Early Sports Chat for 22 July 2025
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RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
World Cup-bound Black Fern Kelly Brazier thought she was getting the 'bad' phone call
2017 Women's Rugby World Cup Final between England and New Zealand. Kelly Brazier fends off a tackle. Photo: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane When Kelly Brazier received a phone call from Allan Bunting, she thought he was delivering the same bad news he delivered to her four years ago. Instead, the Black Ferns coach told her she'd made the 32-strong squad that would be going the Women's Rugby World Cup in England next month. Brazier will be appearing at her fourth edition after playing in 2010, 2014 and 2017. She has earned a place as the back-up first five-eighths alongside co-captain Ruahei Demant. Bunting was part of the coaching group during the Black Ferns last World Cup campaign, when Sir Wayne Smith was head coach. "We were in camp and flew home on Sunday night and we had been told our position-specific coach would ring us, so for me that's Tony Christie and that Bunts [Bunting] would be making all the calls to the players that hadn't made it," Brazier said. "I was unpacking my bag and the next thing I see my phone going off and I see Bunt's name pop up and I was immediately 'oh man, not this again' because he had made the call four years prior. "I picked up the phone, I was like 'Hey Bunts', and then he was just straight away 'congratulations'. "I couldn't believe it to be honest, probably because I wasn't expecting the call from him but he's someone who I have spent a lot of time with over the years so it was special to get the call from him." The pair know each other well. Bunting was head coach of the Black Ferns sevens for five years until stepping away at the end of 2021. Bunting took over as Black Ferns director of rugby in 2023. Brazier has had a long successful career in both codes. The 35-year-old debuted for the Black Ferns in 2009, and became a full-time professional sevens player in 2014. The Black Ferns Rugby World Cup Team Announcement. Photo: Marty Melville She has won two World Cup titles in the fifteens game and two Olympic medals in sevens, a silver in Rio 2016 and gold at the 2020 Tokyo games. She was aiming for a third Olympics but an achilles injury early last year put a dent in her build-up and she missed out on Paris 2024. Brazier missed out on the 2021 World Cup triumph, hosted in New Zealand and her prospects of making this year's world cup didn't look great. Can Brazier, who has played 44 tests across a 16-year career, believe she's going to another world cup? "No, to be honest, it was a massive honour to go to one, let alone thinking I was going to my fourth. "Four years ago, when I missed out on the world cup in New Zealand, I definitely had doubts if I would come back and four years is a long time when you're my age so to be here now is special and something I'm very proud of." Brazier signed to play for Chiefs Manawa in Super Rugby Aupiki 2025. She earned a late lifeline against the Wallaroos earlier this month, which was her first test since 2021. She did enough to convince the selectors they needed her in the squad for her fourth World Cup bid. Kelly Brazier playing sevens for New Zealand. Photo: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix How did she control her nerves knowing so much was on the line in that game? "Pretty nervous I guess and this time of the year, the competition was hotly contested in my position. Knowing not just playing my first test in a while, but I had to perform to be in a position to make this team," she said. "There were nerves but I've sort of been around, played in some pinnacles, played a few Test matches so just tried to go back to my strategies and just treat it like any other game." In a career littered with highlights, Brazier said being named for the world cup was "up there". "… If not the most special and probably off the back of my past four years, after missing an Olympics that I really wanted to be a part of and then missing a home World Cup in New Zealand, which is a once in a lifetime opportunity," she said. "I guess to bounce back from that and be named to go to England where it's going to be the biggest world cup for women yet is very special and proud to be here." Brazier said everything about being a part of the team still excited her. "It never gets old and probably the last couple of years when I've been injured and missed selection, there's probably things in the past I've taken for granted," she said. "But that time away from the game, coming back in, I've enjoyed those little things, those small moments, whether it's just having dinner with girls from around the country, people I haven't met before so just making sure I enjoy every moment." The lead up to this world cup, compared to her first world cup in 2010 could not be more different. "Throughout the camp some of girls asked me what it was like. My first world cup we had no tests leading in, it was maybe a seven day camp and off on the plane," she said. "The lead in we've got, the support staff we have now, the coaches, the facilities are unreal and I think it just shows the growth of women's rugby." The Black Ferns are the defending champions after beating England 24-21 in front of a sold out Eden Park in 2022. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Warriors match first major sports game to be mainly solar powered
The Warriors play at Go Media Stadium on Saturday night. Photo: Shane Wenzlick / Saturday night's Warriors match is the first major sports game in New Zealand to be primarily solar powered. An enormous array of solar panels on the roof of Auckland's Go Media Stadium are estimated to cut the facility's energy costs by $150,000 annually, and their first major stress test would be at the sold out match between the Warriors and Titans. Auckland Stadiums director James Parkinson said the panels had been soaking up the winter sun and would provide most of the stadium's electricity. "We've got the solar panels on the roofs of both the east and west ends of Go Media Stadium, and in total there's over 1600 panels up there," he said. "It's a significant installation and they can power over 60 percent of our annual energy needs." Parkinson noted the array of solar panels was unlike any other stadium in New Zealand, and gave the Australians a run for their money. "We believe this is the first of its kind in terms of a stadium in New Zealand, and even in an Australasian context our understanding is the scale of the installation we have here in significant relative to what exists elsewhere." And he said the cost would be recouped quickly. "The modelling that was done suggested a payback period of between six and eight years, and the early data that we're getting suggests it could even be shorter than that," he said. "There's that financial benefit that sits right alongside the environmental sustainability benefits as well."
