The young rugby player at the centre of last year’s biggest news stories, Losi Filipo made his Mitre 10 Cup debut for Wellington last night. It’s a chance at redemption, but not just for him, writes Jamie Wall. It was a wet, greasy game last night at the grandly-named Rotorua International Stadium. The weather and … Read more
The next women’s Rugby World Cup should be defended by a team named the All Blacks, argues Jamie Wall. The Black Ferns won the World Cup on Sunday, beating England 42-31 in a highly entertaining advertisement for women’s rugby. Not only did it spark celebrations for an unprecedented fifth Rugby World Cup title, it also … Read more
For better – and sometimes for worse – Colin Meads had a near matchless influence on rugby. Jamie Wall charts his influence. New Zealand and the rugby world is in mourning after the passing of the iconic Sir Colin Meads, a man who transcended both the sport he played and the society he lived in. … Read more
For plenty of New Zealand rugby fans, their second Super Rugby team is ‘anyone playing the Crusaders’, but there was one year this wasn’t the case. Jamie Wall looks back on the team’s extraordinary post-earthquake 2011 season. “We’ll be cheering on the Lions next week”. That was the post-match reaction of Hurricanes captain Dane Coles … Read more
Is it fair to say the 25-year-old former All Blacks midfielder never quite lived up to his potential? Jamie Wall looks back on an abbreviated career in New Zealand rugby. Full time blew on the Highlanders’ season on a wet and miserable Saturday night in Christchurch. The weather was so bad that the uncovered stands … Read more
The All Blacks’ attempt to start a parochial New Zealand rugby chant has been embraced wholeheartedly… by Lions supporters. The last month has been a pretty long and interesting time. I’ve been to every game of the British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand, from Whangarei to Dunedin. I’ve listened to a lot along … Read more
A weird thing happened to me at the cricket yesterday: for the first time in my life I felt sympathy for Australia, confesses Jamie Wall. It was at around 4:30pm yesterday that the unthinkable happened. Maybe it was the oppressive heat. Maybe it was because I’m almost 36 and slightly more rational these days. Or … Read more
Wellington Rugby seems determined to say the bare minimum about Losi Filipo’s assault case. Jamie Wall says it’s time for rugby to stop looking the other way. It was somewhat telling that the Wellington Rugby Football Union’s official statement regarding the Losi Filipo assault case and subsequent discharge without conviction was released at 10pm Monday night. … Read more
For over 16 years one of New Zealand’s greatest trans-Tasman triumphs has been overshadowed by one of our most crushing rugby losses. Jamie Wall remembers the day TrueBliss absolutely owned Bardot in a pre-Bledisloe Cup national anthem sing-off. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game … Read more
People said it couldn’t be done. That it was impossible for even the most loud-mouthed rugby player to achieve. Last night, Aaron Smith proved the doubters wrong. Plaudits are flowing freely for Highlanders and All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith, who last night managed to pull off the most elusive feat in rugby union. After exactly 83 minutes … Read more
Out of nowhere, England are challenging the All Blacks for the title of ‘Best Side in Rugby’. Rugby bosses need to strike while the iron’s hot and schedule an emergency test match between the two sides, writes Jamie Wall. Even if you’ve been saving for an Auckland house by giving up Sky, you’ll know there’s only … Read more
The Warriors (probably) hold the NRL record for getting their hearts broken by their former players, with James Maloney’s golden point field goal the most recent incident. Jamie Wall recounts the most traumatic ex-Warrior revenge missions. As far as losses go, the Warriors’ latest to the Sharks would have been relatively easy to take, had it not been … Read more
The heroic image of Richie McCaw chugging an ice cold bottle of Powerade has been blamed for ruining kids’ teeth, but as Jamie Wall finds, it’s far from the first troubling endorsement in All Blacks history. First published in June 2016. Richie! All this stuff about you being responsible for destroying a poor little kid’s … Read more
Their rugby and league career paths are strikingly similar, writes Jamie Wall, so why does Sonny Bill Williams get so much grief when Brad Thorn is universally admired? SBW is back, but in blue this time. His form on the field will be the subject of much conjecture, but one thing will be for sure: … Read more
Using Tinder for its original intended purpose only brought Jamie Wall bad times, so he deleted it. But with the Warriors’ latest calamity weighing heavy on his mind, he decided to reinstall – this time to try and crowdsource a solution to the rugby league club’s woes. (All correspondents have given permission for their replies … Read more
Fingerless gloves. Those distinctive mitt-warmers were once the height of rugby haute couture. Then they inexplicably vanished without a trace. Can Aaron Smith work his magic, and bring them back? The biggest story out of Super Rugby over the last couple of weeks wasn’t the Highlanders’ timely return to form, with wins over the Chiefs and Crusaders. Rather, … Read more
The Warriors lost badly on ANZAC Day, and now they’re being accused of disrespecting the combatants in a military campaign that happened 101 years ago. That’s dumb, writes Jamie Wall. April 25th, 2016 won’t go down as a day to remember for the Warriors. Not only was the team’s 42-0 loss devoid of any positives, it was … Read more
Why can’t we get rugby or league jerseys with numbers on the back, wonders Jamie Wall. All across the sports world, it’s pretty much common practice to make individual player number jerseys available for rabid fans to buy. So why do the two main footy codes in the Southern Hemisphere refuse to do it? It’s … Read more
All you have to do is move them from the Southern Hemisphere to the North. Jamie Wall looks at rugby’s growing talent gap. Word came out this week about the French national union’s unsuccessful attempt to fast-track New Zealand-raised winger David Smith into their squad for the remainder of the Six Nations tournament. Unfortunately, it … Read more
Why was Conrad Smith always praised for his ‘intelligent’ play, while Ma’a Nonu was often branded an ‘imposing physical specimen’? Jamie Wall takes on racial stereotyping in the New Zealand rugby media. There’s an opening in the archetypes department of NZ rugby. No, not the bashful, camera-shy tight forward. Not even the first five who … Read more