March 12, 2026 • 9 mins
This week for Friday Sport Kick-off Nick is joined by Jason Pine to wrap the weeks sport - and what's to come for the weekend.
Starting with the biggest question in rugby at the moment - who will be Dave Rennie's All Blacks assistant coach? Jason and Nick talk Tana Umaga and Cory Jane, their stats, their legacy and hopes for the job.
Tonight the Hurricanes play the Force in Napier, they go through what's expected and how the team is progressing to the championship.
Plus, the Phoenix double header at Hnry stadium on Saturday - Match for Good. They dissect the success of Bev Priestman as the head coach of the women's team.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Said B.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Making predictions for your weekend of sport. The Friday Sport
kickoff with nine to ten Wellington Central visit the Montoury
Street us Talk, said B.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Go in to the chapel Land, Where gone again? Man?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Go in to the chapel Land?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Where gone again? Man?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Geez? Wow, we're missing someone?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Find it?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
We are, but for a very good reason. What a
great choice of song, What.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
A great choice in the song. I walked down the
aisle to it, didn't you? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I did?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, Yeah, there you go. That's why I remembered that.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
The reason of course we're playing that is because Adam Cooper,
our greatly adored colleague and our boss, Aaron Wellington, is
tomorrow marrying the wonderful Abby Craig up in or Tucky,
just north of Wellington. I can highly recommend marriage twenty
years this year for me? What are you?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
How you bought one?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Forty one years?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Well?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
We wish coops as we call them, and Abby the
lovely Abbey, just a brilliant day Tomorrow always very special
and yeah we look forward to catching up with both
of them.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Can I just quickly say while we were talking about it.
You know, in my experience, you see couples that are perfect,
and you see couples that you think, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
How are they together?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
You know what I mean. If there is a perfect couple,
it's Coops and Abby. I mean, I think she's wonderful.
The little time that I've spent whether her, she impresses me.
She is an amazing young woman with a great career
and a great person. And they and so is Coops.
Adam Cooper has a He's a great boss. He's a
great person. He understands people like me and you that
(01:57):
go off the me that goes off the more. So
good good, good luck to them both tomorrow. Yep, Right,
let's talk sport. Tana Umug have been talked about being
assistant coach to the All Blacks. Will you have to
get his hair cut?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I don't think so. No, I don't think so. You
don't have a You don't have to have to have
many hair to you?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Can we have a arrest coach?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Right?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Look, I think Tana's got so much Mona hasn't he
around being being a player? You know, you think about
when they tried when they wanted to get the World
Cup here in twenty eleven and they were putting together
a delegation to go to World Rugby to make the
final presentation. They took Tana Umanga on that trip. That's
how much mana he has in New Zealand rugby. His
(02:41):
coaching career has been up and down. It's you know, look,
he wasn't a success at the Blues, but he is
a Mawana now and starting to really you know, I guess,
you know, just in a very unique situation, makes some headway.
I think he would be a terrific addition. He and
Dave Rooney have worked together in the past. That that
wonderful MPC title in two thousand. You'll remember Dave Renie
(03:04):
was the head coach. Tanna was the captain of that.
I was a captain normally it was captain, but Tana
was in that team and an influential part of it.
Look by the sounds of it, it's you know, and
Tana's he'd be terrible at poker. He's got no poker
face at all. Because he was asked about it in
the media yesterday and he said, look at the discussions
are ongoing, so I get the feeling if the all
(03:24):
blacks come knocking.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So who he must gets in there?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, there's a couple of people who have worked with
with Dave Rennie in the past. Neil Barnes is one
of them. Out of Tartanaki's who's been talked about a lot.
A couple of his assistants up in Japan at the
moment have been talked about. I think Jason Ryan probably
keeps his job, you think, you yeah, I think he's
very highly regarded and you know, as a as a
(03:48):
very in terms of technique for forwards around set, peace,
line out, scrum, that sort of thing. And you remember
he came in under Ian Foster, carried on through with
Scott Robertson. So he almost provides a bit of a bridge,
if you like, back to the you know, back to
the former regime. I don't think you need a total
sweeping clean here.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But yeah, I like that idea of Corey Jane. But
the talking tun of Corey Jane's a defensive coach. He says,
he reckons that, that's what he says.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
He is.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So, but they're talking ton of for that, aren't they.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I don't know. It's it's interesting isn't it? You can
and I think you know, Corey Jane has very quickly
become a very important part of the Hurricanes coaching set up.
