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2024/25 Plunket Shield: More Rhys Mariu Runs & Northern Districts Six Hitting (Cricket)
2024/25 HBJ Shield: Bella James & Otago In A Groove (Cricket)
The Most Impressive Young New Zealand Domestic Cricketers Early In The 2024/25 Summer (Cricket)
New Zealand Warriors Wider Squad & Summer Training Break Down Ahead Of 2025 NRL Season (Rugby League)
2024/25 Kiwi-NRL Summer Guide: Cowboys, Dolphins, Broncos, Titans (Rugby League)
All Whites in the November WCQs: Big Wins and Big Vibes (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Blackcaps were pretty stinky in their loss vs England. Despite the series sweep in India, there are some clear trends at work here that should keep a lid on expectations...
Aotearoa is no fortress for Blackcaps in Test cricket. Perhaps there is no home advantage for Blackcaps in home Tests?
There have been losses vs Bangladesh, South Africa, England and Australia in the last three summers. This loss vs England makes it four consecutive summers featuring a Test defeat at home, as well as three consecutive losses after losing twice vs Australia earlier in the year.
The only recent Test series in Aotearoa that Blackcaps have won were against Sri Lanka early in 2023 and South Africa's second-tier team last summer.
Blackcaps also suck vs England ... well the Brendon McCullum led England.
Blackcaps are 1-5 in their Tests vs England since McCullum took over as coach. All the losses have been by margins of at least 5 wickets or 200+ runs and the Blackcaps only win was by 1 run.
Combine these two trends for a 1-2 record for Blackcaps vs McCullum's England in Aotearoa.
You already know about Devon Conway's slump...
2021: 63.16avg
2022: 49.92avg
2023: 32.46avg
2024: 23.43avg
Tom Blundell is averaging 15.88 this year and 13 in the World Test Championship.
I want Will Young in the team after the effort at Hagley Oval and my preference is a swap with Conway at the top of the order. Conway and Blundell have both been pretty good at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, although that was before their Test form vanished.
Blackcaps batters at Basin Reserve…
Tom Latham: 44.63avg
Devon Conway: 46.33avg
Kane Williamson: 68.04avg
Rachin Ravindra: 29.5avg
Daryl Mitchell: 29.16avg
Tom Blundell: 55.16avg
Glenn Phillips: 36avg
Will Young: 15.4avg
Blackcaps are in a tricky spot with Tim Southee, given how his retirement was whipped up as a farewell party at Seddon Park. If Blackcaps lose in Wellington, then they might have more space for a sentimental moment. If Blackcaps are trying to win, then Southee isn't part of the 1st 11 and that starts with Basin Reserve where spin was effective last summer.
Southee averages 32.96 in Wellington. That's not good enough to buck against his form slump in Test bowling...
2020: 17avg/2.7rpo
2021: 23.45avg/3.3rpo
2022: 38.89avg/2.6rpo
2023: 60.84avg/3.4rpo
Best bowlers in Blackcaps loss vs Australia at Basin Reserve last summer...
Matt Henry: 5w @ 2.3rpo
Nathan Lyon: 4w @ 5.2rpo
Glenn Phillips: 5w @ 2.8rpo
Nathan Lyon: 6w @ 2.4rpo
I would bring in Mitchell Santner for Southee. That gives two spinners doing different things and three seamers in Henry, Will O'Rourke and Nathan Smith. Santner is in the best phase (two years, five Tests) of his Test career and I reckon his style of bowling could be a nice match-up against England's attacking instincts.
Santner averaged 30+ in each of his first four years of Test bowling. Then he played one Test with 2w @ 29.5avg in 2020, followed by one Test with 23ov and no wickets in 2021. Santner didn't play in 2022 before...
