Silver Ferns show mental fortitude to leave coaching saga at door and capture Taini Jamison Trophy
Thursday, 25 September 2025
At Pettigrew Green Arena, Napier: Silver Ferns 70 (Grace Nweke: 60/68, Martina Salmon: 9/11, Georgia Heffernan: 0/2, Filda Vui: 1/1) South Africa 58 (Elmere van der Berg: 44/47, Kamogelo Maseko: 14/19) 1Q: 14-15, HT: 34-28, 3Q: 53-42.
The Silver Ferns could have used the most chaotic build-up to a New Zealand netball series as an excuse.
Instead, they stood tall and banished the outside noise to overpower South Africa 70-58 in Napier on Wednesday and clinch the Taini Jamison Trophy series with a game to play.
The Ferns head to Invercargill for Sunday’s final match with an unassailable 2-0 lead and gunning for a series sweep before the mighty challenge of Australia looms in October’s Constellation Cup.
All the talk leading into the South African series was not on netball, but head coach Dame Noeline Taurua.
The off-court drama dates back to a nine-day training camp in Sydney where some players raised serious concerns about Taurua’s leadership and communication style, saying they felt “psychologically unsafe” and unable to raise issues directly with her.
It turned into a messy situation with an independent review launched. With mediation unable to be reached ahead of the series, NNZ took the drastic measure of standing down their Netball World Cup winning coach.
With Yvette McCausland-Durie stepping in as interim coach for the series and Taurua’s coaching future murky to say the least, the Ferns could have easily come out flat against South Africa.
While they were not as polished as Sunday’s convincing 26-goal win in the opener in Auckland, the Ferns still had too much quality for the Proteas.
South Africa were much improved and gave Ferns’ fans an early scare, jumping out to a quick 10-4 lead.
Taking a 34-28 lead into halftime, the Ferns went a long way to winning the match in the third quarter, outscoring the Proteas 19-14 to take control.
After torching South Africa for 58 goals in the first game, star shooter Grace Nweke was again terrific, exploding for 60 of the team’s 70 goals and pulling in nine rebounds.
It was the seventh time, Nweke has reached the 50-goal mark for the Ferns in a match in her 40th test.
Kelly Jackson, the Ferns’ captain for the match, was influential at the back, proving a constant nuisance for South Africa with her ability to disrupt and get her hand to ball.
Jackson led from the front, generating nine gains, four intercepts, and four rebounds in a five-star showing.
In just her second test, Martina Salmon staked a claim for Ameliaranne Ekenasio’s vacant starting goal attack bib. Salmon replaced Georgia Heffernan early in the second quarter and provided an instant impact.
Salmon finished with nine goals from 11 attempts and has been the Ferns’ best performed goal attack in the series. She could be the frontrunner to start against Australia next month.
“You want to finish 3-0, that was the goal. We set that as a goal for the tour,” McCausland-Durie said of the expectations for game three in Invercargill.
“We still want to make sure we’re learning and growing because it’s part of using all opportunities for the bigger picture and what’s to come, particularly to prepare this group for Comm Games [next year in Glasgow].”
With the series in the bag, McCausland-Durie wanted to see the Ferns continue to strive for excellence in Sunday’s final match. Australia will be another step up in the Constellation Cup. Mistakes the Ferns made against South Africa would be ruthlessly punished by the world champion Diamonds.
Invercargill netball supporters are renowned for their passion and viewed by many as the most parochial in the country.
“Invercargill always bring it. They’re just so enthusiastic about their netball…
“It’s really nice to bring the game to a passionate group of people. They’ll fill the space [at Stadium Southland]. We’ll feel the love and their energy and that will be amazing. We’ll definitely see some tinsel hair and a lot of joy.”