England notched up a 87-34 win over Barbados in their first pool game of the Netball World Championships.

England left some of their best players on the bench for the first half, but were still 38-22 up at the break and poured in another 49 points after it.

Wales looked less convincing in their 54-35 victory against Botswana who made 14 shots out of 14 in the final period.

Scotland were handed a 47-39 loss in Auckland by Trinidad and Tobago, who won a share of the world title in 1979.

In other games, Australia hammered Samoa 82-26, Jamaica beat the Cook Islands 71-29, Fiji defeated Singapore 61-32, and South Africa downed Malaysia 67-28.

Hosts New Zealand are the current world champions. They began their defence with a 85-26 win over Malawi on Saturday.

Only three nations have won the crown since 1963 - Australia (eight times), the Kiwis (four), and Trinidad and Tobago (shared the title in 1979 with NZ and Australia).