Chief Conductor
Warriors NRL & NRLW, White Ferns ODI mode, All Whites depth, Chris Wood goals & records, Tall Blacks at the Asia Cup, and more
Scotty’s Word
NZ Warriors weekend round up...
Results
NRL: 14-10 win
NRLW: 18-20 loss
NSW Cup: 18-20 loss
Jersey Flegg Cup: 22-60 loss
Ladder check
NRL: 4th | 13-8
NRLW: 6th | 3-4
NSW Cup: 1st | 19-2-1
Jersey Flegg Cup: 11th | 8-11-2
My favourite thing from the NRL win vs Dragons was Taine Tuaupiki being battered all game and then stepping up for a clutch play in the winning try that Adam Pompey scored. Tuaupiki combined with Pompey earlier in the second half, then Chanel Harris-Tavita popped up on the right edge outside Tanah Boyd to lay it up for Marata Niukore who rolled forward and got a quick play-the-ball.
NZW were lined up wide to the left and the Dragons defence was still recovering from Niukore's run. It was the last tackle as well, so the best move was to get the ball to one of the halves to shift the footy to space. Tuaupiki instead darted from dummy half and gave Pompey the footy for the game winner.
This was Tuaupiki's first game of the season with two try assists and the stats suggest that he is in career-best form. Along with Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad's efficient mahi at left centre, that probably means that these two finish the season in their current roles.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad vs Dragons: 11 runs - 106m @ 9.6m/run, 1 offload, 19 tackles @ 100%
Taine Tuaupiki in NRL
2023: 5 games @ 60% wins, 1 try assist, 132m/game, 66.6% tackling
2024: 6 games @ 50% wins, 1 try, 3 try assists, 2 linebreaks, 152m/game, 76% tackling
2025: 14 games @ 71% wins, 2 tries, 5 try assists, 4 linebreaks, 133m/game, 84.2% tackling
Niukore played 80mins for the first time this season so his steamrolling run to set up the winning try was a massive effort. He has played 70+ games in two other games this season with 76mins in round 13 vs Rabbitohs and then 73mins in the loss vs Bulldogs. Niukore also had the fastest average play-the-ball speed of all NZW with his 2.85 seconds even faster than James Fisher-Harris' 2.93 seconds (Fisher-Harris is usually the fastest).
There are lots more Aotearoa rugby league matters typed out for paid subscribers and the full newsletter will be copied into Patreon for the generous folks funding our mahi. I have more notes about the 10m/run club vs Dragons, Eddie Ieremia-Toeava's sneaky mahi, Wayde Egan's return to dummy half, Tanah Boyd's running, NSW Cup Warriors, Jordan Riki, Joe Chan, Amber Hall, Mele Hufanga, Abigail Roache
NZW women lost to Raiders and this is a result that doesn't look good on the surface, but it was a tremendous display of mana for a young group. Raiders had their first win of the season and yet NZW won the second half 12-4 while playing with 11 players, almost snaring a hearty win under crazy adversity.
All the wahine headlines revolve around Michaela Brake and that's cool. NZW won back to back games without Brake though and they’d already shown that there was far more to this team than Brake even before lining up against Raiders without skipper Apii Nicholls or their two best halves in Patricia Maliepo and Emily Curtain.
Before getting two red cards, NZW were missing three of their spine players. Then they battled to perform admirably with 11 players on the field. Of the 15 players left available, 11 were in their first season of NRLW. The team that lost to Raiders had an average age of 24.4yrs and they average 8.2 games of NRLW experience (NZW had played seven games this season).
Losing stinks but I was super impressed by how this young group led by Harata Butler and Laishon Albert-Jones kept fighting to keep some pride in the NZW mana, let alone staying in the contest to almost win they game with 11 players. Albert-Jones played all 70mins as the chief conductor and Butler led the team for run metres with 15 runs - 146m @ 10.9m/run.
White Ferns are entering ODI World Cup mode and all the basics I'm pondering are listed below. For paid subscribers and the Patreon whanau I have got more information about young kiwi cricketers like Tim Robinson, Bevon Jacobs, Will O’Rourke, Nathan Smith, Jesse Tashkoff, Xavier Bell, Ocean Bartlett, Hannah Francis, Yasmeen Kareem and Olivia Gain.