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
NRL: NZ Warriors v Gold Coast Titans - what you need to know
Former Titans half Tanah Boyd will face off against former Warriors half Kieran Foran - but for opposite teams. Photo: RNZ/Liam Swiggs NZ Warriors v Gold Coast Titans Kickoff 5pm Saturday, 26 July Go Media Stadium Auckland Live blog updates on RNZ Sport Of all the current NRL clubs, only the Dolphins (3-2) and Wests Tigers (23-16) have provided NZ Warriors with better winning records than Gold Coast Titans (20-14) at 58.8 percent. The Warriors have a 9-5 advantage at their Go Media Stadium home, but haven't enjoyed success there since 2019. In fact, now-Warriors halfback Tanah Boyd has brought agony on his current team in the last two outings at Mt Smart, kicking a field goal for victory in 2022, while scoring a try, and kicking three conversions and a field goal on Anzac Day last year. Despite their struggles, the Titans have won five of their last six meetings with the Warriors, including a 66-6 whitewash across the Tasman in their last meeting, when winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira scored four tries. They also prevailed 44-0 at C'bus Stadium in 2021 and those two results stand as the club's biggest-ever wins. The Warriors' best result was a 42-0 win in 2014, when English fullback Sam Tonkins scored two tries, and Shaun Johnson had a try and kicked 7/7 from the tee. After recording back-to-back losses against Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos, the Warriors have emerged from a bye week with back-to-back wins over Wests Tigers and Newcastle Knights. They needed a miraculous last-ditch, 40-metre solo try from teenager second-rower Leka Halasima to secure a 20-15 win over the Knights, but are now on a countdown to secure a playoff berth, with seven games remaining and six points clear of ninth-placed Cronulla Sharks. They'll likely need four more wins, and their run to the post-season includes Gold Coast twice, St George-Illawarra Dragons and Paramatta Eels, all outside the top eight. The Titans sit bottom of the NRL table with 14 points - two behind the Knights, South Sydney Rabbitohs and Paramatta Eels. They have suffered four straight defeats, the most recent a heart-wrenching 21-20 loss to the Tigers, with lock Adam Douehi kicking a field goal for victory. On paper, they have a talented roster, which has just not produced to its potential this season. Only North Queensland Cowboys have conceded more than their 503 points, an average of 29.6 points per game. Only the Cowboys have a worse points differential (-157). Warriors: 1 Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 2 Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, 3 Adam Pompey, 4 Kurt Capewell, 5 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, 6 Chanel Tavita-Harris, 7 Tanah Boyd, 8 James Fisher-Harris, 9 Wayde Egan, 10 Jackson Ford, 11 Leka Halasima, 12 Marata Niukore, 13 Erin Clark Interchange: 14 Te Maire Martin, 15 Jacob Laban, 16 Demitric Vaimauga, 17 Tanner Stowers-Smith Reserves: 18 Taine Tuaupiki, 20 Sam Healey Fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad is the big return for coach Andrew Webster, after nursing a knee injury back to health over the past four weeks. He replaces Taine Tuaupiki in the No.1 jersey, while Kurt Capewell retains his spot in the midfield, despite leaving the field with a knee complaint against Newcastle last week. Titans: 1 AJ Brimson, 2 Jaylan de Groot, 3 Brian Kelly, 4 Jojo Fifita, 5 Phillip Sami, 6 Kieran Foran, 7 Jayden Campbell, 8 Moeaki Fotuaika,19 Sean Mullany, 10 Jaimin Jolliffe, 11 Chris Randall, 12 Beau Fermor, 13 Klese Haas Interchange: 14 Jacob Alick-Wiencke, 15 Reagan Campbell-Gillard, 16 Iszac Fa'asuamaleaui, 17 Josh Patston Reserves: 18 Arama Hau, 20 Tom Weaver After his spectacular locker-room blow-up last week, when he dragged his players out of the showers for a dressing down, coach Des Hasler gets to celebrate his 500th game as an NRL, amid speculation over his future at the helm of the bottom-placed team. He's lost the services of superstar forwards Tino Fa'asuamaleaui (knee) and David Fifita (ankle) through injury, with Klese Haas promoted to the starting line-up. On Friday, Hasler made a later change at hooker, with Sam Verrills remaining in Australia for the birth of his first childe and Sean Mullany taking his place. Literally one of the Titans' favourite sons, Jayden Campbell, is the offspring of the club's inaugural signing, Preston Campbell, and inherits many of his dad's off-the-cuff instincts for the game. Campbell Jr was a major inflictor of pain in last year's 60-point thrashing of the Warriors, scoring a try and kicking 11/11 from the tee for 26 points. Veteran five-eighth Kieran Foran chalked up 17 games for the Warriors in 2017, but has signalled this will be his last NRL campaign in a 17-year career that has seen him log more than 300 games, despite persistent injuries. The Warriors can't afford to sleepwalk through this game, like they did last week, and expect to grab the two competition points. Hopefully, the desperate nature of the Knights win will act as a wake-up call. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
