Tricky Encounters

NZ Warriors success & pipelines, Auckland FC in finals footy, NZ U19s basketball promise, NZ-A cricket in Bangladesh, and more

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Scotty’s Word

NZ Warriors had two wins in Australia over the weekend with the NSW Cup Warriors beating Roosters 24-14 to join the NRL team's win over Dolphins. NZW are 2nd in the NRL with a 3-2 away record and 1st in NSW Cup with a 4-0 record in Australia. Add one excellent NRL season in 2023, two years of top-four mahi in NSW Cup, and back to back Under 17 Harold Mattews Cup championships in their first two seasons; the two Andys era at Mt Smart is going well.

It’s a combined 17-3 in NRL and NSW Cup this year.

Tanner Stowers-Smith played 43 games of NSW Cup before making his NRL debut vs Dolphins and is the latest youngster from a pipeline that is producing the best concentration of young talent right now in the NRL. All that young talent has contributed to the excellent NSW Cup team and despite the promotions of Ali Leiataua, Demitric Vaimauga, Jacob Laban, Leka Halasima (and departure of Zyon Maiu'u), the NSW Cup team keeps winning.

Eddie Ieremia-Toeava didn't play NSW Cup because he was 18th-lad for the NRL team and he is next in line to debut. Here are some others who will debut soon from the team who defeated Roosters: Daeon Amituanai, Kayliss Fatialofa, Toby Crosby, Jason Salalilo, Makaia Tafua, Luke Hanson.

They are behind those who have already played NRL though, such as Moala Graham-Taufa, Tanah Boyd, Samuel Healey, Kalani Going and Tom Ale.

I covered the Stowers-Smith debut and the incoming swell of Canterbury rugby league talent. Rugby league has started to take over the region with big crowds for NZW games and consecutive National Secondary Schools Championships for St Thomas of Canterbury College, but this is only the beginning because there are so many young men and women already settling into NRL pipelines.

The win vs Dolphins was another win by any means. The last five wins have all been a bit niggly and the performances don't inform me that NZW are a championship threat, yet the results do. Wins vs Broncos and Knights were both in Aotearoa (bumper crowd for the Knights game in Christchurch) so they are standard mahi for a good NZW team - tricky encounters for the many stink NZW teams of previous years.

Wins vs Cowboys, Dragons and Dolphins were all in Australia. This is the most impressive phase of NZW footy that I can remember and again, not because of the sublime rugby league played or not played by NZW, but because NZW somehow found ways to win three consecutive games in Australia while clearly not playing their best.

Barometers vs Dolphins

• Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad: 19 runs - 179m @ 9.4m/run, 2 tackle breaks, 6 tackles @ 75%

• Wayde Egan: 73mins, 5 runs - 58m @ 11.6m/run, 1 try assist, 48 tackles @ 92.3%

Egan from dummy half: 4 runs - 44m @ 11m/run

Mahi men vs Dolphins

• Roger Tuivasa-Sheck: 22 runs - 209m @ 9.5m/run, 1 offload, 4 tackles @ 100%

• James Fisher-Harris: 56mins, 13 runs - 114m @ 8.7m/run, 2 tackle breaks, 41 tackles @ 95.3%

• Mitchell Barnett: 63mins 16 runs - 167m @ 10.4m/run, 1 tackle break, 33 tackles @ 86.8%

• Erin Clark: 72mins, 14 runs - 152m @ 10.8m/run, 6 tackle breaks, 1 offload, 41 tackles @ 91.1%

NZW have two trios that I'm intrigued by...

Nicoll-Klokstad, Tuivasa-Sheck and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak. All three are excellent runners and they won vs Dolphins with a below average Watene-Zelezniak game: 10 runs - 88m @ 8.8m/run.

The ideal scenario is that these three start the set and Nicoll-Klokstad always has a chance to take two runs. Then there are lots of options for the last few runners with Clark's speed always making metres around the ruck, Fisher-Harris/Barnett/Vaimauga plowing forward or a shift to the edges where Halasima/Marata Niukore/Jacob Laban are getting busy.

