New Zealand Silver Ferns
New Zealand's national netball team, the Silver Ferns: five World Cup titles, three Commonwealth golds including Glasgow 2026, and the rivalry with Australia.
The Silver Ferns are the New Zealand national netball team, run by Netball New Zealand. They take their name from the silver fern, a national symbol shared with several of the country's other national sports teams. After Australia, New Zealand are the most successful nation in the sport's history.
Record at a glance
| Competition | Titles | Years won |
|---|---|---|
| Netball World Cup | 5 | 1967, 1979 (shared), 1987, 2003, 2019 |
| Commonwealth Games | 3 | 2006, 2010, 2026 |
New Zealand finished second at the first World Cup in 1963 and have been runners-up eight times in all. At the Commonwealth Games they won silver in 1998, 2002 and 2014 and bronze in 2022, before winning gold at Glasgow 2026 by beating Jamaica in the final.
Memorable wins
- 2010 Commonwealth Games final, Delhi: New Zealand beat Australia after double extra time, with Maria Tutaia scoring the winning goal.
- 2019 World Cup final, Liverpool: New Zealand beat Australia to win their first World Cup title since 2003.
Hosting the World Cup
New Zealand have hosted the World Cup three times: Auckland in 1975, Christchurch in 1999 and Auckland again in 2007.
The rivalry with Australia
The Silver Ferns' matches against the Australia Diamonds are widely regarded as the biggest fixture in international netball. The two nations met in every Commonwealth Games final from 1998 to 2014.
Where the players come from
Most Silver Ferns play in the ANZ Premiership, New Zealand's top domestic league. Some leading players have also come from other netball nations — most famously the shooter Irene van Dyk, who played for South Africa before switching to New Zealand.
Where this page stops
This page is a durable reference to who the Silver Ferns are and what they've won, not a source for current squad lists or the latest results — check Netball New Zealand's official site for that.
Sources
All information on this page is given to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing (October 2026), after referring to the sources below — official sources wherever they exist, and the named secondary source where we couldn't find an official record.
- World Netball: Netball World Cup results and World Netball: Commonwealth Games results — medals checked October 2026.
- Netball New Zealand
- World Netball: Commonwealth Games events and results
- Results cross-checked against the Netball World Cup and Commonwealth Games netball results tables on Wikipedia.
Related reading
See Australia Diamonds for New Zealand's closest rival, and England Roses and Jamaica Sunshine Girls for the sport's other leading nations.