Sir Peter Snell has died, aged 80, at his home in Dallas, Texas. James McOnie remembers arguably New Zealand’s greatest ever athlete. Sir Peter Snell was so great that small towns still engage in custody battles over the legendary runner. His birthplace Opunake (where he spent his first 11 years) claims him, as does Te … Read more
When Barbara Cox joined a football team in 1973, she was one of the first women in the country to do so. She’s still fighting for women in the sport to get the respect they deserve. Auckland women didn’t play football in 1972. Auckland women cooked and cleaned and looked after the children while their … Read more
Yesterday Ian Foster was announced as the new coach of the All Blacks, having already spent eight years as part of the coaching setup. Here, Jamie Wall recounts first meeting Foster in Buenos Aires, and how he marks a departure from Steve Hansen. It was a Friday night earlier this year in Buenos Aires when … Read more
From tennis champions to dance craze inventors, Scratched celebrates New Zealand sporting heroes who never got their due – but whose legacies deserve to be in lights. This month, Barbara Cox, the matriarch of New Zealand football. New Zealand’s first women’s football team wasn’t formed until 1975. Barbara Cox was the captain, and led the … Read more
Five New Zealanders from across cultural spaces explain what it is they love about basketball. Historically, basketball has always held a relatively small but special in Aotearoa’s sporting landscape. The NBL was established in 1981, giving provinces the chance to duke it out for national supremacy. In 2002 the Tall Blacks shocked the basketball world … Read more
James Borrowdale spent the last cricket season examining Neil Wagner and his unique approach to bowling. Today, in the first test of the Black Caps’ summer, Wagner returns. Neil Wagner has a wicket. He freezes mid-pitch, fists clenched at his side, knees slightly bent, a roar on his lips. His brows are knitted into a … Read more
The process to appoint Steve Hansen’s successor looks increasingly like a farce as quality candidate after quality candidate rule themselves out. Was it all preordained, asks Jamie Wall. For an awful lot of 2019, I was one of the select few that sat in a room with Steve Hansen several times a week. There’s something … Read more
A combination of bad demographics, financial pressure and a decade’s old bill coming due make the new NZ Rugby CEO’s job infinitely harder than that of the next All Blacks coach, writes Duncan Greive. Thirty years ago, the CEO of what was then known as the NZRFU had perhaps the greatest sports administration role in … Read more
The Breakers’ newest recruit has a history of violent behaviour on and off the court. Glen Rice Jnr is very good at basketball. Playing in the 2018 Israel Cup final, Rice scored 28 points for his Hapoel Holon team, and hit a game-winning shot with 1.6 seconds left on the clock. He averaged 24.5 and … Read more
With the fourth and final game of the Constellation Cup this afternoon, the Silver Ferns are out to prove their consistency and put a bow on what has been an amazing 2019 season. Coach Noeline Taurua shares her thoughts on today’s game and the changing landscape of netball in New Zealand. In ten years of … Read more
By reference to history and science, we predict which way tonight’s crunch game in the Rugby World Cup is likely to go. 1 The semifinal falls two days after the New Zealand release of JoJo Rabbit, the new movie by acclaimed filmmaker and Hurricanes talisman Taika Waititi. The last time an England versus All Blacks … Read more
What’s really stood out for me being back in Tokyo is Japan’s spectators, writes Richard Light, professor of sport coaching at the University of Canterbury. I first noticed the unique qualities of the Japanese crowds when I was a rugby coach here in the 1990s. Later, with the admission of the Japanese team, the Sunwolves, … Read more
A unique deal saw Sky buy the rugby rights and sell some of itself to NZ Rugby. Trevor McKewen breaks down what it all means. The news came thick and fast over a remarkable five-day corporate slugfest, starting last Thursday. First, Spark Sport struck, gobbling up New Zealand Cricket’s domestic broadcasting rights for the next … Read more
After a short but successful career in China, table tennis champion Chunli Li moved to New Zealand to coach. She soon discovered she was better than everyone, and that was a problem. Chunli Li trains alone. In the basement of the Panmure YMCA, four regulation table tennis tables occupy the floor space. On the wall … Read more
