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September 15, 2024 • 12 mins

James McOnie from The Crowd Goes Wild joined Piney to discuss the classic All Blacks v classic Taniwha clash, the All Whites, the Football Ferns and the new Super Rugby format.

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talks B.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, bit later than usual, but always good to get
the chance on a Sunday afternoon to chat to James mcconey.
This is your second presumably broadcasting assignment of the day.
What were you doing earlier? Was it a classic All
Blacks match? Tell us about this?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yes, classic All Blacks versus Classic Tunny Far Northland, Tunny
Far infangad. A beautiful day there at the stadium and
some absolute stars of the game. So probably the biggest
star was Conrad Smith, who was reffing the game, and
I thought he did a sterling job, although he copped
a lot of abuse from his old teammates.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Who in particular was getting mauthy towards Conrad Smith or
were they all?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
I don't want to name names, but John R. Ford
does friend to mine. He is quite lively and as
I mean to be honest, he's missing his calling. He
is a commentator and a prop's body and he needs
to someone Sky needs to sign him up immediately. But yeah,
look some of the big names out there, I say

(01:14):
to but Switzervaki, Stephen Donald, that was the starting back
line with Andre Taylor looking incredible still playing club rugby
and Manua too, and of course as a Hurricanes fan pioneer,
you must feel that he was hard done by. And
Conrad Smith agreed that Andre Taylor should have been an
All Black.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
I remember, as you said his name. I remember there
was a season where he was spectacularly good and being
talked about in All Black terms. And I remember actually
hearing an interview with him a year or so later
where he said the fact he didn't get picked really
affected him because he thought he had done enough, but
Cley just not quite enough at that time.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
I mean, there were lots of questionable calls. I mean,
Ranny Ranger probably should have been at least a fifty
test All Black. And that's what always feels the worst
for those players, is that in any other nation, you know,
he Andre Taylor would have played one hundred tests for
the Wallabies, right. So it's just that New Zealand it's
the toughest nut to crack the All Blacks.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
I say, a toy Ather, what sort of shape is
he in?

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Looking good? Knee strapped up but looking really good. Yeah,
I saw the iceman's looking good. Frank halee bigger than
on what I thought, and definitely thought he was possibly
a number eight or even maybe a front rower. But
he scored it and away try so I take it
all back, Frank Hallai, He's still got it.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
And I got to miss it here at Troy Flavel
and Hecker Elliott were there as well. By the sounds
of things.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Hecker looking like he still should be playing his very
fit near him illness Scudder as well. I mean I
thought he was too young, but he's actually thirty three.
Troy Flavel forty eight years old, looking super young. I
don't know what his secret is. It's either he's on
the oil of olay or the natural glow, maybe a
combination of the two. And yeah, forty eighth and looking

(03:06):
fit as a fiddle fory f level.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Do you reckon Nhimilna Scudder just because you've mentioned him
as one of the great lost opportunities of all black
rugby because of injury. I mean twenty fifteen Rugby World Cup, James,
You'll remember this absolute star came home from there, you know,
scoring tries at the World Cup. Looked like the world
was at his feet. He would have played not even
ten test matches after that because of injury.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Right exactly. And it's a shame as well because it
was he came along at a time when they actually
really needed one of those multi skilled wingers. You look
at other nations and they have them now, don't they.
You know Ireland with Matt Hanson, these wingers who can
kind of like a great step is great on their feet.
James low probably qualifies as one of those wingers, as

(03:50):
though he's a bit beefier, but nehim, Milna Scudder. The
side step on him was amazing. But I think that
he plugged that gap that we lost when we lost
Charles Piertew. We knew we needed or Ted limits. We
Steve Hanson knew that we needed X factor and he
was one of those or blacks. I always felt as
well in their hair that no matter the occasion, he

