The Australian men’s netball team turned the court into a dance floor, treating fans to an enthusiastic pre-game performance of *NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye.

The team, known as the Kelpies, loosened up before their match against South Africa in the Fast5 Netball World Series by dancing to the boyband’s catchy hit on Saturday (November 9).

Fast5 is a variation of the ball sport designed to make the game faster and more TV-friendly, played by two teams of five players, instead of the usual seven.

The Aussie men’s netball team went viral after dancing to *NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye before their match against South Africa

Image credits: 7News

The games are also shorter, with each quarter lasting just six minutes, compared with the 15-minute quarters of a regular netball game.

A video of the dance in Christchurch, New Zealand, quickly made the rounds on social media, racking up over 2.5 million views. The clip sparked mixed reactions: while some viewers found the dance unprofessional, others were amused by the idea.

“Why does Australia have to constantly embarrass me?” said one critic.

“It was cringeworthy,” another agreed.

“God, there are some super fragile men in the comments. This routine was EPIC,” a fan responded.

“Haha pure vibes of WIN! Congratulations,” commented a separate social media user.

Image credits: www.tiktok.com

The architect of the viral performance was revealed to be goal shooter Dravyn Lee-Tauroa, who took inspiration from the Deadpool & Wolverine movie, according to 7 News. 

“I saw this dance come up on TikTok from the new Deadpool movie. I was inspired by that and the boys got around it. We always wanted to be in a boy band. Who hasn’t? And we got to perform,” Dravyn shared.

“It was pretty hard to squeeze in learning the dance in between our training matches, but we kind of got there in the end,” admitted Kelpies player Liam Forcadilla

Image credits: TheProject

“Yeah, it was pretty hard to squeeze in learning the dance in between our training matches, but we kind of got there in the end,” added teammate Liam Forcadilla.

“We loved it and the crowd loved it, too. It was so loud in there.”

The women’s netball team followed up the next day with a pre-game performance of Miley Cyrus’ Hoedown Throwdown, replicating the country-inspired dance from the 2009 Hannah Montana movie.

The Kelpies went on to win the tournament by defeating South Africa and New Zealand

Image credits: 7News

@7sportau The Aussies get the men’s tournament underway with an awesome dance! 👏👏 #fast5 #netball #australia #dance ♬ original sound – 7Sport

Dravyn said he would love to see more sports implementing pre-match dance routines. 

“I think world netball do an exceptional job of marketing the Fast5 world series. They label it sport-tainment, bringing that entertainment factor to the sport. All the athletes get around it and I think it shows just how much fun netball can be. 

“We have gone viral nearly every year we have been here for all the fun dances we do. It would be great to see more things like that rolled out across all different types of sport.”

In the end, the Kelpies defeated South Africa 42–27 and went on to win the tournament by beating New Zealand in the final on Sunday.

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