2023: 6w @ 19.3avg/2.9rpo
2024: 20w @ 22.3avg/2.7rpo
Blackcaps World Test Championship Stats
Batting
Rachin Ravindra: 913 runs @ 48avg/61sr
Kane Williamson: 911 runs @ 53avg/62sr
Glenn Phillips: 636 runs @ 37avg/76sr
Daryl Mitchell: 631 runs @ 31avg/50sr
Tom Latham: 561 runs @ 23avg/50sr
Devon Conway: 422 runs @ 21avg/52sr
Will Young: 379 runs @ 37avg/46sr
Tom Blundell: 284 runs @ 13avg/58sr
Tim Southee: 236 runs @ 13avg/76sr
Mitchell Santner: 175 runs @ 21avg/56sr
Matt Henry: 175 runs @ 15avg/94sr
Bowling
Matt Henry: 38w @ 16avg/3rpo
Ajaz Patel: 37w @ 26avg/3.7rpo
Glenn Phillips: 30w @ 28avg/3.4rpo
Will O'Rourke: 28w @ 23avg/3.5rpo
Mitchell Santner: 26w @ 21avg/2.8rpo
Tim Southee: 17w @ 52avg/3.3rpo
Kyle Jamieson: 8w @ 22avg/2.6rpo
Rachin Ravindra: 7w @ 36avg/3rp
Ben Sears: 5w @ 32avg/4.8rpo
Ish Sodhi: 4w @ 45avg/4.5rpo
Nathan Smith: 3w @ 59avg/6rpo
Blackcaps and White Ferns had a moment of bliss a month ago. Blackcaps have dipped back to their status-quo and White Ferns are preparing for an ODI series against Australia in the Women's Championship...
White Ferns are 31-100 in ODIs vs Australia.
White Ferns are 3-31 in ODIs vs Australia since the start of 2010.
White Ferns have lost 13 consecutive ODIs vs Australia.
Their last win was on 26 February 2017 and was followed by two losses for 1-2 series loss.
Suzie Bates (37.2avg) is the only current White Fern batter who averages 25+ vs Australia.
Leigh Kasperek (15.5avg) is highly unlikely to play vs Australia and she is joined by Amelia Kerr (29.3avg) as the only current White Ferns bowlers averaging below 30 vs Australia.
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Sydney Roosters have sorted out a deal with Rolleston College in Christchurch. This gives Roosters a South Island base with various facilities already in place to host training camps. Regular readers already know that rugby league is booming in the South Island and if you didn't believe the yarns I have been spinning; NZ Warriors have a hearty connection with St Thomas of Canterbury and Bulldogs already had an official partnership with Canterbury Rugby League.
Roosters are also an interesting Kiwi-NRL organisation as they have always invested heavily in recruitment from Aotearoa but I can no longer suggest that they are the best, or one of the best, Kiwi-NRL recruitment teams.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Joseph Manu and Sitili Tupouniua have departed Roosters. Manu and Tupouniua were recruited from Aotearoa. All we hear about Brandon Smith is how he's not a good fit at Roosters and, despite Roosters paying heaps to get Smith, now they are trying to shuffle him out.
Christian Tuipulotu and Asu Kepaoa were recruited from Auckland and rolled through junior footy with Roosters, only to depart once they hit the NRL tier. Adam Pompey, Moala Graham-Taufa (along with twin bro Lani) and Kahu Capper were recruited by Roosters as youngsters, now they are with NZ Warriors.
Cassius Tia and Javahn Stevenson-Hala were recruited by Roosters before leaving for Bulldogs and Eels respectively.
Naufahu Whyte and Siua Wong are currently the best Kiwi-NRL recruits at Roosters. They are the only players recruited by Roosters from Aotearoa who are currently in their top-30 NRL mix. Salesi Foketi and Benaiah Ioelu are the best emerging Kiwi-NRL lads at Roosters.
Roosters don't seem to have any South Island talent that played U19 or above this year. They probably want to change that and this leads to observations about the general Roosters situation as they have had lots of departures from their NRL squad without getting busy with high-profile recruits as they usually do.
