap between the fourth and fifth-ranked countries is as massive as it is in netball - and a second division competition held in advance, with the prize for the best four being a trip to the top table.
If the top four fancy a crack at each other every other year in a super duper special challenge, fine.
But you can't completely shut the door on the lightweights or we'll be stuck in Groundhog Day 20 years from now.
The delight in seeing fledgling Botswana at their first world champs exceed all expectations in tipping over both Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago respectively ranked No 7 and No 10, was special.
If you're a perfectionist you'd grumble at the quality, but those games deserve their own stage. Seventy point poundings don't belong at a world championship.
The funny thing is many at the Trusts Stadium this week have muttered about the mismatches, but straight-shooting Plummer is the only person to have voiced those concerns.
On Thursday, the boss of the International Federation of Netball Associations - and there's a mouthful for you - Molly Rhone was suggesting the same format will remain for Singapore in 2011.
Yesterday, she appeared to have softened the federation's stance. An open mind is the new position.
And you can probably thank one N. Plummer for that.
