Sports: The All Blacks Pick Their Kiwi Sporting Heroes of 2015 Part 1 – Joseph Parker

We asked 12 Rugby World Cup winning All Blacks for their Kiwi sporting hero of 2015. Six of them – Liam Messam, Victor Vito, Jerome Kaino, Beauden Barrett, Dane Coles and TJ Perenara – picked heavyweight boxer Joseph Parker. So, in the first of our All Blacks’ Kiwi Sporting Hero selections for 2015, Scotty Stevenson takes a look … Read more

Sports: The Rugby Club Rising From The Ashes

Club rugby was once an essential part of New Zealand’s rural life, but in the professional age its prominence has been in sharp decline. So what happens when one of the smallest and most remarkable clubs in the country watches its old hall burn down? It rediscovers its importance, and its people. Scotty Stevenson writes about … Read more

The Chronicler of the Cairns Trial – An Interview with Jared Savage

His paper broke the story which led to the Cairns trial, and Jared Savage has covered it brilliantly throughout. Scotty Stevenson spoke with him after the verdict. Jared Savage spent nine weeks in London covering the Chris Cairns perjury trial for the New Zealand Herald. After the verdict was read, I talked to Savage over the phone about … Read more

Sports: Sir Gordon Tietjens and the Battle for Sevens Gold in Rio

Sir Gordon Tietjens picks his first New Zealand Sevens squad for the 2015/16 season today with the ultimate prize an Olympic Gold Medal. We look at the coach and his team and ask why didn’t more big name players commit to his cause? The story, apocryphal maybe, goes that when Sir Gordon Tietjens first became … Read more

Sports: There Will Never Be Another Jonah

One of the true legends of Rugby died today in Auckland. Scotty Stevenson reflects on the passing of the one and only Jonah Lomu.  The most unstoppable man in the history of rugby was finally stopped today. He was just 40. Jonah Tali Lomu died unexpectedly in Auckland this morning after returning from the Rugby … Read more

Sports: Pro Rugby Comes to America – and it Might Just Work

There have been false dawns before but American Rugby is about to take its first steps into the pro leagues with the announcement of the PRO Rugby competition. Scotty Stevenson talks to the men behind the league and assesses its challenges and potential. At Travers Island last weekend the Old Blue of New York defeated … Read more

Sports: Festooning Wellington, Lampooning The FFA

This Friday the Wellington Phoenix play their first home game since Football Federation Australia’s refusal to grant them a ten-year license extension to play in football’s A-League. Right now, Wellington is trying to pull the wool over their eyes.  It was a remarkable press conference. Two weeks ago A-League CEO David Gallop sat a desk … Read more

Sports: Subtlety and Grace in the Heart of Violence

The All Blacks kicked themselves to the Rugby World Cup Final with a masterclass of tactics and the effectiveness of the clever kick.  In the end, it was a matter of control – but in the middle this was less a test match than an organised and carelessly sanctioned game of chicken in which the combatants, blinded by … Read more

Sports: The Geometric Superiority Of The All Blacks

The All Blacks quarterfinal victory over the French was the most dominant in Rugby World Cup finals history, a 62-13 hammering that left the world in awe. All it took, says Scotty Stevenson, was a re-imagining of rugby’s geometric boundaries.  The Springboks need only to watch the opening ninety seconds of the All Blacks in their quarterfinal against … Read more

Sports: The Strangely Predictable Nature of the RWC2015 Quarterfinals

Getting ready for the Quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup? Feeling a little anxious about your team’s chances? Never let it be said that the team at The Spinoff Sports aren’t here to help heighten the tension or assuage the anxiety. Here we present a factual analysis of the quarterfinals, so you don’t have to bother. Firstly, Here … Read more

Sports: Who Will Referee The RWC2015 Quarterfinals?

It’s quarterfinal time at the Rugby World Cup so who will be in charge of the first of the knock out matches at the 2015 edition? The Spinoff Sports reveals the likely contenders for this weekend’s whistling action. 1. Wayne Barnes, England Undoubtedly one of the world’s leading referees, though Barnes remains less than popular … Read more

Sports: Ten Things to Love About Super Rugby’s Sunwolves

It’s official! After all the doubt swirling around Super Rugby’s latest expansion team, Japan’s entry into the southern hemisphere competition now has a name and arguably the greatest logo in rugby history. 1. They’re the Sunwolves. These ain’t no ordinary wolves. That would be far too easy. In Japan things are always better when two … Read more

Sports: The Strange Anatomy of a Shield Challenge or How to End a Promising Night in a Caravan Park

What is it about the words ‘Ranfurly Shield Challenge’ that continues to inspire such fervour? Scotty Stevenson was at McLean Park in Napier to see Hawkes Bay get up to defend the log of wood against Auckland. It has haunted men, the quest for the Ranfurly Shield. Maybe because of that, because of the ghosts, … Read more

Sports: Scotty Stevenson’s ITM Cup Power Rankings Week 3

With just three rounds left in the regular season, and with no guarantees on final placings, the time has come for the latest installment in our weekly ITM Cup Power Rankings. From corporatised sea life to coaching rodents, it was another week that gave plenty and – in true Provincial fashion – expected nothing in … Read more

Sport: Holding Out For An Animal Hero to Predict the World Cup

This Rugby World Cup has offered plenty of entertainment already – a daft Englishman mocking the haka in an attempt to huck shite clothes, a former All Black hating on the English, current All Blacks using their bus as a changing room for maximum sponsorship exposure, and Tonga winning ‘Blazer of the Tournament’. Alas, no … Read more

Sports: The Hayne Plane Lands – How Did the NRL’s Finest handle the NFL?

Levi Stadium, Santa Clara. The first Monday Night Football game at the most advanced stadium in  the United States. The 49ers, in black, against the Minnesota Vikings. There were plenty of storylines here: would the Vikings defence live up to their solid rep? Would Adrian Peterson be a force again? Would Colin Kaepernick? Was Teddy … Read more

Rugby: New Zealand’s Parliamentarians Destroy Wales, Lose MP

New Zealand gets off to a flyer at the Parliamentary World Cup. Scotty Stevenson says surely this needs to be a bigger deal, and imagines how the first week might have gone. It was perhaps the most dominant opening win of the World Cup yet the the four-time world champion New Zealand Parliamentary Rugby Team’s … Read more

Rugby: The Return of Stephen Donald, The Hero in Jersey Number 22

Scotty Stevenson watches as Stephen Donald makes his triumphant return to the City of Hamilton, wearing number 22 for Waikato tim boyn the ITM Cup. The great kiwi battler-cum-hero returned to Hamilton in the rain on a Thursday. Not many people cared. At least, not many people cared enough to witness it in the flesh. … Read more