Rugby League Columnist and Author Will Evans questions the thinking of the Kiwis as they embark on their tour of England minus a whole heap of world-beating talent. Last year Australia treated the Four Nations tournament with disdain. Test incumbents Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott, Billy Slater, Brett Morris, Josh Morris, Matt Gillett and James Tamou … Read more
As we barrel through the international window, Premier League twitter once again becomes a case of the haves and the have-nots. Those who have international duty have not got the time to watch the final of Great British Bake Off and Grand Designs back-to-back like Norwich City’s Matt Jarvis, and for that they deserve nothing … Read more
Who’s got the best kit in the Premier League this season? Calum Henderson looks at all 51 shirts on offer and ranks the clubs on the strength of their designs. Probably the most exciting thing about the Premier League pre-season isn’t the tours of Malaysia and the USA, the Emirates Cup or even the multi-million … Read more
Sports Stats Analyst and, ahem, Bucs fan Tea Manuel offers up all you need to know about our ten top match ups for week five of the Biggest Show in America. 1. Kansas City Chiefs v Chicago Bears This is a rare match-up indeed. In fact, the Chiefs have only played the Chicago Bears eleven times since 1973. The … Read more
Premier League Pass kindly loans us NBC’s excellent football pundits Men in Blazers, to bring us up to speed with all the Premier League talking points ahead of this weekend’s games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKemH61l-vs&feature=youtu.be Watch all this weekend’s Premier League action live and on demand at Premier League Pass.
Picture an animated cityscape surrounded by water. In the centre, a distinctive tower thrusts into the sky, each side an elongated isosceles. A shadow moves across the city. It’s a spaceship, possibly the one from Independence Day. From beneath the mighty ship we see a portal open. A swarm of robots spills forth, descending into the city. They … Read more
I’ve caught exactly 0 minutes of this years ITM Cup. Blame it on oversaturation/the world cup/a lack of Sky or whatever, but the point is, I’m totally incapable of making an informed pick in either the premiership or championship division. But if an octopus can call the soccer world cup with only it’s cephalopodan appetite to guide … Read more
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
It came down to the final tournament of the season for Tim Wilkinson, as he tried to keep his career alive on the Dye’s Valley course at TPC Sawgrass. No one talks about Dye’s Valley, usually. It plays second fiddle to the Stadium Course, with its famous Island green and its status as the venue … Read more
Just an hour after his side’s 1-1 draw with Everton, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was given the sack, effective immediately. The decision was apparently made before the game kicked off, however the club’s American owners would have felt particularly confident in their decision after another underwhelming performance was turned in by the Reds. “Ambition and … Read more
Georgian captain Mamuka Gorgodze was named man of the match today against the All Blacks. His side lost the game by 33 points. That says everything you need to know about how the defending world champions played in Cardiff. It could have been different. Waisake Naholo’s first touch of the ball in a Rugby World … Read more
Having heeded a tweet chastising them for a lack of animal sexual content in the previous episode, the Alternative Commentary Collective respond with an episode dedicated in near entirety to the recreational habits of beasts. “There’s nipples inside the vagina,” says Wells, with some authority, before they hit the customary power rankings format: Big news: … Read more
Just two rounds remain in the ITM Cup and it’s all on the line in the penultimate weekend as spots still remain in both divisional playoff equations, and the relegation battle looms as a three-horse race. And so, with so much to look forward to, we look back into week eight, dipping our toes in … Read more
We’ve got a tantalising weekend coming up in the Premier League with a big Merseyside derby in Liverpool v Everton and one of the classic football rivalries in Arsenal v Manchester United. Just about everyone in the Premier League got a new pair of hideous orange boots this week so there’s that too. https://twitter.com/youngy18/status/648413608951574528 My … Read more
He’s the nicest, richest and most aggressively receding 22-year-old in world sport. But Jordan Spieth is missing something, says Simon Plumb. If anyone loves a nickname, it’s sport. Like a “Fah Q” paddle to a high school senior, a nickname is guaranteed to make a jock foam. Americans, particularly in basketball, perform better than most in … Read more
Premier League Pass kindly loans us NBC’s excellent football pundits Men in Blazers, to bring us up to speed with all the Premier League talking points ahead of this weekend’s games. https://youtu.be/K4BbmGg89Hc Watch all this weekend’s Premier League action live and on demand at Premier League Pass.
Mark Hunt fought his way from the streets of South Auckland to the top of the world stage in a career spanning almost 20 years. Don Rowe speaks to co-author Ben Mckelvey about writing a book with the Super Samoan. Are fighters born or made? In Mark Hunt’s case the answer appears to be both. Perhaps the hardest puncher to … Read more
Scotty Stevenson on Danny Lee’s rise from naive battler to the cusp of greatness on the PGA Tour. Danny Lee finished tied for second yesterday at the PGA Tour Championship at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, but maybe it is more correct to say that Danny Lee was the biggest winner of … Read more
It seems familiar: Four men in suits, discussing viewers’ tweets, talking about what’s happened during the week and what might happen next, then throwing to a man on the street who waves some cash around. These are the basic ingredients of most of the shows which have been commissioned in New Zealand this year. Champagne Rugby, a new rugby … Read more
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
Proud All Blacks fan and expert Vine maker Josh Davis recaps the morning’s Rugby World Cup action. As I am sure you are aware, this morning there was a World Cup rugby match featuring our beloved All Blacks (c’mon boys) and Off Brand South Africa (Namibia). If you were one of the wise people who … Read more
Premier League Pass kindly loans us NBC’s excellent football pundits Men in Blazers, to bring us up to speed with all the Premier League talking points ahead of this weekend’s games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxNJJWw0rlw
A very quiet week on Premier League Twitter, with most players selling their accounts to EA Sports in exchange for an advance copy of the hottest ticket in town, FIFA 16. The game’s release was celebrated in the UK with a tournament which saw eight Premiership legends battle it out on the Xbox for the … Read more
Calum Henderson studies a near-infinite list of scenarios and permutations to figure out a pathway to FedEx Cup glory for Kiwi hero Danny Lee. Going into the final weekend of the PGA Tour season, any one of the 30 golfers qualified for the Tour Championship can still technically win. A slightly goalpost-shifting points realignment after the … Read more
Calum Henderson watches two Premier League stars battle it out on an Xbox for English football’s least celebrated prize, the FIFA 16 Celebrity Cup. For a certain type of football person this is the biggest week of the year – the week FIFA 16, the latest instalment of the popular EA Sports gaming title, is … Read more
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
Duncan Greive talks to Tall Blacks guard Corey Webster, in New Orleans attending training camp with the Pelicans, about his journey from NBL exile to being on the verge of playing in the NBA. A few years ago Corey Webster was a cautionary tale, the perfect example of a talented kid who lacked the application … Read more
Rugby league author Will Evans looks back on yet another terrible Warriors season and finds a different origin, one which might – finally – lead to a different result in 2016. Déjà vu isn’t a strong enough term. Recurring nightmare sums it up more accurately. The Warriors’ 2015 campaign – after familiar pre-season tough-talk – … Read more
Alexander Bisley has a soft spot for the Lelos, the Georgian national rugby team. And now, thanks to a first up victory over Tonga, so does most of the rugby world. Here The Spinoff’s man-at-large at the Rugby World Cup chats to their kiwi coach Milton Haig about shovelling snow, learning the lingo, lazy bastards, … Read more