Drama, tears, redemption and the end of four decades of hurt — England’s Commonwealth Games netball campaign seems to have it all.

Jo Harten held her nerve to drain a last-second buzzing beating goal that guaranteed England a historic final place on Sunday.

Tracey Neville’s Roses now play Australia in their first major final in 43 years – and they certainly made themselves sweat for it.

Sharp-shooter Harten was benched early in the match but came back on to secure arguably the biggest victory in English netball history.

“That is a routine shot you do again and again in practice and matches,” said Harten, who was on the wrong side of a similar result against Jamaica in the bronze medal match four years ago in Glasgow.

“I’ve probably done it thousands and thousands of times but that’s the most important shot of my career.

“There wasn’t time to be nervous or think about what it meant. When I think now what it means to the sport and everyone, I’m just shaking.

“This is everything to this team, we’ve never been to a final, we’ve lost too many close matches like that in the past. We just have a belief that anything is possible.

“I wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t playing well and Tracey was absolutely right to put me on the bench.

“I just sat and watched my opponent and tried to get myself in the game and hoped I’d get the chance again.”

Before this match, England had played 18 semi-finals at Commonwealth or world level – and had only won once, back in 1975.

And despite going through the group games unbeaten, it looked like that statistic would come back to haunt them.

Jamaica – with their 6’6” taliswoman Jhaniele Fowler-Reid only missing three of her 50 attempts on goal – outmuscled Neville’s team and took a commanding six point advantage into the second half.

But they faltered in sight of the line, England staging a rallying final quarter comeback to win 56-55, with Neville admitting she delivered a half-time hairdryer team-talk her footballing brothers would recall from their time at Old Trafford.

“What a comeback for our girls,” said Neville, a bronze medallist at the Games two decades ago. “I actually thought ‘are we the old Roses?’ when we were making all those errors.

“I was really upset at half-time with the way they presented themselves in that first half. 

“I said: ‘I don’t care how this scoreboard goes, I want you to finish like a Rose, I want you to go hard, I want you to win this last quarter and you finish how you started this tournament’.  For me, it won them the game. 

“Australia are a world class team and we can’t afford to make any mistakes or they will punish us. We’re in that final now, anything can happen and I like being an underdog.”

  • npower is the Official Partner of Team England and is giving our athletes the power of support by recording a brand new version of their anthem, Jerusalem. To listen to the track visit npower.com/teamengland

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