How the Silver Ferns went from Commonwealth Games shame to Netball World Cup champions

The Silver Ferns head to South Africa to defend their World Cup crown later this month. BRENDON EGAN reflects on the team’s stunning rise to the silverware.

Relief was the overriding emotion as it dawned on Casey Kopua she was finally a Netball World Cup champion.

After runner-up finishes at the 2007, 2011, and 2015 tournaments, Kopua and fellow “fossils” Laura Langman and Maria Folau enjoyed the ultimate ending to their storied careers.

The Silver Ferns’ epic 52-51 final victory over Australia at the 2019 World Cup completed a remarkable turnaround few could have scripted 15 months earlier.

Rewind to April 2018 and the Ferns, minus Kopua and Langman, were at their lowest nadir. For the first time in history, they failed to medal at a pinnacle event, finishing fourth at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

That woeful showing, and other poor results, cost head coach Janine Southby her job, following an independent review into the team’s struggles. Dame Noeline Taurua was named as her replacement and was left to pick up the pieces.

The same woman who said in 2015 her face “didn’t fit” at Netball New Zealand after failing to make the short list for the head coaching position filled by Southby.

As the fulltime whistle sounded at Liverpool Arena and Kopua and team-mates leapt into each other’s arms the magnitude of the achievement started to hit home.

“It was unreal. That realisation, but also just the relief,” Kopua says. “I know it sounds bad, but that it was actually over.

“We were just so knackered, but thrilled for what we had all achieved and what Noels [Taurua] had done for all of us to be in the stadium playing that game and a part of that memory and legacy that will be left.”

Kopua had retired from international netball in 2017, but returned to the black dress when Taurua, her first coach at the elite level, took over as national coach.

Taurua called her multiple times to try and entice her back with Kopua unable to say no to the “greatest coach that I’ve ever had and I’ve known”.

So how did Taurua turn the Ferns from a rabble to resplendent in such a short space of time?

“I don’t think anybody knew what we could do or how it could be done, but good old Noeline Taurua knew something we didn’t know,” says defender Katrina Rore, who captained the Ferns at the 2018 Games.

“Noels came in and made a whole lot of changes and I think the way she tested players out, teams out, so nobody got comfortable [was critical].”

Upon her introduction as head coach, Taurua brought in minimum conditioning requirements. Players needed to reach the mandatory 16.3 yoyo test standard to be considered for selection.

The fitness standards had their critics, but Taurua had a grand plan in place. It proved a master stroke and was a crucial reason why the Ferns captured the World Cup. Where they had often faded in the second half of crunch games, the Ferns fought to the end and didn’t wilt in the final.

Taurua’s five-day pre-World Cup camp on Australia’s Sunshine Coast in June 2019 was another canny move.

Described by Kopua and Rore as the most gruelling training sessions of their careers, Taurua wanted her players to push themselves to the limits.

Days started in 6am darkness and finished late at night. Training drills didn’t end until they were completed to Taurua’s satisfaction with mediocrity not an option.

“I remember looking back and going I wonder where the beach is,” Rore says.

“After three days you actually realised it was a street over, but because we had no downtime we didn’t even know it was there. I feel like that was a bit of a telling factor.”

Rore strained her calf in innocuous circumstances on the third day of the camp and only just proved her fitness in time for the World Cup.

The Sunshine Coast camp was punishing, but because they were pushed to the brink, Kopua says nothing fazed them come World Cup time.

“If you’ve been through it once and you’ve been through it with your mates and your team, you can do it again.

“Being put in those pressure moments and those scenarios we’d all been through, nothing was a surprise for us, so that we were prepared as much as we could.”

Taurua’s ability to think outside the box and arm the Silver Ferns with every scenario possible was a hallmark of the campaign.

After returning from the Sunshine Coast the squad took part in a Cadbury Series in Auckland against the New Zealand men, All Stars (essentially a New Zealand A side of players, who missed World Cup selection), and Fiji.

The Ferns played the men live on television for the first time and in front of a crowd with Taurua eager to test them against taller, faster athletes.

While they lost both games to the men, including the final, preparing the Ferns for the physicality of Australia and England at the World Cup was the bigger picture.

Underdogs for the semifinal against hosts England, who had beaten the Ferns in all four games in 2018 and 2019, Taurua’s side ended the Roses’ Cup dream, winning 47-45.

That set up a sixth straight trans-Tasman Netball World Cup final against favourites Australia, chasing a fourth consecutive title.

Having edged the Ferns 50-49 three days earlier in the preliminaries stage two, Australian coach Lisa Alexander says they had a clear game plan to stop the Ferns.

“It would have been make sure you keep the ball away from Casey Kopua that’s for certain and try not to get contacted by Katrina Rore. We knew they had a game plan for us to give us a bit of a smashing on the outside of the circle.”

The Ferns resembled a defensive wall with Kopua and Jane Watson at the back, combined with Rore’s 1.87m height and reach at wing defence and Langman, a defensive-minded centre. The quartet caused issues for the Australian attackers, who couldn’t get into their rhythm.

“Laura Langman to be fair played extraordinary in that final,” Alexander says.

“It was off the body [defence]. You don’t get noticed by the umpires, and it was a much better strategy. Australia has now adopted more of that strategy in their defence end with Nic Richardson as the assistant coach.”

The Diamonds were outplayed by the Ferns for much of the final with Taurua drawing on intelligence she had tucked away from her time coaching the Sunshine Coast Lightning in Australia. She guided the Lightning to Super Netball titles in 2017 and 2018.

Taurua produced one final dagger for the Diamonds. The Ferns flicked off 15 passes to deny Australia possession over the final 45 seconds of the game – a tactic she had gleaned from the Lightning.

“Noeline had practiced that specifically and she even learnt it at Sunshine Coast Lightning,” Alexander says.

“That’s the way they used to play. We got well done over by a coach who had seen us up close and personal and knew how to beat us.”

Dubbed the “fossils” by Taurua, Langman, Folau, and Kopua hadn’t announced their retirements, but all knew this was their final time together as a trio.

To finish their illustrious careers with a first World Cup title after losing three straight finals was some farewell present.

“To be with that group of people, not just the players, but the management and to have our family there and to do that and finish that, that’s the one thing we had never won before,” Kopua says.

“To be able to do that was such an occasion. I always look back on it and love watching the game again because you know that you’re going to win.”

AT A GLANCE:

Silver Ferns World Cup winning squad: Laura Langman (c), Maria Folau, Ameliaranne Ekenasio, Te Paea Selby-Rickit, Bailey Mes, Gina Crampton, Shannon Saunders, Karin Burger, Katrina Rore, Jane Watson, Casey Kopua, Phoenix Karaka.

Road to the title:

Preliminaries stage one: Beat Malawi 64-45, beat Barbados 78-25, beat Singapore 89-21

Preliminaries stage two: Beat Zimbabwe 79-36, beat Northern Ireland 77-28, lost Australia 50-49

Semifinal: Beat England 47-45

Final: Beat Australia 52-51