were being stood down<\/a> for the Taini Jamison series.<\/p>\nThat series starts on Sunday, when the Silver Ferns host South Africa in Auckland.<\/p>\n
Why was Taurua stood down?<\/p>\n
RNZ understands the issues in the Silver Ferns stem back to the team’s nine-day training camp in Sydney earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Following the tour, two players approached the NZ Netball Players’ Association (NZNPA) on behalf of a larger group of up to seven players, who raised concerns about Taurua’s leadership and communication style.<\/p>\n
Players alleged the environment had become “psychologically unsafe”, describing a culture in which some felt fearful of raising issues directly with the head coach.<\/p>\n
Those concerns were escalated to Netball NZ but it was not until July that an independent review was carried out. The review highlighted “significant issues” within the Silver Ferns environment.<\/p>\n
Taurua and her assistants Deb Fuller and Briony Akle were said to have been “furious” with the findings.<\/p>\n
How did it come to a head?<\/p>\n
After multiple attempts at mediation, a crisis meeting was held on Thursday 4 September, on the eve of what was meant to be a four day training camp.<\/p>\n
It involved senior Netball NZ officials, Taurua and her management team, representatives from High Performance Sport NZ, and members of the Players’ Association.<\/p>\n
When the last-ditch effort to resolve the stand-off was unsuccessful, Netball NZ believed it had little option other than to bring in a new coaching team for the South Africa series.<\/p>\n
On 10 September the story hit the headlines when Netball New Zealand sent out a press release announcing Taurua and her coaching cohort were being stood down for the series.<\/p>\n
NNZ board chair Matt Whineray said the organisation was still hopeful of reconciling the situation with Dame Noeline.<\/p>\n
![\"Silver](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4KIXCOA_241002SilverFernsENG_39_JPG\")
<\/p>\n
\nDame Noeline Taurua
\nPhoto: Marty Melville \/ PHOTOSPORT\n<\/p>\n
Who is the new management team?<\/p>\n
Former Pulse coach Yvette McCausland-Durie answered an SOS to fill in as interim coach for the Taini Jamison series just hours before NNZ confirmed the shock news on 10 September.<\/p>\n
The next day, McCausland-Durie had a four day training camp with the Silver Ferns.<\/p>\n
Her assistant coach is former Silver Fern Liana Leota.<\/p>\n
Former Silver Fern Tracey Fear and a former Silver Ferns coach Wai Taumaunu have been brought in to share the high performance role in the interim.<\/p>\n
And former long-time All Black manager Darren Shand had also been brought in to support the players.<\/p>\n
Is there a new captain?<\/p>\n
No, not yet.<\/p>\n
It was expected Dame Noeline would be announcing a new captain this week, with Ameliaranne Ekenasio not making herself available for the 2025 test window.<\/p>\n
But instead a match-day captain and vice-captain will be selected from the squad throughout the series.<\/p>\n
McCausland-Durie, who was also a former assistant Silver Ferns coach, said she thought rotating captains was the best option.<\/p>\n
“They [Noeline Taurua and assistant coach Deb Fuller] had started a leadership process and that included the captaincy. My view is that I am here for a very short time and therefore it’s not my place to decide who the captain should be for the next campaigns.”<\/p>\n
Karin Burger, Kelly Jackson, Kate Heffernan, and Grace Nweke make up the leadership group that could fill those captaincy roles.<\/p>\n
![\"Pulse](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4MO4ZV1_copyright_image_240272\")
<\/p>\n
\nYvette McCausland-Durie
\nPhoto: PHOTOSPORT\n<\/p>\n
How much scrutiny have the Silver Ferns been under?<\/p>\n
The scrutiny has been immense.<\/p>\n
The standing down of the popular coach has shocked many netball fans to the core, given how glowing many past players have been about her impact.<\/p>\n
At the 2019 Halberg Awards Taurua won coach of the year after she engineered a remarkable turn-around, which saw the Ferns win the 2019 Netball World Cup 11 months after she became coach.<\/p>\n
Last week Silver Ferns legend Laura Langman came out in staunch defence of her former coach and was critical of players who complained about Dame Noeline.<\/p>\n
This will be the first time in seven years the national side heads into a series without coach Dame Noeline at the helm.<\/p>\n
Can South Africa upset the Silver Ferns?<\/p>\n
Despite the tumultuous build-up to the series, it’s unlikely.<\/p>\n
The Proteas have only beaten the Silver Ferns once, in a famous victory at the 1995 Netball World Championships.<\/p>\n
However in their past six clashes with New Zealand, South Africa has had two narrow defeats (1 & 2 goals), and the last time they played was at the 2023 World Cup when the Proteas scored 5 of the last 6 goals, to claim a thrilling 48-48 draw.<\/p>\n
South Africa has since lost a lot of experience with players like Phumza Maweni and Bongiwe Msomi retired, and Karla Pretorius unavailable.<\/p>\n
Look out for shooter Elmer\u00e9 van der Berg, a player on the rise. The 24-year-old was the top scorer in the UK’s Netball Super League this year and has been signed to play in the Australian league in 2026.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(File photo) Photo: Marty Melville NZ v South Africa – Taini Jamison trophy 7:40pm Sunday 21 September Eventfinda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-33789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}