Red Ink
Warriors vs Dragons reaction, Blackcaps in Pakistan, Will Young in County Cricket, domestic footy roundup, Lydia Ko's form & more
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Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Alec MacDonald The Kiwi Stormer (Rugby League)
Flying Kiwis – April 23 (Football)
2024 Kiwi County Tour: The Arrival Of Will Young & Nathan Smith Keeps Grinding (Cricket)
Notes From The Wellington Phoenix’s 1-1 Draw With Newcastle Jets (Football)
Macey Fraser Signs With Utah Royals: A Unique Journey, A Record Fee & Wellington Phoenix Pathways (Football)
The Wellington Phoenix A-League Women’s 2023-24 Season In Review (Football)
New Zealand's 10 Best Young Cricketers After The Summer Of 2023/24 (Cricket)
Breaking Down The Blackcaps T20 Squad To Tour Pakistan (Cricket)
Updating The Blackcaps vs Pakistan T20 Squad Breakdown (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
NZ Warriors haven't shown anything this season to suggest that are an NRL championship contender. NZW are now 10th on the ladder with losses to Sharks, Storm and Dragons, along with the draw against Sea Eagles. NZW wins have come against Raiders, Knights and Rabbitohs; Raiders and Knights suffered heavy defeats in a crazy round of NRL footy this weekend and Rabbitohs are one spot off the bottom of the ladder.
The positive news is that the NRL is a crazy competition and NZW have ample space to build into the season, pushing for a top-four spot. Last season the issue was that NZW weren't quite on the same level as Panthers and Broncos, even Storm. Being among the best teams was a good start to the Andrew Webster era and now they are yet to prove themselves as an automatic top-four team.
NZ Warriors Stat Profile (average per game)
Tries: 8th
Completions: 3rd
Supports: 12th
Line Engaged: 2nd
Linebreaks: 9th
Post Contact Metres: 5th
Tackle Breaks: 5th
Decoys: 2nd
Run Metres: 1st
Kick Return Metres: 2nd
Dummy Half Runs: 11th
Offloads: 13th
Tackles: 4th
Missed Tackles: 12th
Kick Metres: 3rd
Errors: 12th
Penalties Conceded: 14th
Last weekend NZW had a draw and two losses to Sea Eagles in NRL, NSW Cup and Under 21s. NZW had a better weekend against Dragons with wins in NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg, especially considering that both games were in Sydney with Dragons still ranked ahead of NZW in both grades; NZW had their first Jersey Flegg win of the season.
The most interesting NZW thing right now is the wave of young talent flowing through the pipeline and this wave featured prominently in the wins over Dragons. Apparently Luke Hanson played in the halves for Jersey Flegg and then NSW Cup, promoted to cover Paul Roache who was part of a weird NRL bench for NZW.
Hanson is a half from Panthers who joined NZW this summer, so his first appearance in NSW Cup is notable. Sio Kali played again in NSW Cup as an 18-year-old. Harry Durbin may have made a permanent move up to NSW Cup from U21s and Etuate Fukofuka followed Hanson in being 18th-lad for NSW Cup after U21s. Jacob Auloa is now the starting hooker for NSW Cup having started the season in U19 SG Ball.
They are all led by the likes of Ali Leiataua, Zyon Maiu'u, Tanner Stowers-Smith and Eddie Ieremia-Toeava. Over the past few weeks I have covered the crop of players who have moved up from U19s to U21s (Motu Pasikala, Nganatatafu Vake, Rodney Tuipulotu-Vea, Alvin Chong Nee, Francis Tuimauga) who bolster this wave of young talent on the rise.
The quality and quantity of NZW juniors is not evident in the NRL team though. There aren't many opportunities to start with as the team is fairly settled and the next up lads who have covered injuries so far are Adam Pompey, Te Maire Martin, Tom Ale and Jacob Laban. The introduction of Laban is balanced by Leiataua not playing NRL yet this season and a reluctance to throw Zyon Maiu'u into NRL footy.
Coach Webster is slow brewing the youngsters. This can be annoying because the Dragons game felt like a good spot to debut Maiu'u, plus NZW are outside finals footy right now. I'm not sure what this all means, just an observation that coach Webster is more likely to tinker with what he already has than usher in youngsters who may or may not do the job.