My squad of 15
Batters: Suzie Bates, Georgia Plimmer, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Bella James
All-rounders: Sophie Devine, Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr
Wicket-keepers: Polly Inglis, Izzy Gaze
Bowlers: Lea Tahuhu, Eden Carson, Bree Illing, Molly Penfold, Fran Jonas
In the mix: Hannah Rowe, Rosemary Mair, Lauren Down
Record since last World Cup: 11-14
Record by opposition
Sri Lanka: 3-2
Pakistan: 2-0-1
West Indies: 2-1
Bangladesh: 1-0
England: 1-5
India: 1-2
South Africa: 1-2
Australia: 0-2
Since the start of 2024
Most games
14: Suzie Bates, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Izzy Gaze
12: Georgia Plimmer
10: Jess Kerr, Eden Carson
Batting
Maddy Green: 376 runs @ 37.6avg/80sr, 1 x 100
Brooke Halliday: 360 runs @ 30avg/71sr, 3 x 50
Sophie Devine: 314 runs @ 39.2avg/90sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50
Georgia Plimmer: 312 runs @ 8.3avg/75sr, 1 x 100
Suzie Bates: 307 runs @ 23.6avg/71sr, 4 x 50
Amelia Kerr: 264 runs @ 33avg/63sr, 1 x 50
Izzy Gaze: 170 runs @ 17avg/67sr
Jess Kerr: 93 runs @ 13.2avg/100sr
Hannah Rowe: 52 runs @ 13avg/76sr
Bella James: 51 runs @ 25.5avg/82sr
Lauren Down: 44 runs @ 7.3avg/43sr
Polly Inglis: 43 runs @ 165sr
Lea Tahuhu: 30 runs @ 15avg/136sr
Bowling
Jess Kerr: 16w @ 22.5avg/4.2rpo
Amelia Kerr: 14w @ 27.4avg/5.1rpo
Hannah Rowe: 12w @ 23.4avg/4.6rpo
Eden Carson: 10w @ 38.4avg/4.7rpo
Suzie Bates: 6w @ 22.5avg/4.2rpo
Sophie Devine: 6w @ 44.5avg/5.3rpo
Fran Jonas: 6w @ 44.8avg/4.6rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 6w @ 29.6avg/5.2rpo
Molly Penfold: 5w @ 47avg/5.7rpo
Rosemary Mair: 4w @ 28.5avg/5.7rpo
Brooke Halliday: 4w @ 33.7avg/6rpo
Bree Illing: 4w @ 29.2avg/4.1rpo
Since the last World Cup
Best players
Amelia Kerr: 927 runs @ 48.7avg/76sr
Maddy Green: 763 runs @ 42.3avg/79sr
Jess Kerr: 30w @ 20.6avg/4.1rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 22w @ 23.9avg/4.8rpo
Most batting innings
Suzie Bates: 28
Maddy Green: 26
Highest batting strike-rates
Polly Inglis: 165
Lea Tahuhu: 105
Jess Kerr: 100
Most overs
Amelia Kerr: 194.2
Jess Kerr: 150.1
Fran Jonas: 150
Most economical bowlers (rpo)
Jess Kerr: 4.12
Bree Illing: 4.17
Fran Jonas: 4.28
Lowest bowling strike-rates
Lea Tahuhu: 29.8
Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair: 30
Hannah Rowe: 33.8
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Another English Premier League season kicked off over the weekend and we’ve still only got the one kiwi representative. Marko Stamenic may have popped back up in a few friendlies for Nottm Forest at the back end of preseason but then manager Nuno Espirito Santo said something about awaiting new signings and having players in his squad that know they’re going out on loan once those fresh deals get done.
Except that Stamenic isn’t going out on loan. Word is, he’s joining Swansea City on a permanent deal – sending another notable All White to the Championship following the three other transfers already in recent months (Bindon to Sheff Utd, Cacace to Wrexham, Crocombe to Millwall). Stam’s already done his medical but they didn’t announce anything over the weekend because they had a game to focus on. Expect that confirmation potentially as soon as this evening. Alex Paulsen is still with Bournemouth but as the third string keeper he’s mostly training depth at the moment. One injury could change that in an instant though. Or a loan move.
Not to worry because Chris Wood continues to hold down the fort. It took him exactly five minutes to score his first goal of the 2025-26 season and then he bagged another later in the half. There were folks who genuinely panicked about Nottingham Forest only scoring one goal in seven preseason fixtures (Wood scored it, of course), forgetting the golden rule that preseason results are irrelevant, but all those worries vanished in a flash when NFFC hit the sheds leading 3-0 at half-time against Brentford. They ended up winning the match 3-1 after conceding from the penalty spot after a cheeky handball. Also, NFFC assistant coach Rui Barbosa needed stitches after banging his head on the roof of the dugout while celebrating Wood’s first goal.
