NZ | Sports Thread

[mathlete]

Originally Posted by IThomas

All Blacks play at Rome's Stadio Olimpico

YES !!! Going to look into getting tickets to this

[master_klon]

Breakers Are Champions Again

Basketball is cool all of a sudden. There are plenty of reasons, but the main one is obvious - nothing is cooler than winning.

The celebrations were raucous as the Breakers were crowned two-time ANBL champions last night after beating the Perth Wildcats. As the players took turns cutting down the Vector Arena net, each snip of the scissors was met with a cheer.

Auckland has long been considered the powerbase of New Zealand rugby; could it be becoming a basketball town?

Even in their wildest dreams, the Breakers' owners and staff would have struggled to imagine tickets for the club's matches being flogged online for five times their face value.

This season, the club decided to switch three regular-season games from the creaking North Shore gym that is its traditional home to the much larger Vector Arena. The hope was that enough people would show up to make the venture into the central city sustainable. Filling all 9000-plus seats, though, was surely a pipe dream. As it turned out, not even the cavernous Vector was big enough to accommodate all those who wanted to grab their piece of the Breakers in the flesh. Tickets to last night's decisive match in the three-game final series sold out in about 30 minutes. Winning is cool, all right.

The best team in the competition all year, the Breakers notched their achievement playing a thrilling brand of basketball.Whereas last year's breakthrough title success owed plenty to the individual brilliance of Kirk Penney, this year the Breakers were simply the best team. They had their stars, such as local boy Tom Abercrombie and import Cedric Jackson, but the Breakers won because they had the deepest squad. That depth was truly tested when Jackson and Abercrombie sustained ankle injuries during the playoffs, but the bench players asked to take up the slack did so admirably.

Back-to-back titles certainly don't qualify as a sporting dynasty. But the way the Breakers are going, they might eventually be the start of one. The last few minutes were as tense as New Zealand's last big final, last year's nail-biting Rugby World Cup, but in the end the Breakers triumphed. With just over two minutes left in the match, the crowd erupted into, "hey, hey, hey, goodbye" when the Wildcats had possession.

On the final hooter, the Breakers embraced and high-fived each other as the crowd burst into wild celebration. A relieved CJ Bruton said the series had been an "amazing journey". "You play your heart out and you got to let your chips lay where they lay ... The fans were over the top a little bit, but they did what they needed to do to get the win to bring it home." Jubilant coach Andrej Lemanis said he "had never been more proud of this group". And Abercrombie, who saluted the crowd after the final hooter, said he was ecstatic at the result.

[IThomas]

New Zealand Olympic Football Draw

The Football Ferns will open the 2012 Olympics with a dream match-up against host nation Great Britain thanks to the draw which also threw up two mouth-watering fixtures against Brazil for both the Ferns and the Oly Whites. The Ferns will meet Great Britain at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on March 25, two days before the opening ceremony, before squaring off against two-times silver medallist Brazil at the same venue three days later and wrapping up pool play against Olympic debutant Cameroon at the City of Coventry Stadium. The Oly Whites, captained by Ryan Nelsen as one of three overage players in an otherwise U-23 squad, will open their campaign against Belarus on July 26 in Coventry, face Egypt at Old Trafford on July 29 before facing a star studded Brazilian line up at Newcastle’s St James‘ Park on August 1. Both New Zealand coaches were buoyed by the permutations, with men’s coach Neil Emblen stressing the importance of the team’s first two fixtures. “There’s one absolute powerhouse in our group,” said Oly Whites coach Neil Emblen, “Brazil’s the game that everyone will catch the eye but there’s two other strong footballing nations in our group. However we think they are games we can look at with real hope that we can go and get some points. “We’re playing Belarus and Egypt, as are Brazil who will be clear favourites to win the group, so a win and a draw may be enough to get you through to the next stage where anything can happen. “We’ll have almost a full starting line up of full internationals and they won’t be afraid of anyone.” Women’s coach Tony Readings said his team would treat the opening games as an honour but certainly won’t be affording the hosts any favours. “It’s always a privilege to play in these events to draw the hosts to open the entire Olympic Games will be very special for our team,” said Readings, “but we’ve got three difficult games and our mission will be the same whether it’s opening game or final pool game. We out to get the points we need to secure a top two placing in the group.” “We don’t know a lot about the teams we’ll play. We’ve haven’t seen much of Cameroon, Great Britain have never played as a unified country in the women’s game and we haven’t played Brazil for five years. “But it’s a group we can progress from and if we reach the quarterfinals then we are only game away from a medal.”