Blackcaps are in a different situation where they are graced with a T20 series in Pakistan that requires young players to step up. Tim Robinson and Dean Foxcroft have been selected for all three games. Ben Sears, Will O'Rourke and Zak Foulkes have all had a stint with the ball as well. As is usually the case, the best performers are experienced lads in Mark Chapman and Ish Sodhi…
Batting
Mark Chapman: 106 runs @ 106avg/182sr
Dean Foxcroft: 44 runs @ 22avg/102sr
Tim Seifert: 33 runs @ 16avg/126sr
Tim Robinson: 32 runs @ 10avg/128sr
Cole McConchie: 15 runs @ 83sr
Bowling
Ish Sodhi: 3w @ 14avg/6.1rpo
Michael Bracewell: 2w @ 29avg/9.8ro
Ben Lister: 1w @ 10avg/5rpo
Jacob Duffy: 1w @ 46avg/7.6rpo
After eight T20Is between these two teams in Pakistan, they share a 3-3 record with a couple washed out games. Next two games are Friday and Sunday morning.
Worcestershire and Lancashire both suffered losses in County Championship, meaning losses for Nathan Smith, Tom Bruce and Will Williams. Williams (47 runs @ 15avg) is a run behind Bruce (48 runs @ 12avg) which tells you all about Bruce's form and Williams is Lancashire's best bowler with 6w @ 22avg/2.5rpo.
Smith is the leading wicket-taker for Worcs and he is fourth for runs, one of three batters who have two scores over 50. Below are Smith's stats in County Championship cricket and I've put last summer's Plunket Shield averages in brackets...
County Championship
Bat: 152 runs @ 50avg/48sr (24.5avg)
Ball: 13w @ 19avg/3.1rpo (17.18avg)
First-Class Career
Bat: 27.71avg/48sr
Ball: 26.18avg/2.78rpo
Will Young scored 174 not out for Nottinghamshire in their second innings, part of a team record third-wicket partnership of 392 with Joe Clarke (213*) before rain spoiled things. This was Young's first game of the winter in County Championship. After scores scores of 9, 15, 14 and 1 in two Tests vs Australia followed by scores of 14, 9 and 90 in the last two Plunket Shield games, his first class average had dipped below 40. It is now back up to 40.58 after his 15th FC century and new high score.
Lydia Ko finished tied-17th at the Chevron Championship and has finished top-20 in five of her six tournaments played this year. Here are the basics...
Results: 1st, 2nd, T34, T4, T13, T18, T17
Average Driving Distance: 255.32m - 87th
Driving Accuracy: 72.22% - 77th
Greens in Regulation: 69.96% - 26th
Putts per GIR: 1.77 - 30th
Putting Average: 28.74 - 17th
Sand Saves: 55.17% - 10th
Scoring Average: 70.04 - 4th
Rounds Under Par: 22 - 3rd
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
While most folks were sleeping on Monday morning, the Blackcaps were over in Pakistan winning a T20 international with what some have claimed is a third-string team, despite playing against Pakistan’s top dudes (none of them get invited to the IPL, you see). The third-string thing is a laugh because half these blokes will probably be in the T20 World Cup squad that gets named next Monday. But it is true that they’re a little out of sight, out of mind at the moment. A game that takes place between 2.30am to 6.30am will do that to ya.
But if there’s one cricketer who loves serving up the goods when casual fans don’t even realise there’s a series going on, it’s Mark Chapman. He was the Blackcaps’ top T20I run scorer in 2023... yet I get the feeling there are people who wouldn’t necessarily even pick him in their own 15-man World Cup squads. Probably because of this cheeky wee disparity...
Mark Chapman in Aotearoa (T20I)
24 inns | 350 runs | 18.42 avg | 129.15 sr | 37no high score
Mark Chapman Outside of Aotearoa (T20I)
23 inns | 782 runs | 52.13 avg | 150.09 sr | 104no high score (1 100, 7 50s)
Unreal. That’s only including Blackcaps numbers too, none of his Hong Kong mahi. And while he did score a couple of fifties against the UAE plus an 80-odd against Scotland in there... most of it has come in a couple of tours to Pakistan... where apparently he’s almost immune to dismissals. These are his innings in Pakistan, including balls faced to show he wasn’t just batting for red ink...
34 (27), 65no (40), 16no (9), 71no (42), 104no (57), 0no (0), 19 (16), 87no (42)
The last two came in this current series, which has two more matches to play. Chapman has scored 396 runs off 233 deliveries in Pakistan, at an average of 198.00 and a strike-rate of 169.95. Just two dismissals in eight innings (granted, one of those he didn’t face a ball). One hundred. Three fifties. 42 fours and 15 sixes. In Pakistan he hits a boundary every 4.09 deliveries. In his overall career that is a boundary every 5.46 deliveries (again, not including Hong Kong or else that boundary rate rises over six).
