'New energy' in Team NI netball squad - O'Hanlon

Northern Ireland netball's vice-captain Caroline O'Hanlon said the younger members of the squad have brought "new energy" ahead of their Commonwealth Games opener against England on Saturday.

Head coach Sheonah Forbes has selected an experienced squad for their fourth consecutive Commonwealth Games, but the trio of Evelyn McCagherty, Lauren Walshe and Orlaith Rogers will be competing at the Games for the first time.

O'Hanlon, who will represent NI for the fourth successive Games, believes the mix of youth and experience can serve the team well.

"The group changes all the time, we have new players coming in, players coming back like Lisa Bowman, who has had a long break, so it is interesting to see how that dynamic works when we get on to court," she told BBC Sport NI.

"There are new combinations while there are still players who have been here for the past four [Commonwealth Games]. There's new energy with that and really exciting to see to see how we go."

Northern Ireland have been handed a tough start in Pool A as they face England, who won gold in the Gold Coast in 2018, in their first game at the Hydro (14:00 BST).

They will also take on Malawi, Tonga, South Africa and Australia and O'Hanlon hopes a few wins from those games can help them progress to the higher classification matches or even the semi-finals if they can finish second in their group.

"England are one of the favourites for the competition, so no one better to see where we are at. We have new combinations we want to test and why not do it against the best," she added.

"We're trying not to look too far ahead. We haven't played the likes of Malawi and Tonga before, so it's a really exciting experience and games we would be targeting.

"If we can get a few wins against those countries it would boost us for the classification games."