Perhaps Roosters are leaning towards more development, although they have always recruited heavily from Aotearoa without producing as many NRL players for Roosters as their investment suggests they should. They only have a few lads on the fringe of their NRL squad and I'll be keeping close tabs on how their U19/U21 squads look to see how they view Kiwi-NRL talent.
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Quiz question to begin with, what do the following English football clubs all have in common:
Wolverhampton Wanderers, West Ham, Leicester City, Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion, Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace, Newcastle United, Everton, Southampton, Aston Villa, Norwich, Luton Town, Manchester United, Fulham, Brentford, Burnley, Cardiff City, Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Leeds United, Watford, Sheffield United, West Bromwich Albion, Huddersfield, and Ipswich Town
The answer is that these are the 27 different clubs that Chris Wood has scored Premier League goals against, with Liverpool the only notable exception of teams he’s met at least three times. Ipswich were the latest addition to the list as he scored the winner from the penalty spot over the weekend. The fact that it was a penalty is also huge because it means we get to extend the old favourite penalty streak.
The Woodsman is 7/7 in the Prem.
He’s scored 22 in a row for club and country – a mark that rises to 29 if you count shootouts.
He last missed a spot kick under any serious circumstances for Leeds United back in April 2016.
They chucked this wee graphic up on the broadcast showing the last five that he’s taken...
There is a tendency to go down the middle there but you can also see him fizzing them either side and at different heights. He’s genuinely confident shooting in any spot. He also tends to hit the ball pretty hard, which limits a goalie’s chances of reacting in time to save it (the flipside is that it adds to the risk of the kick... but Woodsy is accurate enough for that to be irrelevant). This is an excellent penalty taker at work.
Another thing you can notice about his latest one is that he doesn’t move as soon as the whistle blows. He stands there for an extra couple of seconds, calm and collected, showing that he is in control of this moment. There’s heaps of research that has been done about penalty kicks and one theme that often comes up is that players who wait an extra few seconds before shooting are far more accurate than those who rush it (although there is a tipping point where you can wait too long). You never hear about this kinda thing, partly because the UK media/analysts haven’t yet realised that Chris Wood is one of the best penalty takers in the world, but it would be shocking if he isn’t studying and practising heavily for these spotties.
There was an international window for women’s football over the past week, one which (like the last one) the coach-less Football Ferns did not partake in. To be honest, it feels like a good time for them to take a rest and focus on club situations so no dramas there (apart from the obvious coaching drama). There aren’t any windows over December to February but hopefully we’ll see them in action in March, by which time it will have been roughly eight months since the Olympics when they last played. Eight months during which plenty of club footy will have gone down. A new coach is always likely to have fresh ideas around selections and there are a heap of players surging into contention. This was the squad for the Olympics...
Katie Bowen, Vic Esson, Rebekah Stott, Anna Leat, Claudia Bunge, Gabie Rennie, Jacqui Hand, Grace Jale, Indi Riley, Kate Taylor, Mack Barry, Ally Green, Mickey Foster, Katie Kitching, Macey Fraser, Ali Riley, CJ Bott, Meikayla Moore, Malie Steinmetz, Milly Clegg, Murphy Sheaff, Annalie Longo, Grace Neville*
Neville was an injury replacement when Ali Riley withdrew. Riley went on to be shut down for the rest of the NWSL year so dunno what her status moving forward will be. Hannah Wilkinson and Daisy Cleverley weren’t in this squad and have since retired from football. That Olympic squad was already a bit of a fresh one with the likes of Ria Percival, Erin Nayler, Betsy Hassett, Olivia Chance, and Paige Satchell not involved for various reasons, each of them with at least 46 caps. And in the last 24 hours, we’ve gotten news that Malia Steinmetz has done her ACL too. Best wishes to her for a speedy recovery.
Now here’s a selection of players who didn’t go to the Olympics yet could/should be in consideration for the next squad, all with professional contracts and most of them doing very good things...
