Dame Noeline Taurua will coach the Silver Ferns through to the 2027 Netball World Cup in Sydney, Netball New Zealand announced on Thursday, six weeks after she led the team to Commonwealth Games gold and a year after she was stood down in a dispute with the same organisation.
The reappointment, reported by RNZ and 1News, keeps her in charge for the Constellation Cup against Australia next month and for the World Cup, which runs from 25 August to 5 September next year. Her previous contract ran through the 2026 Commonwealth Games, so Netball New Zealand had to decide whether to extend it once Glasgow was done.
That decision became much easier on 2 August. The Silver Ferns went through the Glasgow tournament unbeaten and beat Jamaica 56-48 in the final, New Zealand’s first Commonwealth Games netball gold since Delhi in 2010. Newswire covered that win at the time.
In its statement, Netball New Zealand said the decision reflected its confidence in Taurua’s “leadership, coaching ability, integrity and vision” and a shared goal of making the Silver Ferns the world’s top-ranked team again.
Chief executive Jennah Wootten, who RNZ reported has been in the job for about a month, said the organisation was pleased to keep her. “The Silver Ferns programme is a world-class high-performance environment and we are thrilled to have retained the services of Dame Noeline. She is one of the greatest coaches in world netball,” said Wootten.
Wootten added that Netball New Zealand was proud of the programme. “We look forward to further success with a huge 12 months ahead,” she said.
Taurua said it was an honour and a privilege to lead the team. “This team has a proud history and a legacy that has been built over generations by the coaches, players and people who have gone before us,” she said.
She also looked back on Glasgow. “I’m also incredibly proud of what this team achieved at the Commonwealth Games. The opportunity now is to build on that success, continue to grow our game and our people, and keep adding to the legacy of the Silver Ferns.”
The announcement closes a turbulent chapter. In September 2025, days before the Taini Jamison series against South Africa, Taurua and her coaching staff were stood down after concerns were raised about the team’s high-performance environment. What started as a review of the team culture turned into an employment dispute that lasted about two months, with Taurua’s side challenging the process and Netball New Zealand saying changes were needed to strengthen the player voice.
On 25 October 2025 the two sides reached an agreement for her return, with commitments to athlete and staff wellbeing and changes to the high-performance environment. RNZ reported at the time that Netball New Zealand confirmed nothing in the process had called her integrity into question. She stayed on the sidelines for the rest of that international season, missing the 2025 Constellation Cup and the end-of-year tour to the United Kingdom, which made the Commonwealth Games her first campaign back in charge.
Since then Netball New Zealand has had a significant change of leadership, and the relationship between coach and national body has turned around. Thursday’s announcement is the clearest sign yet of that.
Taurua’s time in charge began with one of the biggest turnarounds in Silver Ferns history. She took over in 2018 from Janine Southby, after the Silver Ferns finished fourth at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and came home without a medal for the first time. Within a year she had turned that side into world champions, beating Australia to win the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool.
The results at major tournaments since have been more mixed. New Zealand took bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, then finished fourth at the 2023 World Cup in Cape Town, their worst finish at a World Cup. Netball New Zealand kept her after a recruitment process in 2024, and Glasgow has now rewarded that choice.
The next test comes quickly. The 2026 Constellation Cup starts at Spark Arena in Auckland on 18 October, moves to Wolfbrook Arena in Christchurch on 21 October, then crosses the Tasman for games at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on 25 October and John Cain Arena in Melbourne on 28 October. The series has extra edge this year. Australia were knocked out by Jamaica in the Commonwealth Games semifinals and settled for bronze, so the two old rivals never met in Glasgow.
Taurua goes into that series with a settled group. Earlier this week Netball New Zealand named an 18-player squad for the 2026 and 2027 seasons that kept all 12 Glasgow gold medallists and added Tactix defender Laura Balmer.
Netball New Zealand also confirmed on Thursday that the Silver Ferns will play the New Zealand men’s team in a three-match series at Claudelands Arena in Hamilton on 17, 19 and 21 November, according to NZ Sports Wire.
The long view is Sydney next August. The Silver Ferns have won the World Cup five times, most recently under Taurua in 2019, and they will go there as Commonwealth champions with the coach who delivered both titles still in charge.
Is keeping Dame Noeline Taurua the right call after everything that happened last year, and can the Silver Ferns win back the World Cup in Sydney? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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