The other trio is Fisher-Harris, Barnett and Clark. They are the best middle forward trio I have seen at Mt Smart.

I write and talk about Clark so much that you should already know the yarn. Barnett's demanded State of Origin selection at NZW and Fisher-Harris has dominated the middle for at least five years. I kinda loved Fisher-Harris' shoulder charge late vs Dolphins … although it would have been a different feeling if they lost.

The middle forward trio lead the grappling of NZW. Since embracing the Kai Kara-France school of grappling, NZW are one of the best teams at controlling the contact and ruck. This is a key aspect of NRL footy and NZW are excelling at it while also conceding the fewest penalties in the NRL.

NZW are so good at wrestling that they aren't penalised for it.

Youngster Win Percentage

• Tanner Stowers-Smith: 100%

• Taine Tuaupiki: 65%

• Leka Halasima: 64%

• Ali Leiataua: 64%

• Jacob Laban: 64%

• Demitric Vaimauga: 53%

Youngster Minutes vs Dolphins

• Leka Halasima: 80mins | 19yrs

• Demitric Vaimauga: 15mins | 21yrs

• Jacob Laban: 24mins | 21yrs

• Tanner Stowers-Smith: 25mins | 21yrs

Leka Halasima

• Third game in a row playing 80 minutes for three wins

Jacob Laban

• Minutes this season: 27, 37, 27, 24

• Laban has finished all four games he's played

Demitric Vaimauga

• vs Dolphins: 5 runs - 49m @ 9.8m/run, 7 tackles @ 100%

Tanner Stowers-Smith

• 21yrs and has played 43 games of NSW Cup

Eddie Ieremia-Toeava is 20yrs and has played 36 games of NSW Cup

Halves stay balanced this season

• Luke Metcalf: 7 tries | 4 try assists

• Chanel Harris-Tavita: 3 tries | 8 try assists

My NRLWahine preview needs to be updated properly over the next few days as Isabella Waterman has moved from Knights to Raiders. Guess where Waterman is from? Christchurch, where she played for Sydenham.

Raiders now have nine NRLWahine in their top-24. That makes them one of the best NRLWahine squads heading into the NRLW season but they are slightly behind Bulldogs who added former Black Fern Monica Tagoai to their squad - 11 NRLWahine in their top-24.

This is extra impressive because most of them were recruited from Aotearoa before Bulldogs entered NRLW. Bulldogs are also supplying other NRLW teams with talent from Aotearoa such as the Finau sisters who joined Raiders after being recruited by Bulldogs and the Tauaneai sisters who started with Bulldogs before Alexis debuted for Dragons (now back with Bulldogs) while Trinity is in the Dragons squad.

Don't let this creep under your radar...

NZ-A defeated Bangladesh A in their first longform game. NZ-A have won four of their last five longform games.

• vs Australia A in NZ: Win by 3 wickets

• vs Australia A in NZ: draw

• vs Australia A in Australia: Win by 225 runs

• vs Australia A in Australia: Win by 68 runs

• vs Bangladesh A in Bangladesh: Win by 70 runs

Here are the stats from game one...

Batting

• Nick Kelly: 142 runs @ 71avg/57sr, 1 x 100

• Mitch Hay: 99 runs @ 49.5avg/57sr, 1 x 50

• Joe Carter: 75 runs @ 37.5avg/44sr, 1 x 50

• Dean Foxcroft: 68 runs @ 34avg/77sr

• Kristian Clarke: 29 runs @ 14.5avg/50sr

• Josh Clarkson: 21 runs @ 10.5avg/51sr

• Rhys Mariu: 19 runs @ 9.5avg/42sr

• Matt Boyle: 16 runs @ 8avg/43sr

• Adithya Ashok: 7 runs @ 3.5avg/26sr

• Muhammad Abbas: 7 runs @ 3.5avg/29sr

• Jayden Lennox: 3 runs @ 13sr

Bowling

• Adithya Ashok: 27ov, 6w @ 18.1avg/4rpo

• Josh Clarkson: 24ov, 5w @ 13.6avg/2.8rpo

• Jayden Lennox: 40.5ov, 4w @ 19.2avg/1.8rpo

• Kristian Clarke: 27ov, 4w @ 32avg/4.7rpo

• Muhammad Abbas: 8ov, 1w @ 42avg/5.2rpo

• Dean Foxcroft: 8ov @ 2.2rpo

All the County Championship stuff is beyond the wall for paid subscribers and the Patreon whanau. I’ve also whipped up a draft for my Battle of Aotearoa: Tamaki Makaurau vs Aotearoa rugby league concept (Aotearoa State of Origin). Here are a few more NZ-A deep cuts...

