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All Blacks to play Tonga at Mt Smart Stadium
The All Blacks will play at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland for the first time when they host Tonga in July. New Zealand Rugby has confirmed the dates and venues for the Tests against Tonga...
Wounded PNG Hunters welcome much-need break
The Papua New Guinea Hunters rugby league team are looking forward to a break after using every available player in Sunday’s 48-14 defeat by the Souths Logan Magpies. The visitors only trailed 12-10 at the interval but conceded six second half tries against a Magpies team that featured NRL players Tom Dearden, Tesi Niu and...
Samoa Rugby Union completes rebrand to Lakapi Samoa
The Samoa Rugby Union has officially rebranded itself as Lakapi Samoa, in a move it claims will “revitalise” and “reinvigorate” the organisation. The revamp, which includes a new logo depicting the Teuila flower, was first announced six months ago at the Union’s 2020 Annual General Meeting where affiliated members unanimously approved the adoption of a...
Home grown Bati – Local based players fight for RLWC selection
THE Fiji Bati team to the 2021 Rugby League World Cup in England later this year is expected to include some local based players. And with the continued good performance by the Kaiviti Silktails in the Ron Massey Cup competition in Sydney, Fiji National Rugby League acting chief executive officer, Don Natabe, said he was...
It’s a Pasifika July, with All Blacks to meet Fiji and Tonga, NZ Maori to face Samoa
New Zealand Rugby have confirmed a Pasifika-themed July international schedule, with the All Blacks, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and New Zealand Māori gathering for a busy month of matches in Aotearoa. In the end the compromise, with its Pacific cultural twist, was the best that could be managed after Italy withdrew from its scheduled two-test tour...
Goalkeeper Alisson scores Liverpool’s winner
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson made the 80m journey into West Bromwich Albion’s penalty area, more in hope than any expectation of scoring the stoppage-time goal that would keep alive his team’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League. After all, he’d never scored a goal in his career. No Liverpool ‘keeper had in the club’s 129-year...
Chiefs re-sign front rowers Samisoni Taukei’aho and Aidan Ross
Front rowers Samisoni Taukei’aho and Aidan Ross have inked new deals with the Chiefs. Hooker Taukei’aho has recommitted to the Hamilton-based franchise through 2024, while loosehead prop Ross has signed through 2023. Taukei’aho has developed into a powerful rake with a devastating running game since joining the Chiefs as an injury replacement in 2017. The...
New Zealand men’s rowing eight qualifies for Tokyo Olympics
The New Zealand men’s rowing eight is off to the Tokyo Olympics – and in the hunt for a medal. Needing a top-two finish in their field of four at the Olympic qualifying regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, the Kiwi crew won the final on Sunday night (NZ time) to book their spot for the Games...
Steel hold on for win after Taneisha Fifita ordered off
The Central Pulse’s title defence is in tatters following their fourth loss from five games to start the ANZ Premiership season. For the second time in three weeks, the Southern Steel prevailed over the Pulse, winning their first away game of the season 56-52 in Porirua on Sunday. The Pulse have lost three straight games...
Lakers’ LeBron James set to return vs. Pacers
The Los Angeles Lakers will have LeBron James back in the lineup for Saturday’s pivotal road game against the Indiana Pacers, coach Frank Vogel said Saturday. James participated in the team’s Friday practice and had been listed as questionable before Vogel’s announcement. James has missed six consecutive games since a brief, two-game return from a...
‘Dear Kobe, thank you’: Lakers legend Bryant enshrined in Hall of Fame
Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant was inducted posthumously to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, as the class of 2020 was enshrined after months of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The five-time NBA champion died last year aged 41 in a helicopter crash alongside his daughter and seven others, shocking...
Missed conversion costs Brumbies
Noah Lolesio missed the chance to earn the Brumbies a draw with the Crusaders in Christchurch on Saturday when he dragged his late conversion attempt wide, handing the New Zealanders a 31-29 trans-Tasman Super Rugby win. Tries from Tom Banks and Rob Valetini hauled the Brumbies back into the game after the Crusaders, winners of...
Federer calls for end to Tokyo Olympics uncertainty
Tennis star Roger Federer has called on Olympics organisers to end the uncertainty around the Tokyo Games, with the 20-times Grand Slam winner saying he was still in two minds whether to compete. The Olympics are set to run from July 23 to Aug. 8 after being postponed in March last year over the coronavirus...
Rookie kayaker qualifies NZ Olympic spot
Just 10 months after he first sat in a kayak, Corbin Hart has qualified a New Zealand boat in the KL3 200m for the Tokyo Paralympics. Hart, 26, finished seventh in the A final at the canoe-kayak sprint and paracanoe World Cup in Szeged, Hungary today. It was his first ever international regatta and just...
16th May
From bullying victim to Olympics dream, Connor Bell finds ‘silver lining’ to his story
The bullies left their marks on Connor Bell, even if they’re not visible to the naked eye. The scars are deep and painful and even now, more than seven years on, they form a major part of the story of this courageous young Kiwi Olympic athlete. Bell, at 19, has been chosen to compete in...
NBL: Breakers homecoming marred by Hawks steal in heartbreaking loss in Wollongong
The New Zealand Breakers fell agonisingly short of ending their stay in Australia with a win, going down 73-71 to the Illawarra Hawks in an NBL thriller. The Breakers flew home on Sunday after being forced to spend the past 153 days away from family due to coronavirus-enforced travel restrictions. And they could’ve celebrated by...
