PIC

Ireland Upset New Zealand At Women's Rugby World Cup

Ireland has upset New Zealand at the Women's Rugby World Cup winning 17-14 in Paris.  This is a major upset given that New Zealand hasn't lost at a Rugby World Cup since 1991.  Ireland is one of the best Northern Hemisphere teams and this has shaken up the Rugby World Cup draw, although New Zealand should still qualify for the knockout stages if they beat the USA.

It seems that the dominance of the New Zealand Women's Rugby team looks like it is disappearing as women in countries like England, Ireland and Australia are keeping them on their toes.

Super League Darts To Come To New Zealand - Will This Beat The Sevens or Nines?

Super League Darts is coming to New Zealand with the first professional darts tournament to be staged in Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland next month.  Who needs the Wellington Sevens or the Auckland Nines? 


The three knockout tournaments will feature New Zealand's best players including Rob "The Hurricane" Szabo, Craig "CC" Caldwell, Peter "Stumpy" Hunt and Mark "The Cowboy" McGrath.

Super League Darts will deliver all the action and atmosphere of overseas professional darts with the theme songs, walk on girls, costumes and one hundred and eighties.

ITM Cup Rugby 2014 Preview - Who Are You Picking To Win?

The domestic showpiece of New Zealand provincial rugby, the ITM Cup 2014 is almost here. Sure, the standard of the competition isn't as high as Super Rugby, but the competition lets everyday people who are a mixture of amateur, semi-professional and fully professional Super Rugby players represent 14 teams across New Zealand from Northland to Southland.  What do you love about the ITM Cup?  I love seeing future stars of New Zealand rugby.  I also love the ways that the provinces get behind the ITM Cup and the Ranfurly Shield also goes up for grabs, it is currently with Counties - Manukau.

There is a video above to whet your appetite.  This video includes some great tries from both the ITM Cup Premiership and ITM Cup Championship.  It is great seeing exciting players like Ihaia West and Ardie Savea earning Super Rugby contracts through their performances.  It is also being great seeing teams like Counties-Manukau and Tasman dominate the ITM Cup Championship and move into the ITM Cup Premiership.

ITM Cup Premiership 2014
The usual suspects will most likely dominate the ITM Cup Premiership.  Canterbury will start as favourites ahead of Wellington and Auckland, while Counties-Manukau and Tasman are expected to battle for the fourth spot in the seven team competition.  Both of these teams now have an abundance of Super Rugby players which they didn't have in the past.  Taranaki keep getting the chequebook out and import players, while Waikato look to have a rather disappointing team on paper, which is interesting given how strong the Chiefs have been in recent seasons.

Stephen The Beaver Donald The Kick Movie Trailer

The Stephen The Beaver Donald story from zero to hero screens on Sunday 8:30pm on TVOne in New Zealand. It is called "The Kick" because of his winning Rugby World Cup 2011 final winning kick vs France at Eden Park.

The Kick is a movie made in New Zealand for television. It is funny though because there are some actual players in the movie, but other players go under different names and some actors don't look anything like the player they are supposed to be.

It is interesting seeing how much fan abuse Stephen Donald got from passionate All Blacks rugby fans after the loss in Hong Kong against Australia. It obviously did affect Donald, but I am so glad that his career in New Zealand ended well. He was a good ITM Cup and Super Rugby player, but struggled to perform well for the All Blacks consistently.

Will you be watching The Kick on Sunday night?

All Blacks Win Warm Up Match - Who's A Better Kicker Nonu or SBW?

The All Blacks won their warm up match over ITM Cup teams North Harbour and Northland last night, but this biggest talking point was second five eighth Ma'a Nonu doing the goalkicking for the All Blacks.  The scoreline was largely irrelevant, but it was funny seeing Nonu who has only recently developed his onfield kicking, actually kicking goals, was he inspired by Sonny Bill Williams who kicked a goal on the NRL Footy Show recently.

The All Blacks played North Harbour in the first half 41-5 with Nonu kicking three conversions, they also beat Northland 19-7. 

Referee Jonathan Kaplan Reviews The Super Rugby Final - No Penalty!

South African rugby Referee Jonathan Kaplan has a website calledwww.ratetheref.co.za where he believes that the Waratahs shouldn't have been awarded a penalty late in their game against the Crusaders.  It makes for interesting reading.  Sure, it doesn't change the result, but it probably does provide some closure for Crusaders fans.  Kaplan thought that there shouldn't have been a penalty and that the Nadolo try should have been disallowed.


To read the article, go to

http://ratetheref.co.za/2014/08/04/kaplans-comments-super-rugby-final/