While we’re over in Pakistan, gotta love a bit of the old rapidity from Will O’Rourke as well...
Time for a bit of that good domestic footy roundup... there’s going to be a glut of games over the coming days with Anzac weekend but first we’ve gotta get to what happened over the previous few days. Let’s start with the Women’s NRFL Prem, where West Coast Rangers are shaping up as title contenders (having missed the top four in 2022) after being Fencibles 4-0. Nicole Stratford was amongst the goals in this one. WCR have won 5/5 games scoring 19 goals and conceding just three. There’s then three teams tied on 10 points behind them. Eastern Suburbs and Auckland United are two of those teams following a 2-2 draw. A Sofia Garcia double had Suburbs two up after 55 minutes but Rene Wasi scored twice in the remainder for a share of the spoils. Western Springs are the other team on 10 points, having found their scoring boots in a 5-0 win against Hamilton Wanderers. Hibiscus Coast and Ellerslie drew 0-0... which was Ellerslie’s first point.
Over to the blokes, the Southern League is going mostly as expected. Christchurch United won 5-0 against Dunedin City Royals in probably their most fluid performance so far. Joel Stevens got three of those goals while German import Michael Horsby got the other two. Cashmere Technical bounced back to winning ways by beating Selwyn United 4-2. How many goals did Garbhan Coughlan get this week? All of them. He scored all four to take his tally to 11 after four matches. Insane quantities. Elsewhere a Lucas Hogg goal gave Nelson Suburbs a 1-0 win over Universities, keeping Subs level with Technical on points (though way behind on goal difference). Ferrymead Bays won 3-0 vs FC Twenty11, while Coastal Spirit meat Nomads away with American import Alejandro Steinwascher getting a brace in a 4-0 result. Steinwascher has eight goals, second only to Coughlan (Stevens is third with seven).
The Central League always stays funky. There was a midweek game there in which Western Suburbs won 1-0 against the Wellington Phoenix Reserves. Connor Wilson scored the only goal in the third minute. The Nix had Alby Kelly-Heald, Fergus Gillion, Fin Conchie, LukeSupyk, and Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues all in the starting eleven – each of them having either played A-League or has an A-League contract for this season. Conchie got sent off though. Second yellow. Four other Nix players got booked too... sounds feisty. However, Wests weren’t able to repeat the dose on the short turnaround as they were upset 3-2 by Waterside Karori. They were 2-1 up with ten to play but Savio Concession (82’) and Lachlan Candy (85’) flipped the script. The WeeNix didn’t fare any better as Napier City Rovers came to town. Luke Supyk scored first but Rovers buried six unanswered. 6-1 final score. Oscar Faulds scored four – a Swedish striker with strong kiwi heritage (he has a silver fern tattooed on his arm) who has come over to tap into that side of his whanau. Still technically eligible for the Olympics, though this probably isn’t the level to achieve that dream.
Miramar Rangers remain first, the only undefeated team left in the CL, despite being held to a 1-1 draw by Petone. North Wellington also beat Island Bay 3-2 for their first win, which leaves Stop Out as the only winless team after they were smoked 6-1 by Wellington Olympic. Falling where many others have left imprints before them. Hamish Watson and Kaelin Nyugen both got doubles. Connor Gaul did manage to score against his old team from the penalty spot, at least.
Finally, the Northern League. Where Auckland City and Western Springs both still have perfect 6/6 winning records. ACFC had a bonkers game beating Melville by a 7-3 scoreline. Liam Gillion and Gerard Garriga each got two. Western Springs won 4-2 against Hamilton Wanderers and Emiliano Tade added a couple more, continuing to defy the laws of ageing. Also on the scoresheet was ex-Phoenix youngster Marco Lorenz who is back after a couple of stints trying to get a contract in Germany. It was announced he’d gotten one at a lower tier club in January but clearly that didn’t work out.
In other games, Birkenhead lost some ground on the top two after being held 0-0 by East Coast Bays. Eastern Suburbs are fourth after a Jake Mechell goal gave them a 1-0 win away to Auckland United. Those are two teams stacked with exciting young players that deserve a bit of National League... but damn bro United had better get a move on because they’re losing ground with three losses already. Also, Manurewa won a thriller 4-3 against Bay Olympic, holding on despite conceding two very late goals (almost did a Manchester United there). And Tauranga City beat West Coast Rangers 2-1. Dawson Strafford equalised in the 86th min but Liam Molloy won it in stoppage time. Scenes.
Alrighty, throwback tune for today, I reckon...