New Zealand men’s rowing eight close in on Olympic qualification in Lucerne
The New Zealand men’s rowing eight have landed a big psychological blow two days out from their crunch Olympic qualifying race. They will just be hoping their opponents weren’t foxing with them and keeping their powder dry. Racing at the ‘last chance’ regatta at Lucerne in Switzerland, the Kiwi crew need to finish in the...
Premier League: Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds purr in big win over Chris Wood’s Burnley
Leeds have delivered a superb 4-0 win at Burnley in the Premier League which would even have delighted their perfectionist coach Marcelo Bielsa. After Mateusz Klich put Leeds ahead on the stroke of halftime on Saturday, they punished Burnley after the break as Jack Harrison added a second before claiming the two assists when Rodrigo...
Young Timaru basketball referee wins NZ award
One day Reagan Ashley might be able to fly himself around New Zealand to referee matches. At present, the Timaru 19-year-old who dreams of becoming a pilot is certainly flying high in basketball picking up Basketball New Zealand’s young volunteer of the year award in Wellington recently. Due to Covid-19 disruptions in 2020 the award...
Break time – Fijian Silktails visit Gold Coast, Melbourne
The Kaiviti Silktails are on a sixday break spending the Ron Massey Cup round 10 bye in Australia’s tourism capital, the Gold Coast, before heading to Melbourne to watch some big games in the National Rugby League competition. The Silktails landed on the Gold Coast on Tuesday, going straight to the Gold Coast Performance Centre...
NRL: ‘I got emotional’: Eels coach shares teary embrace with debutant son
Once the cameras stopped rolling out the front of the Sofitel Hotel in Brisbane, Parramatta coach Brad Arthur let out a giant sigh of relief and said: “Beauty, I kept it together”. Arthur had hours earlier shed a tear when he hugged his 18-year-old son ahead of his NRL debut against the New Zealand Warriors...
Leicester wins FA Cup for first time with superb strike against Chelsea at Wembley
Even sweeter than the powerful long-range strike from Youri Tielemans was Leicester being able to celebrate winning the FA Cup for the first time surrounded by its fans. “Wow, what a finish,” Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel said after they beat Chelsea 1-0 in the final on Saturday. “I didn’t dare to celebrate because there’s always...
All Blacks great Kieran Read retires after Japan semifinal loss to Robbie Deans’ side
World Rugby and the All Blacks have saluted Kieran Read who has ended his career after a semifinal defeat in Japan’s Top League. Read, 35, confirmed before leading Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz out against Deans’ Panasonic Wild Knights on Saturday that he would be ending his career at the conclusion of the Japanese season. The...
Andrew Mehrtens backing Australia for 2027 Rugby World Cup
Former All Blacks star Andrew Mehrtens says Australia should host the 2027 Rugby World Cup but New Zealand involvement is not a foregone conclusion. Mehrtens says that having New Zealand stage All Black pool games – which could be the expectation of many Kiwi fans – could cost the Australian organisers “millions’’. Mehrtens wrote in...
Black Caps veteran Tim Southee returns to happy English hunting ground
Tim Southee jokes the Black Caps’ new wave have it easy compared to the side’s senior pros. Test wins were few and far between in his early days of international cricket in a New Zealand team, renowned for inconsistency. Debuting as a 19-year-old in 2008, he won just one of his first 14 tests and...
Super Rugby: Chiefs clinch heart-stopping win over Force to ensure Kiwi clean sweep
A 14-man Chiefs side have clung on for a heart-stopping 20-19 win over the Force in Perth to ensure a Kiwi clean sweep over the Aussies on the opening weekend of Super Rugby Trans-Tasman. But there was all of a few inches in it, after replacement first-five Domingo Miotti slid his after-the-siren conversion attempt just...
Super Rugby: Blues breeze past Melbourne Rebels as Kiwi teams go 4-0 over Aussies
New Zealand 4, Australia 0. The bristling Blues clearly used their week off wisely to brew together the intensity, game-plan and execution required to get their Super Rugby Trans-Tasman campaign off to a rollicking start. Leon MacDonald’s men flexed their muscles and thundered to an emphatic opening 50-3 victory over the Rebels in Melbourne on...
Super Rugby: Scratchy Crusaders edge Brumbies in Christchurch thriller
The Crusaders have survived an almighty scare to make it three from three for Kiwi teams over their Aussie counterparts to start the trans-Tasman Super Rugby competition. Their tense 31-29 win against the Brumbies in Christchurch on Saturday night was far from pretty, and required a missed conversion after the hooter from pivot Noah Lolesio,...
Tokyo Olympics: Why doesn’t Japan cancel the Games?
The Tokyo Olympics are now just over two months away and calls to ditch the Games in the face of the pandemic are getting louder by the day. So why isn’t Japan talking about cancelling the Games? The answer as it turns out, is not that simple. The situation is not looking great in Japan....
Why Laurel Hubbard can compete at the Tokyo Olympics when Caster Semenya can’t
While New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard is poised to become the first transgender athlete to compete at an Olympic Games, the two-times champion in the women’s 800m looks certain to be barred from defending her title. South African track superstar Caster Semenya is awaiting a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights to give...
