Jonah Lomu was farewelled for the final time in public today. Don Rowe reports on a moving ceremony. Jonah Lomu remains a giant even in death. Under grey clouds he entered Eden Park for the last time today, carried on the shoulders of Manu Vatuvei, Jerome Kaino, Frank Bunce, Michael Jones and more. The men … Read more
Lover of cricket Jeremy Wells wraps up the historic first day-night test match between Australia and New Zealand and wonders whether that completely baffling DRS call really was the deciding factor. Let me say this. I like the pink ball. I mean, the actual ball. I think the red ball should now be a pink ball. … Read more
A close, captivating inaugural day-night test match. But was it enough to fix test cricket? Simon Day reports from Adelaide. New Zealand 202 & 208 Australia 224 & 187/7 Australia won by 3 wickets For three days cricket looked alert and alive. Test cricket isn’t dying. But it is stagnant. It’s core fan base adores the … Read more
Arguing with my Dad is an occasional column which features Greg Bruce in conversation with his father about sports. This week’s disagreement: New Zealand’s best batsman. It was a Sunday morning and I was sitting at the top of a slide on a playground across the road from New Zealand’s largest cemetery when Dad called. … Read more
On day two tradition and modernity collided at one of the world’s most beautiful cricket grounds. Simon Day reports from Adelaide. New Zealand 202 & 116/5 Australia 224 Attendance 42,372 The Adelaide Oval was already the perfect venue for the launch of day-night-test-cricket. It’s controversial and mostly stunning $500+ million government funded redevelopment of its … Read more
The first day of cricket’s inaugural day-night test fell on the first anniversary of the death of Phillip Hughes. Reporting from Adelaide, Simon Day found cricket was the best tribute to his memory. New Zealand 202 Australia 54/2 Just after 8pm, the Adelaide evening sky flushed rose and purple to match the pink ball that … Read more
Who is this bloke who’s sent Leicester City to the top of the table and tied Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s Premier League record for goals in consecutive games? Calum Henderson investigates this and more in the Premier League Week. In the second minute of first half added time at St James’ Park Leicester City’s number 9 … Read more
By Simon Plumb Is this the one? Is this the year to send the followers of the Halbergs into a talkback armageddon? Well, says Simon Plumb, if it ain’t this year it ain’t never, because we have got one hell of showdown heading our way. The awards show is very much the giddy, orgasmic climax of … Read more
Actress, presenter and cricket tragic Sonia Gray on the stealthy way the Blackcaps have adopted reverse sledging and “respect-shaming” as tactics. Today the cricketing world will look to the Adelaide Oval, waiting to see how the pink kookaburra holds up in the world’s first day/night test match – a task that it appears to have failed … Read more
Rog and Davo join us from Embassy Road Studios to mark the momentous occurrence of both Everton and Chelsea notching up wins in the same week and of course the incomparable Jamie Vardy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKJTg_3yUto&feature=youtu.be?utm_source=thespinoff&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=partnership Sign up to Premier League Pass now and get the rest of the EPL season for 1/2 Price.
Duncan Greive describes the scene as the Golden State Warriors complete the greatest start in NBA history. It started, as most basketball games do, at tip off. Andrew Bogut, the Warriors’ lumbering, physically fragile centre, out-jumped Roy Hibbert, the Lakers’ lumbering, mentally fragile centre. The ball fell to Draymond Green, the physical embodiment of all that is remarkable … Read more
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
Tipped by many to become New Zealand’s greatest ever batsman, 25-year old Kane Williamson has already scored 12 test centuries and 16 test half-centuries. Ben Stanley goes in search of his power, and finds the answer in the Four Noble Truths. For Kane Williamson, it was just another shot played on the third morning of the … Read more
If you’re struggling to understand what Lydia Ko just won, and how, you’re not alone. Greg Bruce attempts to get to grips with the baffling number of titles handed out at the end of the LPGA Tour. What the hell was happening during the final round of yesterday’s final tournament of the absurdly sexistly-named LPGA? … Read more
The Crowd Goes Wild’s James McOnie on the underrated man-management and team cultural strengths of Richie McCaw. As the stats whirled around about Richie McCaw’s incredible feats as an All Black (the most astounding: he played in almost a third of all New Zealand test rugby wins in history!) there was a story that couldn’t … Read more
She’s already the youngest player in history to win 10 professional events. And over the next four days, Lydia Ko can close in on her 10 millionth dollar. She’s still three years from legal drinking age in America, but yesterday at the press table, on the eve of beginning the LPGA Tour’s season-ending tournament, forever-young … Read more
It seems like way more than two weeks since the Premier League broke for the international window. We’ve seen the best of times – Zlatan effortlessly curling a free kick around the Danish wall to send Sweden through to the Euros – and the worst of times – France – and now the return of … Read more
Stoke City striker Peter Crouch holds the Premier League record for headed goals, famously enjoys free nachos, and wears his deep and enduring love of Britpop on his sleeve. At 34, he has made his first music video guest appearance. For most people Britpop died out to the celebratory strains of Toploader’s ‘Dancing in the … Read more
It may have been the worst kept secret in rugby, but Richie McCaw’s retirement announcement finally came. And went. Scotty Stevenson watched it all unfold. He walked into the room in jeans and a sky blue shirt and told the world that the time had come. Richie McCaw, the highest capped test rugby player in … Read more
On Sunday afternoon, Holly Holm shocked the world when she knocked out the undefeated, undisputed UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. Don Rowe was in Melbourne to watch the fight – here he discusses both the bout and the subsequent social media storm. On Tuesday morning Ronda Rousey left Melbourne Airport hidden behind dark sunglasses and … Read more
James McOnie remembers Jonah Lomu as an athlete whose imposing physical gifts were allied to a playful, vulnerable, huge-hearted man. Watching Jonah Lomu in full flight was a thing of terrifying beauty. The grace, speed and power he possessed was like nothing rugby had ever seen before. He was larger than life and people around … Read more
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
The Spinoff’s editor, Duncan Greive, co-authored the just-released Dan Carter: My Story with the All Blacks’ first five. Here he shares his memories of the tumultuous year the pair spent working on the book. The lowest I ever heard him was late in February. We spoke via Skype, as we often did through that portion of … Read more
In the aftermath of Steve Williams’ controversial book which slammed former boss Tiger Woods for treating the Kiwi caddy like “a slave”, a good news story has emerged about Tiger. Well… Sort of… This is the tale of journeyman tour pro William McGirt. Or, as Tiger Woods would say: “An idiot”. As his brilliantly Dickensian name … Read more
Join the Men in Blazers Rog and Davo as they tackle all the talking points from Gameweek 12 of the Premier League. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyXoDOuBo18?utm_source=thespinoff&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=partnership With a quarter of the season gone, Premier League Pass are offering a quarter off the price. To claim your 25% discount, simply sign up as usual to a Full Season pass, … Read more
In 2013, the New Zealand’s woman’s rafting team won their fifth world title on the rivers of the Bay of Plenty. Two years later, Don Rowe joins them for an early-morning training session ahead of the 2015 World Champs in Indonesia. The dark jade waters of the Kaituna River flow 50km from inland Bay of … Read more
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
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
Greg Bruce, author of a masterful feature on Steve Williams, reviews the autobiography of a seething brat who is also undeniably the greatest caddy of all time. I wrote a feature about Steve Williams in Metro magazine early last year. It was a long process, begun in early 2013, when I sent him a handwritten letter, because … Read more