Team chemistry, athleticism and creativity were all displayed when New Zealand’s men’s netball team went up against Australia in a… dance-off?
Before the Fast5 World Series final, both teams whipped out some insane routines.
To soundtrack their moves, the Kiwis fittingly chose Will Smith’s Hollywood tune ‘Men In Black’. The crowd was going wild as the fellas bounced, slid and even hit the splits to the beat.
Before NZ’s masterpiece, the Aussies performed the ‘Nutbush’ - an extremely popular Australian line dance routine. It’s done to Ike and Tina Turner’s song ‘Nutbush City Limits’ and has been a popular thing across the Tasman since the 1980s.
After the dancing was done, the teams played a game of Fast 5 netball. Fast 5 is to netball what rugby sevens is to rugby union: a quicker, smaller and modified version of the game.
Unlike usual netball, Fast5 has five players on each team (compared to seven), six-minute quarters (compared to 15), two and three-point shots (compared to exclusively one-pointers) and other rule changes.
The Fast5 World Series has been going on every year since 2009, apart from 2019 - 2021, when it was cancelled due to Covid.
This year, our men’s team beat Aussie by 51 - 34 in the final, becoming back-to-back champions. So, we whooped them in the dance-off and in the actual game. Yeeyah.
The women’s final was between the same two teams but saw Australia beating NZ 35 - 23, also becoming back-to-back champions.
Shoutout to the boys not only for winning the tournament but also putting themselves out there and showing off their dance moves.