From tennis champions to dance craze inventors, Scratched celebrates New Zealand sporting heroes who never got their due – but whose legacies deserve to be in lights. This month, quadruple Commonwealth Games medal winner, Chunli Li. Chunli Li moved to New Zealand in 1987 to retire from table tennis, aged 25. Instead, she was asked … Read more
On Saturday, South African fans sang loudly over the top of the All Blacks’ haka in the opening round of the Rugby World Cup. Opposing sides and crowds can do what they want, writes Louisa Tipene Opetaia, but they should heed the lessons of the past. Four years of build-ups culminated in the highly anticipated … Read more
Amanda Thompson spends a day with the New Zealand men’s roller derby squad as they prepare for next year’s world champs in the US. Let’s play a word game. Let’s list some contact sports and the top teams in those codes. Say rugby. Are you thinking about the All Blacks yet? What about rugby league. … Read more
Ahead of the All Blacks first game Trevor McKewen makes some fanciful, fraught and hopefully on-point predictions for the Rugby World Cup. Can you take one for the team? Could you cope with the All Blacks coming up short in achieving an unprecedented third straight World Cup if it was for the greater good of … Read more
In this episode of our new tarot reading show Wild Card, The Spinoff’s resident psychic divines the outcome of the All Blacks’ opening match against the Springboks on Saturday. In the first and potentially only episode of Wild Card, we have a focus on sport. The Spinoff’s psychic-in-residence, Jo Sees, specialises in divining breakups and … Read more
The first of Team New Zealand’s America’s Cup boats was officially launched this morning. James Littlewood wandered down to the Viaduct at 6.30 on a cold, wet, Friday morning to see what all the fuss was about. The new boat hung in the drizzle looking not like a boat. But weird, like a ski boot, … Read more
The latest twist in the Warriors tale might be grim, but it comes as little surprise to sports journalist and former Warriors CEO Trevor McKewen. He traces the club’s long and sorry history I know that by now a lot of people don’t care what happens to the Warriors. I’d like to think this piece … Read more
A squad of New Zealand’s big sporting bodies just announced they were ‘taking a stand’, to ‘create a positive experience for all young people playing sport’. If they’re serious about achieving both a healthier national culture and a slew of world-class athletes, the model should be Norway, writes Trevor McKewen. “It’s time to change our … Read more
Black Caps Cricket World Cup hero Jimmy Neesham reveals what happened on that ill-fated day at Lord’s and how to move on. Jimmy Neesham is doing OK now. But it’s taken a while. For those still suffering from the lead-weight despair of seeing the Black Caps losing the World Cup final in the closest possible … Read more
Before Zumba, before Just Dance, before it was cool again to move in public group settings, there was Jump Jam. Madeleine Chapman reflects. Jump Jam entered the lives of New Zealand kids in 2001, a year filled with historic cultural movements. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in 2001; Frodo and Sam introduced … Read more
From tennis champions to dance craze inventors, Scratched celebrates New Zealand sporting heroes who never got their due – but whose legacies deserve to be in lights. This month, aerobics world champion and creator of Jump Jam, Brett Fairweather. Every New Zealander under the age of 30 knows at least one Jump Jam song. “Witch … Read more
At Eden Park on Saturday night, the Wallabies were on the receiving end of a ruthless players’ revenge, writes Scotty Stevenson The rain came. It always seems to at Eden Park, just as the Wallabies warm up on the pitch, dreaming of ending a drought. It came from the west, the only threatening thing that … Read more
With the acquisition of global rugby streaming leader RugbyPass, Sky might have just secured its future, writes Trevor McKewen. For several months now, the war between Sky and Spark Sport for the peerless prize of All Blacks and New Zealand rugby rights from 2021 onwards has been escalating. Every week, one of the two corporate … Read more
After the deaths of two more horses, sparks have once again flared between animal rights groups and the racing community. Trainers and activists both love horses, but only one side has the resources to do anything about it. This story was first published in August 2019 At a Taumarunui Racing Club meet in Rotorua at … Read more
In 2003 the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Cup, breaking the Australian Diamonds’ 16-year winning streak. In 2019, they’ve just done the same thing. Leana de Bruin was a rookie in that 2003 team, and talked to The Spinoff about the hard work and emotional high of becoming world champions. Just 11 months since … Read more