(04:12):
still just played exactly the same way. He wasn't overawed
by anything.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
No, it was on because they took white sucking a
holow on that World Cup touring party as well. Remember
they left Corey Jane and Israel dag out, which was controversial,
took Naholo and Milner Scudder. I've just checked the stats
here James after the World Cup final in twenty fifteen
near Milna. Scudder played just five more Test matches. That
is madness, madness, And he.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Would have been after that World Cup final. You can
imagine he probably would have been. He would have had
advertised as sponsors clamoring to get his services. But if
I may segue, even though this is your show, onto
another outstanding Hurricanes player, please and this is probably going
to hurt you, Piney, but you've probably seen the news
that Josh Morby will be going to Montpellier and fulfilling

(05:01):
his contract in front, even though I understand that he
was trying to get out of it and stay in
New Zealand because he was getting very close to that
all black squad.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, so he's another one as and then covers fallback
as well, and in fact plays played and plays a
lot of fallbacks, and Northland in particular terrific on the
wing for the Hurricanes. Just I don't know, do you
think he just thought did he look at the queue
ahead of him and think, you know what, there are
a lot of guys in that queue and I'm not
really getting any indication that I'm moving up that queue.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
I think it's just a difference in pay when you're
an up and coming player and suddenly an overseas club says,
we'll pay you what a superstar deserves, or you know,
what we think your star quality deserves, and so I
think that was the tempting thing, and so he would
have signed. I guess it's called a something like a
pre contract, and I think to get out of that
contract that costs one hundred and fifty thousand euros or

(05:54):
something like that. And then you know, everybody was probably
keen for Josh to stay. Josh was probably keen to stay,
but then they balk at that price tag. So another
player who I think is really under athletically. I understand
that when he was in Cambridge because his sister in
law is Tory Peter's the javelin thrower. He was in
there training with Olympic athletes and they were saying his

(06:17):
speed testing was off the chart. So you know, kind
of a dark horse really, Josh Morby, but he'll be
lost in his zellow rugby first for two years at least.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Thoroughly nice bloke too. I'm not sure if you've had
the chance to meet Josh Morby.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Have you, mate, he's the son of a tew On
miritchard Jerry Farmer. Do you think I haven't met Josh
Morby or how do I know so much about Josh Morby? No,
that's I actually haven't met him. I think maybe I've
spoken to him once on Zoom, but I feel like

(06:49):
i'd know him because he's from my hometown.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Look, if he was walking down the street and you
said good Josh, he'd say good James in your chat
for twenty minutes. He's a terrific, terrific bloke. Yeah, great guy.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, speak speaking, Sorry, carry on.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
No, no, no, please, you were talking about some dram in.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Football, in the world of football. I was thinking about
yet kick and clim Kova. Actually, and I known a
lot of people out there might be might not be
following the soap opera of the football fans coaching saga.
But yeah, she's finally resigned, and I think this is
I guess that an example of player power and action.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, it felt inevitable, didn't it. We had Andrew Pragnell
on the show yesterday. They eventually did put him up
to chat. After a bit of a cone of silence
on Friday, when this news dropped Yeah, and it felt
very much as though there was just a huge disconnect
between Yitka and a vast majority of those players. I
think this is the right outcome. It's taken us quite

(07:45):
a while to get here. I was actually sort of
thinking on the drive in this morning, who might be
a potential replacement for Yetka Climkova. Do you think they
might look at Paul Temple, the coach of the Wellington
Phoenix women's team.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah, I think there's there's a name like Paul's will
definitely be on the on their raid. I mean, there
is something that needs to happen there with the football Ferns.
It needs a reboot, a refresh. But it was tough though,
because I think you left the jog my memory. But
the coach that took over, it was always going to

(08:23):
be a fractured situation where the team wasn't in a
good space.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, Michael Maine, he was one of the assistants. But
the problem there, well, one of the problems was that
the first time he took over, he found out like
a day before. It wasn't like at any warning at all.
When they went to Spain to play Japan, Michael Maine
was going over there and arrived there and was all
ready to do his role as assistant coach and obviously
got a phone call or something he said, hey, mate,