And whether he's ambitious in this sense, I mean, I
don't know which coach wouldn't want to be part of
the All Black setup. Yeah I heard, I've heard Corey's
name mentioned as well. I think Tana's probably a bit
further advanced than him in terms of his coaching career.
(04:39):
But yeah, who knows what and often what they do
and if they're smart as they bring in specialists Corey Jane.
One of Corey Jane's superpowers was the high ball. Was
under the high ball. You remember that twenty eleven Rugby
World Cup when he and his he dad and Richard
Carhu he diffused all of those bombs from Australia in
the in the semis. I remember Corey Jane on Weekend
Sport last year to talk this very thing and the
(05:01):
way he explained it, It's like, man, he needs to
be in front of the you know, anyone who plays
in the back three for the All Blacks and talk
to them about what it takes to be effective under
the high ball. So yeah, who knows where what is
feature might hold.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah. Right, let's talk about the Hurricanes, because the great performance.
As you told us on the show, they were going
to thug, go over to New South Wales, go over
to Sydney, smash them. They did. They played the Force.
They should do the same in Napier. They want eighteen
thousand to have more than what the Hurricane. The Warriors
had up there a couple of weeks ago, which I
kind of love the idea behind they'll beat the Force winner.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah they should. The Force did well a couple of
weeks ago to beat mo Onea Pacifica went down to
Deneedan last week and got close to the Highlanders. I
wonder whether they're just running out of gas on this,
on this New Zealand trip of theirs. You're right, neck,
the Hurricane should win this and win it well tonight.
You look at the team that they've named. They've been
able to, you know, to rest and rotate a few
players in the forwards. They've kept things in the backs
(05:54):
and look you look at the have you seen the
Hurricanes bench off the bench on the front in the
front row. Tyrel Lomax returning all black Asafoe moor All
Black and Xavier nu Miya. Those are the those the
front row reserves. That's for goodness sake. And then you
look at exactly and then you look out in the back.
So who's that wearing the twenty three twenty two Reuben
(06:14):
Love coming back in and really looking forward to seeing
his impact as well. So they're very deep. The Hurricanes.
I think the game against Fiji, the Fiji and Droy
a couple of weeks ago was a blip and it
was a terrible day over there. They got back on
the horse last week against the Warrtors. Fully expect them
to win and win well and nap yet tonight.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Okay, I know this is dear to your heart, big
double head of the last believe I believe it's the
last Phoenix home game in Wellington.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
For the Menators. Yeah, for the Menotors, they've got one
more home game and that's been taken to christ Church.
So yeah, double headed Tomorrow the Wellington Phoenix men against
Perth Glory three o'clock. The Wellington Phoenix women against Brisbane
Raw at six o'clock. So so double headed down at
the newly named Henry Stadium. We need to get the
name right, So yeah, I think for the For the men,
(06:58):
it feels as though time is running out, only six
games to go. They're five points outside the top six,
which doesn't seem a lot, but they haven't won any
of their last seven games, so that they need to
kind of get cracking. For the women, they've had a
couple of weeks off because of the international break. They
are looking really good for a run at the finals.
In fact, it would be it would need a catastrophic
(07:18):
drop off now in form for them to not make
the finals. So I'm looking forward to seeing to seeing
the women back on the grass against Brisbane.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Raut tomatas a couple of big signings re signings for them,
which shows that they like the coach, you can like
the organization absolutely right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Two of their imports, Mikayla Woods and also brook None,
both resigning yesterday, and often the A League, both the
men's and the women's as used as a bit of
a stepping stone. The contracts are normally only one or
two years and people come here and then they go
somewhere else, and both Mikhayla Woods and brook None said
that when they signed their one year deals that they
would think Okay, it's a one year deal and we'll
see what comes after that. They both love being part
(07:53):
of the Wellington Phoenix so much and being coached by
Bev Priestman that they were very quick to put pen
to paper for next year. So to have that kind
of endorsement of your coach and of your club and
of the city from two players from outside of Wellington
is really quite.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
She's pretty impressive, we'll be I've never met her, but
bye gosh. I love watching any there any social media
I see of her. I just see you inspires me.
You know, she's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
She could walk in here, and she could walk in
here and sit down and you would have you would
have a ten to fifteen minute, twenty minute conversation with
her and you'd at the end of it, okay, man,
that was twenty minutes, very well spent. She's Beev's great.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Maybe you could hook it up she come and have
an interview.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
The power I don't have any power. No, if I
said Nick Mills, she would just drop everything, even a
training seat, and.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
She would say, Jason Piney is a friend of yours.
