Lovely Smells
Blackcaps vs England, Kiwis halves candidates, Auckland FC & Wellington Phoenix, Warriors/NRL, Jackson Ball/NBL, and more
Scotty’s Word
Blackcaps start their tour of England tonight. I reckon this is the best Blackcaps group to play against England in the three series they’ve played over the last few years and I also think that this is the weakest England group. That smells lovely but I’ve had similar feelings in the last two series so I don’t want to go too hard on Blackcaps optimism just yet.
England don’t care about the World Test Championship. It’s barely mentioned by Team England or their media.
Aside from doing our duty to grow Test cricket with games against Zimbabwe and Ireland, Blackcaps Test cricket follows the WTC context flow. This is why the series vs West Indies was crucial as Blackcaps had to get positive results while their depth was under pressure. Now we enter the series vs England sitting second on the ladder (usually top-four just like World Cups) and England are ... wherever they are.
World Test Championship rankings before Blackcaps vs England
Australia: 87.5% | 7-1
New Zealand: 77.78% | 2-0-1
South Africa: 75% | 3-1
Sri Lanka: 66.67% | 1-0-1
Bangladesh: 58.33% | 2-1-1
India: 48.15% | 4-4-1
England: 31.67% | 3-6-1
Pakistan: 8.33% | 1-3
West Indies: 4.17% | 0-7-1
Quick check in with runs and wickets per Test innings (the runs list includes England’s best batters and helps frame the Kane Williamson vs Joe Root battle)...
Runs per Test innings (40+)
Harry Brook: 52.9
Kane Williamson: 49.2
Joe Root: 46.78
Rachin Ravindra: 43.3
Devon Conway: 41.59
Wickets per Test innings (2+)
Blair Tickner: 2.44
Nathan Smith: 2.25
Kyle Jamieson: 2.22
Matt Henry: 2.15
There is lots of the noise about the Blackcaps bowling trio of Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson and Will O’Rourke. Blair Tickner and Nathan Smith are slightly more efficient with wickets as an example of depth and Smith’s brewing as my most interesting Blackcap; Smith could be a better all-rounder than Ben Stokes in this series.
For paid subscribers
Blackcaps spotlight on Daryl Mitchell & spinner comparisons
Full list of Blackcaps runs/wickets per Test innings
NZ Warriors depth after Leka Halasima and Samuel Healey injuries
Five sneaky NZ Warriors juniors
NZ Warriors per game stat rankings…
Set completion: 1st - 83.7%
Points: 2nd - 30.7
Tries: 2nd - 5.3
Try assists: 4th - 4.3
Linebreaks: 6th - 5.8
Tackle breaks: 8th - 33.4
Post contact metres: 7th - 563.2
Run metres: 9th - 1,699.7
Kick return metres: 10th - 160.3
Dummy half runs: 7th - 8.5
Offloads: 15th - 8.1
Tackles: 15th - 326.5
Missed tackles: 8th - 32.9
Kick metres: 1st - 649.6
Errors: 17th - 9.9
Penalties conceded: 16th - 4.2
There are four halves leading the way for NZ Kiwis in this role ahead of a World Cup and none are from Auckland. Jahrome Hughes and Dylan Brown is the best combination, with Kodi Nikorima and Te Maire Martin offering hearty depth. Hughes is from Wellington, Brown’s from Whangarei, Martin’s from Waikato and Nikorima spent time in Palmerston North and Christchurch before moving to Australia.
Brown and Martin are playing halfback, meaning that three of these halves are halfbacks in the NRL right now. This has seen Brown and Martin average 200+ kick metres for the first season of their careers. Hughes is ticking along as usual and Nikorima is doing a nice job as a pure five-eighth alongside Isaiya Katoa for Dolphins.
Here’s some per game stats for this season...
Jahrome Hughes: 348.21 km | 94m | 1.3 try assists | 83.5% tackling
Dylan Brown: 278.1 km | 117m | 0.5 try assists | 91.6% tackling
Te Maire Martin: 253.93 km | 80m | 1.3 try assists | 90.4% tackling
Kodi Nikorima: 40.38 km | 50m | 0.62 try assists | 89.2% tackling
This is amplified by the cluster of halves from Aotearoa on the rise below NRL. Te Hurinui Twidle (Turangawaewae) is playing halfback for Eels in NSW Cup having made his NRL debut on the wing and playing all backline positions in the Eels system. Haami Loza (Mangere East) has played NSW Cup and U21s for Panthers this season in both halves roles, named in U21s this week along with Bronson Reuben (Kaiapoi) who is usually in the halves for Bulldogs U21s.