Men's Draw
Group A: Great Britain, Uruguay, UAE, Senegal
Group B: Mexico, Korea Republic, Gabon, Switzerland
Group C: Brazil, Egypt, Belarus, New Zealand
Group D: Spain, Japan, Honduras, Morocco
The top two teams from each pool qualify for the quarterfinals

Women's Draw
Group E: Great Britain, New Zealand, Cameroon, Brazil
Group F: Japan, Canada, Sweden, South Africa
Group G: USA, France, Colombia, Korea DPR
The top two teams from each pool and the two best third-placed teams qualify for the quarterfinals


New Zealand Schedule
July 25
New Zealand Women v Great Britain
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
4pm (3am, July 26 NZT)

July 26
New Zealand Men v Belarus
City of Coventry Stadium, Coventry
7.45pm (6.45am, July 27 NZT)

July 28
New Zealand Women v Brazil
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
2.30pm (1am, July 29 NZT)

July 29
New Zealand Men v Egypt
Old Trafford, Manchester
2.45pm (1.45am, July 30 NZT)

July 31
New Zealand Women v Cameroon
City of Coventry Stadium, Coventry
7.45pm (6.45am, August 1 NZT)

August 1
New Zealand Men v Brazil
St James’ Park, Newcastle
2.30pm (1.30am, August 2 NZT)

[IThomas]

Auckland a chance to host America's Cup test

The three America's Cup syndicates based in New Zealand could sail their new AC72s in a test regatta on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf. America's Cup Race Management has offered Emirates Team New Zealand, holders Oracle Racing and Italy's Luna Rossa Challenge the possibility of a match-racing event in the AC72 catamarans which will be used in the 34th America's Cup off San Francisco Bay in 2013. AC Regtta Director Iain Murray revealed that ACRM have expressed interest in travelling to New Zealand to stage the informal event so that they and the teams can test the match-racing capability and also have a trial-run for the for the new class ahead of the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series and 34th Match.

By September, New Zealand will be playing host to five of the exciting new 72 foot, wing-masted catamarans. As ACRM have not received confirmation from the teams, it is not yet known where or when the regatta will take place. Logic would suggest that with Team NZ and Luna Rossa being based in Auckland, the regatta will be held in the City of Sails. That would leave Oracle Racing to make the 70nm journey south from Northport near Whangarei. The event would be a test-bed for the ACRM television and new umpiring systems that involve the use of extremely accurate positioning data, which are essentially a beefed-up version of Virtual Spectator. "It would be a test session for us and we would use the full electronic controls, which means that race boundaries would be used and we would interface with the full electronics package." says Murray.
While ETNZ and Oracle are both running two-boat programmes, this would still be the first opportunity for all the teams to engage in full-scale, real-life match-racing in the new class of boats, with the added bonus of not having to pay any regatta frees. Seeing 22-metre (72-foot) catamarans charging around the Hauraki Gulf at up to 40 knots is something that should excite even the staunchest of Americas Cup sceptics. The closest thing that Kiwis have seen to this is the spectacular training race sessions held between ETNZ and Luna Rossa in the Waitemata Harbour.

[nthbeach]

Third NZer into NFL

St Andrew's old boy Ellison picked in NFL Draft

As a rugby player, Rhett Ellison says he was OK at best. He had the size but didn't really comprehend the game as well as he might have and drifted away from the sport.