I'll do it.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
That's what she would say. I think that would happen.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Looking forward to spending the day with you tomorrow and our.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Comrade, our comrade, our soon to be soon to be
weirded comrade. Look looking forward to tomorrow mate, and to
a big sporting week.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
INDs it Yeah, good job, good job, Great to talk
to your piety, Alway's great to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine am week days,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Said B.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Making predictions for your weekend of sport. The Friday Sport
kickoff with nine to ten Wellington Central visit the Montoury
Street us Talk, said B.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Go in to the chapel Land, Where gone again? Man?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Go in to the chapel Land?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Where gone again? Man?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Geez? Wow, we're missing someone?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Find it?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
We are, but for a very good reason. What a
great choice of song, What.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
A great choice in the song. I walked down the
aisle to it, didn't you? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I did?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, Yeah, there you go. That's why I remembered that.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
The reason of course we're playing that is because Adam Cooper,
our greatly adored colleague and our boss, Aaron Wellington, is
tomorrow marrying the wonderful Abby Craig up in or Tucky,
just north of Wellington. I can highly recommend marriage twenty
years this year for me? What are you?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
How you bought one?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Forty one years?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Well?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
We wish coops as we call them, and Abby the
lovely Abbey, just a brilliant day Tomorrow always very special
and yeah we look forward to catching up with both
of them.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Can I just quickly say while we were talking about it.
You know, in my experience, you see couples that are perfect,
and you see couples that you think, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
How are they together?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
You know what I mean. If there is a perfect couple,
it's Coops and Abby. I mean, I think she's wonderful.
The little time that I've spent whether her, she impresses me.
She is an amazing young woman with a great career
and a great person. And they and so is Coops.
Adam Cooper has a He's a great boss. He's a
great person. He understands people like me and you that
(01:57):
go off the me that goes off the more. So
good good, good luck to them both tomorrow. Yep, Right,
let's talk sport. Tana Umug have been talked about being
assistant coach to the All Blacks. Will you have to
get his hair cut?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I don't think so. No, I don't think so. You
don't have a You don't have to have to have
many hair to you?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Can we have a arrest coach?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Right?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Look, I think Tana's got so much Mona hasn't he
around being being a player? You know, you think about
when they tried when they wanted to get the World
Cup here in twenty eleven and they were putting together
a delegation to go to World Rugby to make the
final presentation. They took Tana Umanga on that trip. That's
how much mana he has in New Zealand rugby. His
(02:41):
coaching career has been up and down. It's you know, look,
he wasn't a success at the Blues, but he is
a Mawana now and starting to really you know, I guess,
you know, just in a very unique situation, makes some headway.
I think he would be a terrific addition. He and
Dave Rooney have worked together in the past. That that
wonderful MPC title in two thousand. You'll remember Dave Renie
(03:04):
was the head coach. Tanna was the captain of that.
I was a captain normally it was captain, but Tana
was in that team and an influential part of it.
Look by the sounds of it, it's you know, and
Tana's he'd be terrible at poker. He's got no poker
face at all. Because he was asked about it in
the media yesterday and he said, look at the discussions
are ongoing, so I get the feeling if the all
(03:24):
blacks come knocking.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So who he must gets in there?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, there's a couple of people who have worked with
with Dave Rennie in the past. Neil Barnes is one
of them. Out of Tartanaki's who's been talked about a lot.
A couple of his assistants up in Japan at the
moment have been talked about. I think Jason Ryan probably
keeps his job, you think, you yeah, I think he's
very highly regarded and you know, as a as a
(03:48):
very in terms of technique for forwards around set, peace,
line out, scrum, that sort of thing. And you remember
he came in under Ian Foster, carried on through with
Scott Robertson. So he almost provides a bit of a bridge,
if you like, back to the you know, back to
the former regime. I don't think you need a total
sweeping clean here.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But yeah, I like that idea of Corey Jane. But
the talking tun of Corey Jane's a defensive coach. He says,
he reckons that, that's what he says.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
He is.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So, but they're talking ton of for that, aren't they.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I don't know. It's it's interesting isn't it? You can
and I think you know, Corey Jane has very quickly
become a very important part of the Hurricanes coaching set up.
And whether he's ambitious in this sense, I mean, I
don't know which coach wouldn't want to be part of
the All Black setup. Yeah I heard, I've heard Corey's
name mentioned as well. I think Tana's probably a bit
further advanced than him in terms of his coaching career.
(04:39):
But yeah, who knows what and often what they do
and if they're smart as they bring in specialists Corey Jane.