Tokoaitua Owen (Ngongotaha) is getting game time for Broncos in NRLQ U21s after starting this year in U19s for Souths Logan. Ryder Crosswell (Dannevirke) has also played a few games of U21s for Knights after starting the year in U19s, both are usually playing in the numer six jersey for their respective teams.
Harry Inch (Nelson College) is settling into his rugby league groove for Warriors U21s and they have Maui Winitana-Patelesio (Te Aroha) who covers hooker and halves. While Warriors have a tremendous group of young Aussie halves, all the halves ranked below Jack Thompson (Inch onwards) are from Aotearoa and sometimes they have a Inch/Winitana-Patelesio combo in U21s.
Musical jam...
Nick’s Notebook
Alas, Kane Williamson missed out on his chance to score a hundred against Ireland. We also had a Test cancelled against Afghanistan a couple years ago and it’s unlikely he gets another crack to reach triple figures against a tenth separate nation in Test cricket. Mentioned before this tour that there are 15 men who’ve scored Test tons against nine nations but nobody who has done it against a tenth... it was a record that Williamson could have held all alone but nope that’s not what the tea leaves had in store for him.
Okay, alright, we won’t dwell on that... because what’s if that record was meant for a different Blackcaps top order batter? Just look what Rachin Ravindra has already done in the space of 21 Test matches...
Rachin Ravindra in Test Cricket
Five tons against five different teams. That includes Ireland and Zimbabwe who, sure, those are two of the weaker sides... but he’s also scored a Test hundy away against India in the toughest of circumstances. And what matters for this purpose is that Ireland and Zimbabwe are relatively rare opponents that he’s already ticked off.
He hasn’t played a Test against Pakistan yet and didn’t reach triple figures against Sri Lanka or Bangladesh in his first opportunities. But that’s cool because we play those teams all the time... in fact Sri Lanka are coming to Aotearoa for two Test matches next February. In between now and then, Ravindra will also get three Tests against England starting tonight and four Tests against Australia in December-January (both series are away tours). By this time next year, he could have eight scalps and he’d only be 27 years old. Of course, he’s gotta do the business before we can give him credit for it. But that’s something to track over a very busy eight months of Test cricket coming up for the Blackcaps.
The other thing about Ravindra is that his first three Test matches saw him picked as a spinning all-rounder for subcontinent tours where he batted seven or eight and only scored 73 runs at an average of 14.60. That was before the 2023 ODI World Cup. After he made his (global) name at that tournament, he broke into the Test match top order and promptly scored 240 against South Africa. Take those initial six innings out of his record and this is what he’s done while batting in the top five:
32 INNS | 1574 RUNS | 56.21 AVG | 68.07 SR | 5 100s | 5 50s
There was a little slump in there as he struggled against England when they toured here in late-2024… but these are his last seven Test innings: 165no (ZIM), 3, 176, 5, 72no, 46no (WI), 121 (IRL).
Elijah Pepper’s going a wee bit crazy for the Wellington Saints, currently seven points clear of the next top scorer across the NBL...
Pepper was born in Australia, raised in America, and after finishing college he moved back to Australia to sign with the Perth Wildcats where he’s been steadily raising his profile over the last few years. He debuted for the Aussie national team against the Tall Blacks in 2025. Now the bloke is on an absolute tear in the NZ league. In his ten games, he has points totals of: 28, 23, 20, 30, 36, 23, 29, 43, 26, 45.
In other words, there are only 12 players in the league averaging 20 points per game or better at the moment... and Elijah Pepper’s worst scoring game was 20 points. He’s got 51.9/36.5/82.7 shooting splits and is also averaging 5.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. 3.2 steals as well. Multiple 40-point games, something nobody else has done this year (Keanu Rasmussen and Kaden Sand have had 39-pointers while Reuben Te Rangi scored 37 the other day). Bro’s been pretty insane.
Alright, that’s enough praise for an Aussie-American. Time to turn the lens towards Jackson Ball who has just been selected for an NBL Next Stars showcase team to play at the Adidas Eurocamp – which coincidentally is the youth tournament where Petteri Koponen got most of his head coaching experience prior to getting hired at the NZ Breakers.
