Australia showed their class over England to win the Netball World Cup (Getty)

England lost 45-61 to Australia in the Netball World Cup final on Sunday.

Jess Thirlby’s team beat New Zealand, the World Cup winners in 2019 and favourites to retain the crown this summer, to reach their first-ever World Cup final but ultimately came up short against a strong Australia side in Cape Town.

England were level 13-13 after the first quarter but by half time Australia’s class began to show as they were ahead 23-27.

By the end of the third quarter, Australia had extended their lead by 10 goals and when the full-time buzzer sounded, the No.1-ranked side were out of sight with the score at 45-61.

England kept pace with Australia in the first quarter (Getty)

Australian celebrate their World Cup victory (AFP via Getty)

‘Of course, we’re really grateful for that silver medal and over time I’m sure that will sink in,’ Thirlby said after her side’s defeat to Australia.

‘I think right now it’s a measure of the belief we had in ourselves, the route we’d taken to get into this final, we’re obviously going to be gutted with a losing margin like that in our first final.

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‘But such is the difference between a team who have been in 12 of them [finals] and a team who have just broke into their first one.

‘It’s a tough lesson, of course, over the next few days I’m sure it’ll sink in in terms of that history we made, but for now I think it’s okay for us to feel a little bit disappointed, just because of the level of belief and capability of this team.’

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England suffer defeat in their first-ever World Cup final.