Worry not, the now-23-year-old, who spent three years studying and playing rugby and cricket at Christchurch's St Andrew's College (1993-1995) has landed well and truly on his feet.

Ellison was this week picked up in the NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings, becoming the third New Zealander to play in the competition.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-s...d-in-NFL-Draft

MATT RICHENS
© Fairfax NZ News

[Blah]

Originally Posted by nthbeach

Third NZer into NFL

St Andrew's old boy Ellison picked in NFL Draft

As a rugby player, Rhett Ellison says he was OK at best. He had the size but didn't really comprehend the game as well as he might have and drifted away from the sport.

Worry not, the now-23-year-old, who spent three years studying and playing rugby and cricket at Christchurch's St Andrew's College (1993-1995) has landed well and truly on his feet.

Ellison was this week picked up in the NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings, becoming the third New Zealander to play in the competition.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-s...d-in-NFL-Draft

MATT RICHENS
© Fairfax NZ News

He was born in America and lives in America. Is he really a kiwi?

[nthbeach]

Not really lived most of his life in America but has spent some of his younger lige in NZ. His father is half Maori i believe, related to Tamati Ellison. Riki Ellison won two superbowls and I think he thinks of himself as a NZer.

[KLK]

Originally Posted by nthbeach

Not really lived most of his life in America but has spent some of his younger lige in NZ. His father is half Maori i believe, related to Tamati Ellison. Riki Ellison won two superbowls and I think he thinks of himself as a NZer.

Riki Ellison was born in NZ, left when he was very young, had a stellar NFL career with the 49ers, then returned to live in NZ (and I assume still does) in the early 90s. The son in question was raised by his mother in the US.

I have a faint recollection of Riki Ellison trying out some NPC rugby (perhaps the old 2nd Division) when he returned to live, though not sure of that.

[IThomas]

Vote your official Uniform of NZ Team's Olympic Games 2012

Guys, vote your favorite t-shirt. It's will be the uniform of the London 2012 Olympic NZ Team. However, I express my dismay. We agree that in the final stage are only 10 t-shirts, but with over 2000 designs submitted, I believe that the judges could choose better. Voice your opinion I want to hear what you think.

link to vote here

[SYDNEY]

Best of the best Cricket Grounds ....

A team of journalists, photographers, broadcasters and fans decided the final order out of 26 venues offered, after a survey was run by the UK-based The Cricketer, previously known as The Wisden Cricketer. According to the article, Lord's was the unanimous choice for number one.

1 Lord's
2 Newlands, Cape Town
3 Adelaide Oval
4 Galle stadium, Sri Lanka
5 Trent Bridge, Nottingham
6 Sydney Cricket Ground
7 Melbourne Cricket Ground
8 St John's, Antigua
9 Kensington Oval, Bridgetown
10 Basin Reserve, Wellington, New Zealand
11 Eden Gardens, Kolkata
12 Arnos Vale, St.Vincent
13 St.George's Park, Port Elizabeth
14 Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai
15 Seddon Park, Hamilton, New Zealand
16 New Wanderers, Johannesburg
17 Asgiriya, Kandy
18 M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
19 The Oval, Kennington
20 Harare Sports Club
21 University Oval, Dunedin, New Zealand
22 Bellerive Oval, Hobart
23 Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
24 Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
25 Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar
26 Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh

[piles]

They also named the 10 worst...

Worst test venues:
1. Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
2. The Gabba, Brisbane
3. Old Trafford, Manchester
4. Viv Richards Stadium, Antigua
5. Eden Park, Auckland
6. Punjab CA Stadium, Mohali
7. Sydney Cricket Ground
8. Dubai Sports City
9. Headingley, Leeds
10. Green Park, Kanpur

So how can the Sydney Cricket Ground rate the 6th best and 7th worst?

[KaneD]

On what basis did they rate their stadiums by?