The NBL sent a team last year and that seems to have been a successful mission, making it to the final, so they’re doing it again. Karim Lopez was in the 2025 crew but no New Zealanders. This time Jackson Ball is correcting that oversight... along with Jayden Cecil who is dual-eligible for AUS/NZ but despite growing up in Brisbane he’s committed to play for New Zealand at the U17 World Cup later this year.
This is an interesting pocket because Jayden Cecil moved to America two years ago to link up with Utah Prep Academy, where his dad Tai Cecil (proud kiwi) is the president and Tall Blacks legend Mark Dickel is the head coach. Jayden’s older brother Isaac also attends that school and there was an awesome instance last month where the brothers competed against each other as Jayden joined the NZ U17s in an invitational tournament that included a 90-80 win against Utah Prep. The NZers did a haka before the game and Isaac, on the other side with Utah Prep, stepped up to meet the challenge.
Utah Prep is also where AJ Dybantsa went (playing alongside the Cecil bros) before his year at BYU. That bloke is now one of the favourites to go first overall in the 2026 NBA Draft. All of which puts Jayden Cecil in some glorious territory as a kiwi basketball prospect... look forward to that U17 WC in a few weeks.
Also look forward to everything that Jackson Ball does because he’s off to college soon and with this Next Star invitational thingamajig it’s unclear how much more NZ NBL he’ll play this year... but how about these numbers for an 18yo?
Jackson Ball in 2026 NZ NBL (Hawke’s Bay Hawks)
19 points on 8/18 shooting with 7 rebounds & 4 assists vs MAN
16 points on 4/14 shooting with 4 rebounds & 5 assists vs CAN
19 points on 7/14 shooting with 2 rebounds & 4 assists vs AKL
14 points on 4/11 shooting with 2 rebounds & 6 assists vs OTA
21 points on 7/13 shooting with 7 rebounds & 4 assists vs NEL
18 points on 6/9 shooting with 1 rebounds & 5 assists vs FRA
29 points on 10/20 shooting with 4 rebounds & 1 assist vs WEL
22 points on 8/15 shooting with 3 rebounds & 2 assists vs TAU
He’s shooting 47.4 FG%, 38.8 3P%, 81.6 FT% as an 18 year old... and given what he’s already done in his career, this is him during a quiet run without many headlines.
For the Paid Subscribers, you’ll get some insight into the next generation of Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix Reserves players as well as reaction to the news of Finn McKenlay, Adama Coulibaly, and James Hilton being released by AFC
Notable 4-0 Defeats Of All Whites Yore…
Brazil 4-0 New Zealand – 1982 World Cup
Our first World Cup and we were pitted against probably the most fondly remembered Brazilian team not to win a World Cup. Usually when you watch old football matches, they feel like old football matches given how much the game has naturally evolved. But watch that game and see those Brazilians playing fast and free and it’s surprisingly modern stuff. Better than modern because they’re actually taking risks... which might also be why they didn’t win in ‘82 but never mind that.
Portugal 4-0 New Zealand – Confederations Cup in 2017
Anthony Hudson’s New Zealand up against prime Cristiano Ronaldo and friends. Mr CR7 scored a penalty alongside a Bernardo Silva goal... though the other two goals didn’t arrive until the final ten minutes. Not a bad showing, all things considered. Hudson being Hudson, he had Dane Ingham and Tom Doyle as his wing-backs against that team so it could have been far worse.
Australia 4-0 New Zealand – Soccer Ashes in 1948
Don’t know anything about this one other than that we got thrashed but it was actually the smallest thrashing of a three-game series having earlier been beaten 6-0 and 7-0. This game, like the first one, was played at the Basin Reserve back when it was still often used for football as well as cricket.
Brazil 4-0 New Zealand – Friendly before the 2006 World Cup
A completely random friendly played in Switzerland against the defending World Champs who absolutely coasted with Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, and Kaka involved... and then one of the things they blamed their eventual quarter-final flameout upon was their weak preparation, with this unchallenging game at the top of the pile. So we made a bit of history with that one.
Haiti 4-0 New Zealand – Friendly before the 2026 World Cup
Yesterday’s game was a stinker of a result... but in its way also an irrelevant one. You make six half-time subs and it’s going to get messy. This was only a warm-up designed to find match fitness ahead of the games that actually matter at the World Cup. Bit embarrassing how it ended up though. Here’s a write-up on the matter.
Musical Jam...