Nick Kelly last few seasons in Plunket Shield

• 20/21: 579 runs @ 44.5avg

• 21/22: 675 runs @ 51.9avg

• 22/23: 470 runs @ 29.3avg

• 23/24: 605 runs @ 46.5avg

• 24/25: 749 runs @ 57.6avg

Joe Carter

On the NZ-A tour of India in 2022: 347 runs @ 69.4avg, 2 x 100

Last 2 Plunket Shield seasons

• 23/24: 593 runs @ 53.9avg

• 24/25: 299 runs @ 49.8avg

Kristian Clarke on this tour

• Scores: 0, 39*, 28, 1

• Wickets: 2, 2, 3, 1

Josh Clarkson the bowler

• ODI: 24.3avg/6rpo

• T20I: 8avg/8rpo

• FC: 37.9avg/3.4rpo

• LA: 28.6avg/5.4rpo

• T20: 32.6avg/9.6rpo

Mitch Hay's best zones

• ODI: 41.5avg/104.4sr

• FC: 47.9avg/53.6sr

Adithya Ashok

Wickets in last 10 games: 3, 1, 0, 3, 1, 6, 2, 1, 1, 3, 1, 5

Career mahi

• ODI: 65avg/6.3rpo

• T20I: 28avg/7rpo

• FC: 32.66avg/3.5rpo

• LA: 33.58avg/5.3rpo

• T20: 23.45avg/7.5rpo

Breaking Down The NZ-A Cricket Squad For The 2025 Tour Of Bangladesh

Musical jam…

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Wildcard’s Notebook

So far so good for Auckland FC in the A-League finals. They won 1-0 in the away leg against Melbourne Victory, doing a lot of what was expected of them:

• They picked a back four formation, getting the best dudes on the park that they could (Max Mata was injured and Neyder Moreno’s the super sub).

• They mostly played without the ball, only keeping 40% of possession

• But part of that lack of possession was because they countered so fast when they did get it, rather than knocking the ball around to boost up the passing stats. Lots of room for Marlee Francois in particular when they broke. Didn’t do much with it but it was an outlet that could have been fruitful.

• They targeted set pieces.

• They defended stoutly and really limited a good attacking Victory side with Alex Paulsen not facing a shot on target.

In fact, the MVC shot map tells an enthralling tale all on its own...

That’s 10 total shots by the Victory and seven of them were blocked, including the only three from within the penalty area (and those were only just inside). Paulsen was safe because Nando Pijnaker and Dan Hall superb at throwing themselves in front of the ball. Meanwhile, Hiroki Sakai and Francis De Vries were winning challenges out wide. FDV was a little sketchier than the superb Sakai but he balanced that out with his magical crossing... including the assist for Logan Rogerson’s 64^th minute winner. Should have probably been 2-0 except somehow Moreno managed to hit both posts with the same shot right at the end.

The win ensures a fantastic scenario where AFC only have to draw at home (at a packed Mt Smart) to advance to the final... where they’ll probably meet Melbourne City after they won 3-0 against Western United in Western’s home leg. That’d mean AFC potentially facing (long way to go before that’s certain) a City team that they drew 2-2 away against and won 3-0 at home against rather than a Western Utd team that beat them on 2/3 occasions. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Auckland FC have now kept Melbourne Victory scoreless in all three meetings. Here they did it through the idealised version of their swarming, aggressive defence. The fact that they also snuck a winner made it an amazing outing but even a 0-0 draw would have had them in control of the tie. Victory didn’t look like they had a clue how to score against this lot unless it was a freaky long shot (which would also need to beat Alex Paulsen, mind you).

