Nichole Taljaard

Nichole Taljaard (born 3 May 1997) is a South African netball player who plays for South Africa in the positions of goal attack and goal shooter. She scored the final goal against New Zealand at the Cape Town International Convention Centre during the 2023 Netball World Cup.

She began playing netball at the age of five and has played a variety of sports at her school. She has described herself as an introvert, as she often spends her time staying at home, and she insists she goes largely unnoticed.

Career
She made her Commonwealth Games debut appearance representing South Africa at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in women's netball competition. She made her senior international debut for South Africa during the 2022 Commonwealth Games in a pool stage match against Wales on 3 August 2022. She was a key member of the South African squad which emerged as runners-up to Australia in the final of the 2022 Fast5 Netball World Series.

She was included in the South African squad for the 2023 Netball World Cup, which was also her maiden appearance at a Netball World Cup tournament. She played a huge part in securing a historic tie for Proteas against defending world champions New Zealand after the end of the full time, with scores read at 48-48 during the 2023 Netball World Cup. She scored a crucial equalizer in the last quarter of the match against New Zealand at a time when South Africa were five points behind and had only five minutes remaining in the match. The tie also meant South Africa was still in the hunt to progress to the semi-final of their home World Cup campaign, provided they beat neighbouring Uganda by a margin of over 50 points. However, hosts South Africa could not progress to the semi-final despite winning their crucial game against Uganda 52–50.

She was also signed by London Pulse for the 2024 Netball Superleague season.