Since they are mostly all media folk, I assume that they are rating them by media facilities rather than how good the playing pitch is which I'm sure would be a far better metric of how good a ground is IMHO

I wonder what the players think?

[mathlete]

Agreed. What did they base this list on?

Lords is rubbish. Such a cold, windy, expensive and dull venue. Atmosphere is pretty shite. It's like Eden Park with its numerous different grandstands.

The Oval is much better. One of the best grounds around.

How is Seddon Park so high up the list And why are the Gabba and SCG are on the worst list? They look like great venues.

[IThomas]

Olympics: 2020 candidates cut to three

Doha and Baku were eliminated from the race for the 2020 Olympics as the IOC trimmed the field of candidates from five cities to three. Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul made the cut as the International Olympic Committee executive board settled on a shortlist of finalists. Doha, capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, and Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, were rejected for a second time in a row after failing to make the final list for the 2016 Games.

Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul all former bidders now advance to the final phase, a 17-month race that will end with the IOC vote on Sept. 7, 2013, in Buenos Aires. Madrid is bidding for a third consecutive time, Tokyo a second time in a row and Istanbul a fifth time overall. Whether to keep all five candidates or pare the list to four or three was a tricky choice for the IOC at a time of global economic and political uncertainty. IOC officials said the decision involved a careful risk assessment.

The 15-member executive board, headed by IOC President Jacques Rogge, chose the finalists after examining a technical evaluation report compiled by a panel of Olympic experts. Baku was always the outsider, seen as lacking in experience in hosting international sports events. The main question involved whether to accept Doha, and the latest IOC rejection is sure to stir acrimony in Qatar.
Qatar is already hosting the 2022 World Cup, but faced questions over the heat, the timing and other issues for the Olympics. The IOC agreed to let Doha bid based on Qatar's proposal to hold the games from Oct. 2-18 to avoid the brutal summer heat, but officials remained concerned about the weather, conditions for athletes and potential conflicts with television and other sports events going on during that time of year.

IOC executive director Gilbert Felli said the October date was "not the only reason'' Doha was dropped from the race. The dynamics of the race changed dramatically when Rome, considered a potential 2020 favorite, pulled out of the bidding in February after the Italian government declined to provide financial guarantees at a time of economic austerity.

Madrid is bidding against the backdrop of Spain's financial crisis, something the IOC said it would take into account. Madrid bid leader Alejandro Blanco said the city would go the distance until the vote in Buenos Aires. He insisted the Spanish government fully backs the project and said the games would be a catalyst for economic recovery. Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Olympics, is bidding in the aftermath of last year's earthquake and tsunami disaster. The Istanbul bid had been knocked off course by Turkey's concurrent bid for football's 2020 European Championship. The IOC has made clear that Turkey cannot both hold both events, but Istanbul gained breathing room last week when UEFA extended the bidding process for the Euros and scheduled the final decision for early 2014. Istanbul leaders assured the IOC that the Olympic bid was the No. 1 priority of the Turkish government.

[IThomas]

Here's how I see it... My rank
1 - ISTANBUL (good economy; first time that the city and the country, Turkey, hosting the games, is attempting the race since 2000, deserves the victory for their ongoing efforts in these years).
2 - TOKYO (good economy, but hosting the event in the past; lost che candidature in 2016, and have the big cost of construction of post-earthquake).
3 - MADRID (economic crisis, the country, Spain, has already the event with Barcelona, and lost many candidatures).

[GI_Joint]

Wellington city council is trying real hard to get AFL games to the caketin, it looks like it'll be going ahead.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...-1226341209751
Not sure how well received it would be though, Wellington struggles with crowd numbers at the caketin as it is, but at least the configuration of the stadium would suit the sport itself, unlike for Rugby.

[Dazzle]

Probably get some numbers in, even if just to see something different.

Plus - NZ Football...YAY !!!!

NZ 2 v. El Salvador 2 and NZ 1 v. Honduras 0

Should help with our unrealistically low FIFA ranking....

