SINGAPORE — They captured the imagination of local sports fans with their gold-medal feat at the SEA Games two months ago, but a far sterner test awaits the Singapore squad at the 2015 Netball World Cup, which starts in Sydney on Friday.

The reigning Asian champions, ranked 17th in the world, are grouped in Pool C with Malawi (5th), South Africa (6th), and fierce continental rivals Sri Lanka (24th), and their mission Down Under is to put up a better show than the last World Cup here in 2011. Then, they lost all the pool matches and only avoided last spot after beating Malaysia in the playoffs for 15th place.

National coach Ruth Aitken is realistic about what they can achieve in Sydney against higher-ranked teams.

“The World Cup will be a real step up from regional tournaments such as the SEA Games and Asian Championships in terms of playing standards,” said the 59-year-old Kiwi. “I’m really optimistic about our chances of doing well, but also realistic.

“We might be underdogs but we will be going into each match with the objective to win. I know it’s going to be a huge ask, but we do have the potential to create some upsets if we play to our best.”

The national team left for the World Cup last night and will have tune-up matches with Fiji on Tuesday and Uganda the following day, before their opening match against Sri Lanka on Friday.

The South Asian side are smarting after losing 59-41 to Singapore in the final of the Asian Championships last year and can be expected to pull out all the stops to get a result.

“Our match against Sri Lanka is a must-win, because in a way our Asian title is at stake,” said national captain Micky Lin. “But they’ll be fielding a completely different side to the one at the Asian Championships, so we’ll need to quickly assess them and adapt to the new team’s play.”

Wing attack Kimberly Lim, who will be making her World Cup debut, said compared to the SEA Games when they were under immense pressure to land gold, they are going into the World Cup with nothing to lose.

Added the 21-year-old: “It is benefiting us because we’re not nervous at all. It is not often we get to play against such high-ranking teams and experience different styles of play.”

Much of how well Singapore do will probably boil down to how Charmaine Soh fares in Sydney. The 1.77m goal shooter was dead on target at the SEA Games, but against taller opponents at the World Cup, she admitted it will be a different proposition. “It’ll be more of physical battle for us,” said the 24-year-old. “So, we have to play a faster-paced game and come forward more for the ball in order to beat them.”