STEETON-born Natalie Haythornthwaite was among the bronze medal-winning England netball team at the World Cup.

England closed out Tracey Neville's four-year reign with an emphatic but bittersweet win over South Africa to secure their third straight Netball World Cup bronze medal.

Coach Neville, who confirmed her intention to step down after the tournament, rallied her team for one last time, less than 24 hours after their painful three-goal defeat to New Zealand had dashed hopes of appearing in a home world final in Liverpool.

Her squad featured Haythornthwaite, who grew up across the border in the Lancashire village of Barrowford.

Neville, who did not rule out returning to the national set-up in a different capacity in the future, paid tribute to her players after a slick 58-42 success which only served to accentuate the painful sense of what might have been.

She said: "The girls were absolutely gutted after the semi-final and so was I. We didn't deliver the performance that we had been doing through the tournament, so to turn it around overnight was absolutely phenomenal.

"I am just so pleased with the way they came out and showed the culture of the team and the fact that one game doesn't get them down. That is a massive plus for this team."

Gone was the error-strewn performance against the Silver Ferns as Neville's team established a two-point lead at the end of the first quarter and continued to build their advantage against a team whom they had beaten by nine points earlier in the tournament, one who pushed Australia agonisingly close in their own last-four clash.

Goal shooter Helen Housby finished with a perfect record of 29 goals from her 29 attempts as the South Africans, despite the return of influential wing attack Bongiwe Msomi, who missed much of the first game due to injury, were cut adrift by seven points by the half-way stage.

With the match safely won, influential captain Serena Guthrie was cheered when she was replaced with two minutes remaining, and she shared a lingering hug with Neville at courtside.

If the final medal colour was the same as it has been since 2011 for England, those raucous final moments served to illustrate just how far Neville has brought her squad, and the domestic sport as a whole, since she started in the role four years ago.

With most of the squad keen to take a break and some, including Jade Clarke and Geva Mentor, unlikely to feature in the defence of the Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham, Neville leaves her successor with both a rich legacy and a mighty rebuilding task amid such heightened expectations.