Australasian Scoring Record
Every time Chris Wood scores, people go digging up the list of all-time Prem scorers that he’s just matched or gone ahead of. S’pose you could call it a tradition at this point. The only one I care about is Mark Viduka who scored 92 goals, making him the leading Australian in the EPL record books. Chris Wood now has 91 goals. The century is coming, no doubt about it, but first we must celebrate when he takes the New Zealand record beyond the Australian record. Patriotic duty.
Three Hundy Club
Wood could also reach 300 Prem appearances this season... albeit he’d have to feature in 37/38 games for that to happen and that’s unlikely. Between injuries, international duty travel, and Europa League commitments, he’s sure to miss some games along the way.
Continental Football
Europa League footy means something though. Woodsy has only had two previous excursions into continental football. One was with Burnley in 2018-19 when they qualified via a fair play metric... but they lost in the playoff round of qualifying for the Europas, beaten 4-2 on aggregate by Olympiacos. Prior to that he was on loan with Birmingham in 2011-12 when they made it to the Europa League as reigning League Cup champions. A 19-year-old Chris Wood came off the bench in four of their six group games, even scoring a very late winner away against Club Brugge.
Goals On Matchday One
This is Wood’s 11th Premier League campaign, with this appearance extends the streak of at least one NZer getting minutes in each of the last 22 consecutive Prem seasons. Three of those were bit-part efforts with West Brom and Leicester City early in his career... although his first EPL goal did come on matchday one of the 2014-15 season with a late equaliser against Everton. He didn’t join Burnley until after the season had already begun so he missed the opener for them (but did get a goal and an assist in Leeds United’s first match that Championship season). Since then he’s not actually had a great record in season openers... until recently. Wood scored against Bournemouth last season and just got two against Brentford this time. All up, he’s bagged five goals in eight games (422 mins) during his team’s first Premier League fixture of the various seasons.
The More The Merrier
It sorta feels like the same handful of clubs keep getting promoted and relegated every year but the returning presence of Sunderland does offer Chris Wood the chance to score against a 29th unique club in the Premier League. He scored against Chelsea, Ipswich, and Liverpool for the first time last season. The record is held by Frank Lampard who scored against 39 different clubs so that’s not a record that Wood will be breaking. At best he can only add three new clubs per season from this point onwards, having already scored against everyone else (four if he transfers away from Nottingham Forest and then scores against them). If he plays until he’s 38 then there’s a tiny, tiny chance.
Vindictive Ex
But a record he should break is: Most Premier League Goals Against One’s Former Clubs. That only counts former Premier League clubs so Leeds United and Brighton don’t apply... but that still leaves four games against Burnley and Newcastle. Right now, Chris Wood has 14 goals against his exes (8 vs Leicester, 3 vs Newcastle, 2 vs Burnley, 1 vs WBA). The record is 18, held by Nicolas Anelka. Wood is already second on that list having surpassed Andy Cole, Peter Crouch, and Louis Saha last season (they all retired with 12 goals vs former clubs).
The 20-Goal Fiends
Last season, Chris Wood became the 51st man to score 20 or more goals in a single EPL campaign. He was almost the milestone #50, except Alexander Isak beat him to it. Bryan Mbeumo also got there so that makes 52 players who’ve matched the feat. But how many of them have done it at least twice? Exactly 20. Only about 40% of them were able to back up that massive production - with Alan Shearer setting the record by doing so on seven occasions, hence why he’s the league’s all-time top scorer.
Golden Boot
Wood is top of the Golden Boot charts after matchday one, tied with Erling Haaland, Richarlison, and Antoine Semenyo. That’s New Zealand, Norway, Brazil, and Ghana all represented. Other nations with Premier League goal-scorers this week: Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Wales, Northern Ireland, Denmark, and Egypt. There were no English goal scorers in this round of the English Premier League.
Golden Flag
Woodsy also made sure to catch one offside flag for his troubles, putting him on the board as he seeks to defend his Golden Flag title from last season. That was the third instance in which The Woodsman has been the most offsided player in the league: 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2024-25.