Even when Steve Corica subbed on Tommy ‘The Closer’ Smith for the last fifteen, AFC continued to look for attacking outlets. It wasn’t about shutting up shop, it was simply another insurance policy. This may be a brand new team but guys like Hall, Brimmer, and Paulsen have been this deep (or deeper) in A-League finals before. Sakai has played at World Cups and in Champions Leagues (both Asian and European). Tommy Smith is hugely experienced, including English Championship playoffs. Not to mention the All Whites experience of him and several others (including Olympics and age grade World Cups). The same applies to the coaching staff. Across the board they just knew how to handle the situation.

A nice encapsulation of that was this cheeky wee instance...

That right there is a bloke in a Victory jacket removing the towels that had been left, under plastic wrapping to keep them dry, by the sideline in AFC’s attacking zones for the purposes of long throws on a rainy evening. It’s a small detail and nobody was too fussed about when the MVC folks took it away... but the fact that AFC had those small details covered shows just how onto it they were.

For those generous paid subscribers, I’ve got some more AFC stuff huddled beyond the wall... we can only do what we do thanks to the lovely folks who support us financially (so that we’re getting paid, ya know) so pakipaki to you if that tag applies

Last year, the Junior Tall Blacks finished fourth at the FIBA U17 World Cup. Also last year, the Junior Tall Blacks finished second at the U18 Asia Cup. This year comes the FIBA U19 World Cup, to be held in Switzerland in June/July, and check out the squad that’s been named...

• Jackson Ball (Basketball Hawke's Bay)

• Will Blight (Nelson Basketball Association)

• Lachlan Crate (Basketball Manawatū)

• Oscar Goodman (Basketball Taranaki)

• Julius Halaifonua (Harbour Basketball)

• Carter Hopoi (Tauranga City Basketball Association)

• Tama Isaac (Canterbury Basketball Association)

• Hayden Jones (Nelson Basketball Association)

• Xanda Marsters (Rotorua Basketball Association)

• Troy Plumtree (Wellington Basketball Association)

• Kahu Treacher (Basketball Hawke's Bay)

• Josh Wyllie (Harbour Basketball)

Lots of names that regular NBL viewers will recognise. Jackson Ball, Oscar Goodman, Julius Halaifonua, Tama Isaac, Hayden Jones, and Carter Hopoi have already debuted for the Tall Blacks – who have used made a concerted effort to save room for development opportunities in recent squads. Ball, Goodman, Halaifonua, and Isaac were all involved in the recent series against Australia. As you’d expect, the squad is basically a combination of those two successful 2024 junior sides. This is how the split works...

U17 World Cup: Jackson Ball, Lachlan Crate, Oscar Goodman, Hayden Jones, Troy Plumlee

U18 Asia Cup: Will Blight, Julius Halaifonua, Carter Hopoi, Tama Isaac, Kahu Treacher

Neither: Xanda Marsters, Josh Wyllie

Dunno if the latter two were injured back then or have simply worked their way into contention since. Either way, this was quite possibly the most contested youth basketball selection that Aotearoa has ever known. New Zealand have been drawn in Group A and will face Argentina, Mali, and Serbia in that order. Getting out of that group would require something special... but if any squad should believe it’s possible then this squad should believe it’s possible.

NZ U19 World Cup Squad By 2025 NBL Minutes

1. Jackson Ball (Hawke’s Bay) – 437 mins

2. Carter Hopoi (Tauranga) – 326 mins

3. Tama Isaac (Canterbury) – 265 mins

4. Hayden Jones (Nelson) – 255 mins

5. Lachlan Crate (Nelson) – 205 mins

6. Josh Wyllie (Auckland) – 167 mins

7. Xanda Marsters (Tauranga) – 109 mins

8. Troy Plumtree (Wellington) – 29 mins

9. Kahu Treacher (Hawke's Bay) – 3 mins

(Obviously that’s not all a level playing field, for example Halaifonua and Goodman are the two stars so they’ve already gone to America early, while Plumlee was only with the Saints for a short while before leaving himself... plenty of individual cases but the fact that so many of these guys are playing big minutes in our premier domestic competition is fantastic for kiwi basketball).