One of Corey Jane's superpowers was the high ball. Was
under the high ball. You remember that twenty eleven Rugby
World Cup when he and his he dad and Richard
Carhu he diffused all of those bombs from Australia in
the in the semis. I remember Corey Jane on Weekend
Sport last year to talk this very thing and the
(05:01):
way he explained it, It's like, man, he needs to
be in front of the you know, anyone who plays
in the back three for the All Blacks and talk
to them about what it takes to be effective under
the high ball. So yeah, who knows where what is
feature might hold.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah. Right, let's talk about the Hurricanes, because the great performance.
As you told us on the show, they were going
to thug, go over to New South Wales, go over
to Sydney, smash them. They did. They played the Force.
They should do the same in Napier. They want eighteen
thousand to have more than what the Hurricane. The Warriors
had up there a couple of weeks ago, which I
kind of love the idea behind they'll beat the Force winner.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah they should. The Force did well a couple of
weeks ago to beat mo Onea Pacifica went down to
Deneedan last week and got close to the Highlanders. I
wonder whether they're just running out of gas on this,
on this New Zealand trip of theirs. You're right, neck,
the Hurricane should win this and win it well tonight.
You look at the team that they've named. They've been
able to, you know, to rest and rotate a few
players in the forwards. They've kept things in the backs
(05:54):
and look you look at the have you seen the
Hurricanes bench off the bench on the front in the
front row. Tyrel Lomax returning all black Asafoe moor All
Black and Xavier nu Miya. Those are the those the
front row reserves. That's for goodness sake. And then you
look at exactly and then you look out in the back.
So who's that wearing the twenty three twenty two Reuben
(06:14):
Love coming back in and really looking forward to seeing
his impact as well. So they're very deep. The Hurricanes.
I think the game against Fiji, the Fiji and Droy
a couple of weeks ago was a blip and it
was a terrible day over there. They got back on
the horse last week against the Warrtors. Fully expect them
to win and win well and nap yet tonight.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Okay, I know this is dear to your heart, big
double head of the last believe I believe it's the
last Phoenix home game in Wellington.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
For the Menators. Yeah, for the Menotors, they've got one
more home game and that's been taken to christ Church.
So yeah, double headed Tomorrow the Wellington Phoenix men against
Perth Glory three o'clock. The Wellington Phoenix women against Brisbane
Raw at six o'clock. So so double headed down at
the newly named Henry Stadium. We need to get the
name right, So yeah, I think for the For the men,
(06:58):
it feels as though time is running out, only six
games to go. They're five points outside the top six,
which doesn't seem a lot, but they haven't won any
of their last seven games, so that they need to
kind of get cracking. For the women, they've had a
couple of weeks off because of the international break. They
are looking really good for a run at the finals.
In fact, it would be it would need a catastrophic
(07:18):
drop off now in form for them to not make
the finals. So I'm looking forward to seeing to seeing
the women back on the grass against Brisbane.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Raut tomatas a couple of big signings re signings for them,
which shows that they like the coach, you can like
the organization absolutely right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Two of their imports, Mikayla Woods and also brook None,
both resigning yesterday, and often the A League, both the
men's and the women's as used as a bit of
a stepping stone. The contracts are normally only one or
two years and people come here and then they go
somewhere else, and both Mikhayla Woods and brook None said
that when they signed their one year deals that they
would think Okay, it's a one year deal and we'll
see what comes after that. They both love being part
(07:53):
of the Wellington Phoenix so much and being coached by
Bev Priestman that they were very quick to put pen
to paper for next year. So to have that kind
of endorsement of your coach and of your club and
of the city from two players from outside of Wellington
is really quite.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
She's pretty impressive, we'll be I've never met her, but
bye gosh. I love watching any there any social media
I see of her. I just see you inspires me.
You know, she's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
She could walk in here, and she could walk in
here and sit down and you would have you would
have a ten to fifteen minute, twenty minute conversation with
her and you'd at the end of it, okay, man,
that was twenty minutes, very well spent. She's Beev's great.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Maybe you could hook it up she come and have
an interview.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
The power I don't have any power. No, if I
said Nick Mills, she would just drop everything, even a
training seat, and.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
She would say, Jason Piney is a friend of yours.
I'll do it.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
That's what she would say. I think that would happen.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Looking forward to spending the day with you tomorrow and our.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Comrade, our comrade, our soon to be soon to be
weirded comrade. Look looking forward to tomorrow mate, and to
a big sporting week.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
INDs it Yeah, good job, good job, Great to talk
to your piety, Alway's great to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine am week days,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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