The Tall Blacks ended up fourth place at the Asia Cup. They almost got knocked out in the quarters until an incredible comeback – after having trailed by 22 points – saw them get the win against Lebanon. But then they were similarly slow out of the gates against China and this time could not overcome the deficit. They almost did, getting within range on a couple of occasions, but China kept finding buckets when they needed them and then found some separation in the last couple minutes to win 98-84. Disappointing... though let it be known that China then only lost by one point to heavy faves Australia in a thrilling grand final.
Meanwhile the New Zealanders lost 79-73 to Iran in the third-place game. It was back and forth through most of the first quarter until Iran pulled away on a 9-0 run to close the frame (including a banked buzzer-beating three). A lacklustre second quarter didn’t make things any easier and then, for whatever reason, probably tiredness from playing a sixth game in 12 days (this classification game tipped off exactly 24 hours after the semi-final began), the Tall Blacks never really found any proper retaliation.
Very disappointing way to finish the tour. Once again their outside shooting was a let-down and they also seemed to get out-hustled by a team that had lost by 44 points in their semi-final. Fourth place isn’t bad by any means… but it’s not particularly good either. Especially considering how it ended. We’ll call it a bare minimum passing grade.
Tall Blacks Points Differential Per Quarter At Asia Cup
Overall... 1Q: -23 | 2Q: +19 | 3Q: +17 | 4Q: +41
Knockouts... 1Q: -37 | 2Q: +6 | 3Q: +11 | 4Q: +4
China was the only team to outscore the Tall Blacks in the fourth quarter of any of these six games... but fourth quarters were not the problem. First quarters were. Once they hit the elimination games, the Tall Blacks suddenly found themselves down by 20 points after 1Q against Lebanon, down by 9 points against China, and down by 8 points against Iran. On all three occasions they got stuck having to battle back against chunky deficits. They got away with it against Lebanon but it cost them badly against China and Iran. Take a geeze at some tournament stats...
I’ll get a tournament review done later this week, hopefully. I’m also working on a Breakers yarn now that they’ve got their squad sorted. Also, if you like All Whites squad chat and further Chris Wood stats then you’re going to want to dig into the paywall section of the email for those yarns. Please do… we rely on contributions from our readers to keep things churning and Patreon and Substack (and Buy Me A Coffee) are where those come from.
Auckland FC have signed Oli Sail to bolster their goalkeeping depth. NZ U23s rep Scott Morris was signed a few weeks back but a hip injury has kept him on the outer and they might have wanted a more experienced backup anyway. Sail will offer more direct competition to Michael Woud for the number one jersey, an insurance policy that Steve Corica probably wants given that Woud has yet to play an A-League game and hasn’t been a number one starter at club level since he was with Almere City in the Netherlands (his only regular senior club starts, to be honest). Woud’s glitchiness is overrated because most people only remember him from the Olympics... but he does have the occasional howler in him, that’s no lie.
My guess is that Woud remains the number one. He signed hoping for that status last season only for Alex Paulsen to walk through the door. Oli Sail isn’t quite the same threat but he’s older and more experienced and further up the international queue... for now. Woud was promised the chance to fill Paulsen’s shoes after that guy returned to Bournemouth. If they break that promise and he’s stuck on the bench again then he might wanna hand in a transfer request… but as I say, I suspect Sail’s been brought over to be the second choice gloveman, a role he’d no doubt rather do for a championship contender in his home city rather than for a wooden spoon contender in Western Australia.
Sail had one year left on his Perth Glory gig and was the starter for them in the Aussie Cup defeat against Wellington Phoenix recently... but the addition of Mark Birighitti alongside Cameron Cook meant there was even more competition there than he’d faced before... and he’d been dropped for spells of each of the past two seasons. He’ll be turning up with intentions of winning the starting spot but you can easily see how this is a more enticing situation even if he’s going to be sitting on the bench. The fact that Perth agreed to an early release shows that they’re not too fussed (Sail was a non-visa foreigner so it’s not like they freed up a visa spot either). Typically ruthless work from AFC, reinforcing what could have been a potential weak spot in their squad.
Speaking of the Australia Cup, it’s Heidelberg United vs Wellington Phoenix tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9.30pm and it’s Sydney FC vs Auckland FC on Saturday at 9.30pm with the winners of those games facing each other in the semi-finals of the competition. A Kiwi Derby in the Aussie Cup would be pretty hilarious.
Musical Jam...
