Yvette McCausland-Durie goes from reopening boys’ boarding school to assisting Silver Ferns in hour of need
Friday, 19 September 2025
What: Taini Jamison Trophy (game 1), Silver Ferns v South Africa. Where: Eventfinda Stadium, Auckland. When: 7.40pm Sunday, live on Sky Sport 1.
Being thrown into an interim head coaching role with the Silver Ferns won’t be the toughest challenge for Yvette McCausland-Durie this year.
The former Central Pulse title-winning coach still finds it difficult to comprehend she will be in charge of the Ferns for the three-match Taini Jamison Trophy series against South Africa, starting in Auckland on Sunday.
Given what McCausland-Durie has had to tackle this year – re-opening Tipene, formerly St Stephen’s School, in south Auckland with husband, Nathan Durie, after 25 years closed, little should faze her.
McCausland-Durie, who is co-principal of the all-boys’ boarding school with Nathan, had just finished teaching last Wednesday when her phone started buzzing.
Calling was former Silver Ferns coach Wai Taumaunu, with an unexpected request – Was she available to step in and coach the Silver Ferns for a series?
With World Cup winning head coach Dame Noeline Taurua, and assistants Debbie Fuller and Briony Akle sensationally stood down for the series, a stand-in was needed.
Taurua looks like she may have coached the Ferns for the last time after players raised concerns with her leadership and communication style, stemming from a nine-day training camp in Sydney in January. Two players, acting on behalf of a larger group of players, went to the New Zealand Players’ Association, saying they felt psychologically unsafe in the Ferns’ environment.
McCausland-Durie stressed she was stepping in on an interim basis for this series.
Netball New Zealand’s board will be assessing their next move with the Constellation Cup against Australia in October looming. The Silver Ferns also have a United Kingdom tour in November. Should they move on from Taurua, a replacement head coach will need to be found and promptly.
Shock phone call aside, McCausland-Durie said it was an instant yes to Taumaunu. She was given enough information to know what she was getting herself in for and appreciated it was a delicate situation, where some players would feel an allegiance to Taurua.
With the Taini Jamison Trophy falling during the school holidays it had made it easier to commit.
“My piece was really around respecting the fact a lot of them they’ve had a long-standing relationship with a coach [Taurua], both they and we all respect. It’s really important just to make sure it’s not about choosing sides.”
As of Friday, McCausland-Durie has had just six days of training with the team. Her focus was on preparing the players for South Africa and ensuring their minds were on netball, rather than the coaching saga in the background.
She had not spoken to or messaged Taurua, leaving that to NNZ who had been supporting her.
“The job is making sure as a group of players they have what they need. We have that clarity and we’re able to step out for that [South African] test series ensuring we can do what everybody expects us to do, which is to win games.”
McCausland-Durie will be assisted by former Silver Ferns midcourter Liana Leota, who she coached as a student at Palmerston North Girls’ High. Leota also played under McCausland-Durie for the Western Flyers in the former national league and with the New Zealand under-21 side that won the 2005 Netball World Youth Cup, where she was assistant coach.
Former long-serving All Blacks manager Darren Shand has also stepped in to help the players adjust to the challenging environment.
Chucked in at the deep end at short notice for the Taini Jamison Trophy will be quite the task for Manawatū duo, McCausland-Durie and Leota. Leota has made some start to her coaching career. She was previously England technical coach, leading the weakened Roses to a stunning upset win over New Zealand in Christchurch in 2023, filling in for usual coach Jess Thirlby. Returning to New Zealand, she was assistant coach at the Southern Steel this season under Wendy Frew.
“For both of us it is a real privilege to be in this space and we’re both really clear. It’s an interim role, but one we take really seriously about managing and upholding the mana and legacy of the Silver Fern,” McCausland-Durie said.
“We feel the pressure and know what the pressure is like, but we absolutely take that on and respectfully we’ll do the best we can to ensure the team is in the best possible position.”
McCausland-Durie was Silver Ferns’ assistant under Janine Southby and was involved in the team’s harrowing 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, where they finished fourth and failed to medal for the first time.
She bounced back from that difficult chapter to steer the Pulse to back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2020 and another in 2022, making five grand finals, before stepping away in 2023 to concentrate on getting Tipene up and running.
The 53-year-old does not do things half-heartedly.
In February, the gates at Tipene (husband Nathan’s old school) were officially opened after 25 years. The school started with 43 year nine and 10 students this year, but will increase to 75 next year (including year 11) and eventually expand to year 12 and 13 and around 250 students.
Some buildings at the school were still to be completed and McCausland-Durie said it had been a huge undertaking.
All staff and students live on-site with the school a seven-day-a-week boarding school.
“It’s been challenging and rewarding. I’ve predominantly spent time in co-ed schools or a single sex girl school, but the opportunity to work with boys is really driven by that fact that for us there’s statistics in their education and learning that hasn’t been great, so we wanted to be change agents in that space.”