NZ U19 World Cup Squad by USA College Affiliation

• Oscar Goodman - Michigan

• Julius Halaifonua - Georgetown

• Jackson Ball - Wisconsin

• Tama Isaac - UC Irvine

• Carter Hopoi - Valparaiso

• Hayden Jones - Wisconsin

• Troy Plumtree - Cal Poly

• Jackson Kiss - Utah Prep

• Kahu Treacher - Eastern Arizona College

By the way, today was the last day for the Indian Panthers to fulfil their various remedying obligations to stay in the NBL… but instead RNZ has reported that the only three Indian nationals who flew out to join the team have already gone back to the motherland so clearly that’s not happening. Farewell to an idea that might have been worth a try if they’d been more discerning of who they were dealing with but oh well. The team disappears and now we don’t have to worry about it any longer.

Still, it was nice to see Jaylen Gerrand land on his feet with the Taranaki Airs after the 29yo kiwi shot 38% from deep with the Panthers to reignite his NBL career. At least something positive came of the Panthers. Technically, Gerrand was signed by the Wellington Saints and then traded to Taranaki so that the Saints could sign Jordan Ngatai. Presumably there was some sorta salary cap reason why they didn’t just each sign those guys outright but we don’t need to understand that stuff.

Alas, there was to be no third championship in four A-League seasons for Claudia Bunge. Her Melbourne Victory team was beaten on penalties by the Central Coast Mariners in the grand final. That’s a championship for CCM in only their second season (not quite what Auckland FC’s men are aiming to do but still pretty amazing). It’s also the third ALM championship for the club following the men’s team winning a pair of them.

Former Wellington Phoenix midfielder Isabel Gomez scored for the Mariners in the final (same as she scored the goal that got them into the final), pouncing after a deflected effort fell into her path with Bunge taking an uncharacteristic airswing. But Bunge made amends with ten minutes to go when she bundled the ball in from a corner kick to send it to extra time - her fifth goal of the campaign, three of those coming in the playoffs. Bunge was brilliant aside from that one moment with the goal. Heaps of clearances, really sharp with the ball, looking completely at home on the big occasion. She’s used to it.

Gomez got the most minutes of the various Aussie players for the WahiNix in their first season but then injuries meant she only made five appearances, none of them starts, in year two. She then left for the Mariners where she’s been a key player these last two years. Somehow the hard-tackling defensive midfielder is now also a goal-scorer with her finals efforts taking her to seven for the campaign (more than any Phoenix player managed). Gomez was player of the day in the final. She was called up for the Matildas in November but a knee injury prevented her from a debut which surely won’t be long in arriving. Also in that CCM team was Annabel Martin who was another inaugural Nix player but only played 54 mins that season. Now she just played 120 minutes in a grand final. That got me thinking, so here are the other non dual-nationals who occupied those Aussie spots in the first couple years of SheNix football...

• Cushla Rue – Speedy, skilled winger who wasn’t really ready for ALW when the Phoenix brought her in... since then she’s played more than 50 times for Western Sydney and even won a few Aussie U20 caps. Mostly used as a right-back this past season.

• Jordan Jasnos – Settled back into NPL footy and hasn’t played A-League since her one year with the Nix. Didn’t really play much for the Phoenix either, only getting 280 minutes.

• Talitha Kramer – The most experienced of the Aussie Nixers, she left for Brisbane where she was pretty decent in 2022-23 but hasn’t played in either of the last two ALW seasons.

• Hannah Jones – Diminutive midfielder who looked alright in her spots with Wellington but hasn’t featured in the A-League since her nine games with WPX.

• Claudia Cicco – She was the AU signing with the most pedigree and sure enough that’s continued with two strong seasons for Newcastle Jets, making 39 appearances. Also played a bit for Australia U20s last year.

So that’s seven of them overall, two have just become A-League champions somewhere else, two others have settled into strong careers at other clubs, and the other three are out of the league entirely. That’s very much a mixed bag. Fitting for a regime that managed to identify Kate Taylor really early but also somehow overlooked Macey Fraser from within their own academy.

Musical Jam...