[buildemhigh]

Originally Posted by KLK

Riki Ellison was born in NZ, left when he was very young, had a stellar NFL career with the 49ers, then returned to live in NZ (and I assume still does) in the early 90s. The son in question was raised by his mother in the US.

I have a faint recollection of Riki Ellison trying out some NPC rugby (perhaps the old 2nd Division) when he returned to live, though not sure of that.

I knew his sister and met his mum.. Id say you could safely call him a kiwi..

[IThomas]

NZ Olympic uniforms unveiled

New Zealand's Olympic team uniform has been unveiled for the London 2012 Games - officially. Today Fairfax Media revealed an embarrassing online gaffe, which prematurely showed the Olympic uniform on the Rodd & Gunn website - hours ahead of an evening cocktail function in Auckland involving Prime Minister John Key. The page, which featured New Zealand Olympic Committee chef de mission Dave Currie, was quickly taken down and a video interview with designer Irena Prikryl was also pulled in the afternoon.
Spokesperson for the NZOC, Ashley Abbott, said the page was viewed 17 times - while the web company who prepared the page had been testing it. "I'm absolutely not concerned. It's a lucky coincidence for a proud Kiwi buying our supporters' gear," Abbott said. Tonight the retro-look collection, which took 18 months to design and produce, was officially unveiled, inspired by the clothing worn by Kiwi athletes who attended the last London Olympiad in 1948.

Athletes past and present, including Mahe Drysdale and Sarah Ulmer, had a hand in designing both formal and casual items with the intention of recognising New Zealand's sporting past. But unlike 64 years ago when just seven Kiwi athletes travelled to the Olympics by boat, this time around 200 New Zealand competitors will get to don the prestigious threads.
The most obvious reference to the 1948 acknowledgement is white piping along the edges of blazers. The rest of the monochrome collection also shares a strong connection to the look and feel of the late 40's and early 1950's. A total of 20,000 items have been created for the New Zealand Olympic team which will include up to 200 athletes and 100 support staff.

The goal of the design team was to create a look that would tie into New Zealand's proud sporting and cultural heritage, while also meeting the challenge of creating a collection suitable for athletes of all ages and body types. For the first time the athlete uniform also features a t-shirt designed by a member of the New Zealand public. A national contest of over 3500 submissions challenged entries to reflect what it mean to be a proud New Zealander at the Olympic Games.
The contest was won by Gareth Gardner of Brooklyn, Wellington, whose design features an Olympic adaptation of the iconic hei tiki. The casual and training items also reflect inspiration from the 1948 team. A flash of "Pacific blue" has been incorporated into a traditional monochrome colour scheme, with the range also including jandals, rainwear, travel bags, sports shoes and hats as well as the official podium tracksuit.

[IThomas]

Ad deal poses threat to All Black brand

To prevent the undermining of the All Black brand, the New Zealand Rugby Union has jealously guarded its trademarks and copyrights. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that it could be contemplating an advertising logo across the front of the All Black jersey. The suitor is reported to be insurance company AIG. The rugby union has not denied the suggestion, and says it is talking to several potential sponsors in the lead-up to the Rugby Championship.

Advertising on the All Black jersey would not be new. There was a discreet Steinlager logo in the mid-1990s. That was not well received by many fans. The name of an American insurer with a problematic profile emblazoned across the front of the playing strip would be many times more intrusive and would, therefore, create a far greater furore. The level of opposition should lead the rugby union to reconsider. So, too, should the prospect of damage to the All Black brand. A black jersey adorned only with a silver fern and the manufacturer's moniker makes a powerful statement. Not for nothing does it have a worldwide status akin to that of Italy's soccer shirt, a strip also noted for its commercial-free purity.

If the All Blacks went the way of the Wallabies, the Springboks and British rugby sides, it would only devalue that status. The All Blacks would become just another team, and any immediate financial gain would have to be balanced against the long-term implications of a serious diminishing of the brand.