Silver Ferns star Karin Burger speaks on coach Dame Noeline Taurua being sidelined ahead of South Africa series

Saturday, 20 September 2025

Experienced Silver Ferns defender Karin Burger has backed Dame Noeline Taurua.

What: Taini Jamison Trophy (game 1), Silver Ferns v South Africa. Where: Eventfinda Stadium, Auckland. When: 7.40pm Sunday, live on Sky Sport 1.

Dame Noeline Taurua has found an ally in Karin Burger, who has voiced her support for the embattled Silver Ferns coach.

Taurua has been sensationally stood down for the Taini Jamison Trophy series against South Africa, starting in Auckland on Sunday and looks to have coached the side for the final time.

Two players, acting on behalf of a larger group of players, went to the New Zealand Players’ Association, expressing serious concerns about Taurua’s leadership and communication style, stemming from a nine-day training camp in Sydney in January.

Those players alleged the environment had become “psychologically unsafe” and they were fearful of raising issues directly with Taurua.

Burger, the first Silver Ferns squad member to speak publicly, acknowledged every player would have a different opinion depending on their own individual circumstances. As someone who had played under Taurua for eight years, the 61-test defender said she had never experienced those feelings herself.

Dame Noeline Taurua, Karin Burger, and Bailey Mes pictured at the 2021 Halberg Awards in Auckland.

“Personally, no I’ve not experienced those things, but in saying that I’m not taking that away from people who potentially have because everybody will experience different things,” Burger told The Post.

Burger is well placed to comment on the Taurua situation given her vast experience with the Silver Ferns. In the current squad, she is the second most tenured and capped player outside Kelly Jackson, who debuted in 2017 and has 72 caps.

Burger made her international debut in Taurua’s first game as Silver Ferns coach in 2018 against England at Auckland’s Spark Arena.

She was one of the younger members of the squad when Taurua guided the Ferns to a remarkable Netball World Cup title in 2019, 11 months after taking on the job from Janine Southby.

Silver Ferns standout Karin Burger has spent eight years playing under Dame Noeline Taurua.

Players in the pro-Taurua camp appear to be in the minority. With seven players understood to have expressed concerns with the decorated coach following the Sydney camp it seemed difficult to see how Taurua would be able to return as coach, barring some drastic changes.

Former captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio made herself unavailable for the rest of the 2025 season in July, citing a desire to spend more time with her young family and have a break from the game. Jane Watson, Maia Wilson, Te Paea Selby-Rickit, and Tiana Metuarau are other leading New Zealand netballers to have made themselves unavailable for selection for varying reasons.

Burger acknowledged her perception of the Silver Ferns environment would be different to other players because of her own individual journey. Raised in South Africa, she moved to Wellington by herself at the age of 18 for greater netball opportunities.

Dame Noeline Taurua may have coached the Silver Ferns for the final time.

She battled it out in Hutt Valley club netball for five seasons, earning her first domestic contract with the Central Pulse in 2017. First-time selection in the Silver Ferns followed the next year.

Asked how she felt about how Taurua had been treated and whether she sympathised, Burger said: “She’s had amazing success throughout her career and I’ve been a part of those. Definitely have a personal, vested interest with that relationship with her and I’m very big on knowing that everybody who supports me to be the person I am, it’s only rightly so I return that support…

“I can only talk to myself and my own experiences. I can say my experiences have been very positive and good [with Taurua].”

Interim coach Yvette McCausland-Durie pictured at Silver Ferns training in Auckland this week.

Burger stressed in every high performance sports environment there were disagreements and times where it could get heated. Training sessions were meant to be challenging and there were occasions where there was tension.

She did not feel the Sydney camp, where the Ferns lost several games heavily to Grace Nweke and the NSW Swifts, had been too dissimilar to trainings from previous years.

Last year, the Silver Ferns had a fiery training camp in Napier after a 2-1 Taini Jamison Trophy series loss to England, where there were some grumpy players and coaches. It produced a powerful response, upsetting Australia 3-1 in the Constellation Cup two weeks later.

“Going back to that [Sydney] camp, I can’t speak much around that because any past camp or tour I’ve been on I’ve sort of signed it off and I just move on. Just acknowledging there’s way more to something than just what is necessarily always said.

“You need to understand the bigger picture and the bigger perspective to be able to understand that everybody’s opinion inside and view of it can be right and wrong at the same time.”

The huge challenge facing the Silver Ferns and interim coach Yvette McCausland-Durie is how they push the emotion and coaching allegiances to the side to focus on beating South Africa.

Since NNZ’s bombshell announcement last Wednesday that Taurua and assistants Debbie Fuller and Briony Akle had been stood down, it had been an emotionally-charged time for the group.

Every player would deal with the situation differently, but Burger said it did not change the fact they had a netball series to win.

When the opening centre pass was fired off on Sunday, netball had to be at the forefront of their mind.

“It’s definitely been a balance of trying to deal with the emotions and feelings side of it and being able to express that and figure out what that looks like without necessarily having all the answers, but also while doing that being able to park that and we’ve got a game on Sunday. We have to perform.”