McCausland-Durie to return to Pulse for 2018 ANZ Premiership

After a successful first year in the job, Yvette McCausland-Durie has signed on for another two years as head coach of Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse in the ANZ Premiership.

The Pulse had a breakthrough season in 2017 to make the play-offs for the first time in their history, eventually finishing second in New Zealand’s new domestic elite league.

“It was an easy decision for me,” McCausland-Durie said. “We’ve made a commitment around a three-year plan where we feel we’ve got the ability to make it through to be a winning premiership team.

“I do think that when you’re in a team environment it does take time and while we’ve had a great season in lots of ways, we do know there’s still potential for us as a team. And there’s also a lot of development for me as a coach and still huge amounts of progress that can be made.”

Having built an impressive resume over the years covering a variety of grades and levels, McCausland-Durie has relished a return to coaching senior players after first being at the helm of the Pulse in 2009-11.

A usually reserved McCausland-Durie showed tangible satisfaction with what the Pulse achieved this year, with their goal of making the finals becoming reality.

“To actually have that come to fruition was pretty satisfying for all of us,” she said.