Hannah Blake, Una Foyle, Kiara Bercelli, Maya Hahn, Suya Haering, Jana Niedermayr, Ava Collins, Maggie Jenkins, Emma Pijnenburg, Olivia Page, Lara Colpi, Grace Wisnewski, Deven Jackson, Kelli Brown, Brianna Edwards, Liz Anton, Ruby Nathan, Emma Main, Manaia Elliott, Alyssa Whinham, Daisy Brazendale, Lara Wall, Amelia Abbott
Hahn might not be eligible, dunno for sure. Abbott is going to join the Wellington Phoenix very soon and could make a run. If it weren’t for injury then Marisa van der Meer and Rebecca Lake would be on this list too.
The Breakers played last night and they lost again. They went down 123-112 away to the Perth Wildcats. The Breaks are in the midst of a brutal run of away games but damn that’s 123 points conceded a few days after giving up 109 to the Illawarra Hawks. Both teams got it going early – the Hawks scoring 32 points in the first quarter, the Wildcats scoring 42 points in the first quarter. While it was cool that Parker Jackson-Cartwright managed 34 points with 10 assists for his best scoring game in the NBL, and that Sam Mennenga was also in personal-best territory with 25 points... this all pales in comparison to Bryce Cotton scoring 59 points for the Wildcats. Yes, that’s fifty-nine points. Astonishing stuff.
Tacko Fall only played six minutes this game so we can’t blame him... but there is a very obvious cause and effect here when you consider who Fall replaced in the squad. Freddie Gillespie had the best defensive rating on the team by a long margin (102 points against per 100 possessions he’s on the floor). He was basically the team’s best defender... and they got rid of him because the owner loves to go fishing for overseas attention. Since then the team has given up 232 points in eight quarters. A 7-3 record has become 7-5 and suddenly they’ve got a whole bunch of teams in sight when they peek over their shoulder.
Quick check-in with Steven Adams...
The Houston Rockets are 15-6 roughly a quarter of the way through the season, a superb start that has them in prime position to not just kick on for a playoff position but to kick on for very good seeding in those playoffs.
But Adams has been very quiet so far. They’re building up his match fitness are a year-and-a-half out of serious action and don’t need to show anything but caution with that. He’s only played in 10/21 games and only twice has he featured in consecutive games. The guidelines to begin with were that he wouldn’t play more than five minutes at a time or more than 15 minutes in a game. He’s only even reached that 15-mark in half of his appearances.
As such, the six points he scored on debut against the Spurs remain his best mark. He grabbed seven rebounds in 15 mins against Washington a month ago and also has three separate games with three assists. There have been hints, there have been flashes. There have also been some heavy legs making him look like he’s lagging in defence. It’s all part of a bigger picture process. Here’s what his coach Ime Udoka had to say about Steven Adams a couple of days ago...
“At the beginning of the season, obviously back to backs were out. And then even a game every other day, he needed more time to reset after that. He’s starting to feel better and can play more consistently now. One day in between seems to be enough to get him back to where he’s at, and where we’re trying to get him to, so yes it’s a good sign that he doesn’t need to sit that game out in between.
It’s getting his legs back under him. It’s been two years that he hasn’t played and it’s about rhythm and timing and all those things. You can work out in the summer and start to feel a certain way but the speed o f the NBA game kinda brings you back to reality. So for him, it’s about continuing to work on his body and get his legs up under him. That’s the main thing... you could see him in the summer, he had a little pop to his step. Then practices and games and those thing start to catch up and wear on your body. Just want to be cautious with that so other things don’t pop up.”
The last few seasons where Adams has played, it was fun to track all the various undercover stats and records that he’d been threatening. That’s not going to happen this year. This year is all about where he ends up, not how he gets there. The Rockets want him in peak condition for a playoff run and everything up until then is in service of that end.
Musical Jam...