After the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the Oceania qualifying tournament for the competition, Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands were confirmed for the event next year in Fiji due to their current world rankings.

Tonga Netball chief executive Salote Sisifa said the announcement was initially a surprise, but she is now excited that the nation will be represented on a global stage, according to Matangi Tonga.

"We would have loved to earn that spot traditionally but, given the situation with COVID-19, we feel incredibly lucky," said Sisifa.

"I think it's come like a shock – we did plan and hope for something like this [to qualify] one day, but we didn't expect it to be this soon so having the opportunity to play at a World Cup, like this in itself is history on its own.

"This is the first time ever that Tonga has qualified for any of the world events, whether World Cup or under-21s, so this is pretty exciting news for us."

Tonga Netball held trials at the end of 2019 and originally planned a training camp in April ahead of the Oceania qualifiers, before this was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Sisifa added: "Our plan initially was to just make the qualifiers, but the fact that we are automatically through now, we need to re-strategise and focus on what's ahead. 

"Now it's about us competing at the World Cup, so it's a different playing field and there's still room for improvement of team Tonga.

"There are Tongan players in New Zealand and Australia who did not get the opportunity to make the team, so we intend to open that up because we're talking about competing at a different level now."

Tonga is currently 19th in the world netball rankings, and came close to winning the netball title at the Pacific Games in 2019.

They lost by just one point to the Cook Islands in the final.

Sisifa also mentioned her hope that international borders open early next year, to allow Tongan players to come over from Australia and New Zealand.