(08:48):
you're in charge. So yeah, it was all very curious.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Now, Many is a great man, and that's the things
you can't really judge someone on just having to do
a caretaker job. But the one football story, I guess
it was a bright light. Was it one or draw
against the USA from the all whites? And I'm just thinking,
this is this is the dawn of a new era.
We didn't even have I don't think we had Sarpret
sing playing. I don't think Elijah just was playing.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Elijah was there? Yeah, No, but no Sapri, Yeah, no Sapri.
A couple of others, No, Callum Macowart, he wasn't there either.
A couple of others who would be in and around
the squad weren't there. So yeah, it was a I mean,
the US are going through what they would probably call
a rebuilding phase and they've got Marico Pochettino into to
boss them around now. But you know, I think it
was a I mean, when you draw one all with

(09:36):
the team that's sixteenth in the world, and you're ninety fourth.
For what that's worth, it's a good result.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
It's amazing. You're away from home in Cincinnati. They've got Pulls,
who's their one big superstar. But I think you know,
the collective, let's just call it the star power medium
star power of the All Whites is good enough to
match it with USA. And there's definitely some promising signs there.
And I think you can see the way that all

(10:03):
those players make themselves available that and I'm sure Sarpret
will as well. He just needed to find himself a club.
I think he's in Portugal now. Yeah, it's just augu
As Weld, isn't it for the future?

Speaker 2 (10:13):
It does, Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how they go.
They've got World Cup qualifiers next and they should breeze
through those and as you know, it's automatic qualification for
Oceania now, so by the back end of March next
year we should have the All Whites confirmed that the
twenty twenty six World Cup and then I guess the
secret is James is to get some decent games like
these ones against Mexico in the US to pad out

(10:35):
those windows between March of next year and when the
World Cup rolls around in kind of June and July
of twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah. And the other thing I think that needs to
be noted for anyone who's just the medium sort of
football fan and dips in and dips out is that
right now we've probably got the most creative squad that
we've ever had. And even if it runs deep, you know,
if you had to call someone else in, but if
you've got Eliza just Sarpre, it's saying Ben Old all

(11:04):
these players who are actual, proper, you know, playmakers, creative creativity.
I think Australia would be would be jealous of the squad.
And then you've got people like Joey Champness who's come
back to play for Auckland f C. It's exciting times
in that I'd call it a problem position for Southern
Hemisphere or you know, Oceania teams. We don't always produce

(11:24):
those types of creative players.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Don't forget Marco Rojas down here at Wellington Phoenix again James.
Another one goodness from Hamilton, Yes, yes, another of another
from the Mighty White Cuttle. Just before you go, did
you catch up with the new format for Super Rugby
next year? The eleven teams and the top six and
the lucky losers and those sorts of things.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, it's interesting man. I mean I think it mirrors
a little bit of what the NRL does. I think
the playoffs needs to be needed, some kind of shake up.
I don't mind that it's there is mass equations required.
It just adds to the intrigue. So yeah, it's great
to see. I always just when it comes to Super Rugby,
you know, I always get excited about it, but then

(12:09):
I just wonder, you know, how do they maximize it?
Because that Super Rugby semi final between the Chiefs and
the Hurricanes was an absolute blockbuster, but still so many
yellow seats. That's the challenge for Super Rugby.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Absolutely. Always great to chat. James. Will try and get
you back in your normal spot next Sunday, but I
mean you will have many other commitments, I know. But
let's get your people to talk to our people and
we'll chat at some stage. I'm sure next.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
Sunday, see exactly you can. I'm sure our people can
work it out. It's not going to be a Josh
Morby situation. We'll be able to sort this right now.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Good Thanks indeed, James McConney. Big part of our Sunday
is normally one forty five, a bit later today, but
always great to chat all sorts of sport with James
on a Sunday afternoon.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Faine, listen live
to News Talk z B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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