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Joined May 2014
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Round 5 had grey uniforms, grey games and grey clouds, but there were still many things over an excellent Easter weekend that caught the eye.
Round 4 of the NRL offered some really good contests, and some average football.
Six times New Zealand has been to the World Cup semi-finals and hit the semi-final wall. The closest was a nine-run loss to England in 1979.
With the group stage done and dusted and the lesser teams going home (looking at you England), the big boys will now get down to the knockout stage of the Cricket World Cup.
With the NRL season underway, already some teams are looking good for finals football, while others may be either hoping Round 1 was an aberration.
The Black Caps and Australia World Cup group stage match may have only counted for two points, but there was some real point-scoring by both teams.
The decision by the ICC not to use Hot Spot at the 2015 Cricket World Cup is both frustrating and unusual.
The Australia-New Zealand Test cricket rivalry has fallen by the wayside in recent years, largely as a result of mismatched oppositions. New Zealand cricket’s recent re-emergence means that now is the perfect time to resurrect this once-fierce rivalry.
For most long-suffering Black Caps supporters the only consistent part of the team has been their inconsistency.
With Round 21 well in the bag, some teams are looking more like playing finals football, while others are beginning to look to 2015.
“We don’t like Manly either Watmough” read a Warriors fan’s sign at Mt Smart. Unfortunately for the fan, love ‘em or hate ‘em the Manly juggernaut keeps on rolling.
If the Warriors had become dark horses and a dangerous team to play over the past few weeks, Saturday night was something of a setback.
The latest NRL round coincided with the end of State of Origin and the start of the run to the finals.
State of Origin is finished for another year, and some players have enhanced their reputations, while others may not be seen in the Origin cauldron again.
The Warriors defeated the Broncos on Saturday, continuing a Broncos drought in New Zealand dating back to 2009.
Queensland have won eight series in a row, yet will go into State of Origin Game 2 in Sydney as the underdogs.
With at least 34 players unavailable for the round prior to Origin, and many in no position to back up the weekend after, the NRL is diluted for the entire period.
With State of Origin removing 34 of the top NRL players, the pre-Origin rounds are always considered something of a waste of time.
Should scrap the round 13 rule. How can teams build for another season when they don’t know until round 13 if they the player will honour the contract.
Have a straight transfer system so players move then and there.
SMITHY: The NRL has become a scene out of Trading Places