Tu Meke/Guts Bo #Kiwi
Tu Meke
Steph Curry, what a guy. Curry is such a guy that he gets a special mention in our Monday kiwi sporting wrap, Curry is so damn cool that today, he's an honourary kiwi. Curry hit this epic overtime winner, against Oklahoma City which was his 12th 3-pointer of the game and his 288th of the season, which also broke the record Curry set last season for 3-pointers in a season and there's still six weeks left.
Tu meke Tana, tu meke. Personally, I don't think there are many figures in kiwi rugby right now who share the same level of mana as Umaga (let's call it Tana mana) and this is why I think Umaga has the Auckland Blues on a nice little vibe. The mana combined with an astute rugby brain allows Umaga to share great relationships with younger players and this was evident in the Blues' first up win over Otago. Sure the Blues deserve a tu meke themselves, but a lot of the credit has to fall on Umaga's shoulders.
My favourite kiwi Super Rugby player from the weekend was Aaron Cruden who made his long awaited return from a bugger of a knee injury. Cruden was instrumental in the Chiefs' win over the Crusaders and the key aspect of Cruden's performance that caught my eye was how rugged Cruden played, always sniffing a contest with a big boy or a niggly halfback.
Jeremy Brockie is loving his time in South Africa with SuperSport Blitz, with the All Whites striker grabbing a hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Jomo Cosmos. That makes Brockie the joint leading goal-scorer with 12 goals so far this season. Footage was hard to come by, but here's a Brockie haka celebration...
The White Ferns beat their Australian rivals in their first T20, thanks largely to Leigh Kasperek's 4/7 off 3 overs, on the back of taking 2/37 in the last Rose Bowl ODI. Kasperek's haul helped restricted Australia to just 113 which the Ferns chased with 9 balls to spare as Suzie Bates maintained her fine form with the bat as her 33 pushed her limited overs streak of consecutive 30+ scores to 5 innings'.
The Black Sticks ladies are toiling hard against Argentina and with a win this morning, the series is even-Stevens with both teams owning a win and sharing a draw. This morning the Black Sticks won 3-2 with goals coming via Sophie Cocks, Petrea Webster and Kirsten Pearce who snatched the winner.
It was a great night on Friday for the Wellington Phoenix with two young kiwi lads scoring both goals for the Nix (Louis Fenton and Matt Ridenton) in their 2-1 win over Melbourne City. This was also Andrew Durante's - who is now effectively a kiwi - 200th A-League game and he's just re-signed with the Nix which is love.
Kosta Barbarouses is joining the Nix next season and we can hopefully look forward to some more of this as Barbarouses scored Melbourne Victory's only goal in their 1-1 draw with Sydney FC.
Guts Bo
Steven Adams was solid in the Thunder's loss to Golden State (28 minutes, 10 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal) but the Thunder did fall victim to Steph Curry and his Warriors. For me that's one of a few definitions of 'Guts Bo' with Adams trying his best, but guts bo.
The Otago Highlanders and Canterbury Crusaders suffered defeats in their first Super Rugby games of the season but it's the Wellington Hurricanes who get the nod here with their super duper mediocre effort against the ACT Brumbies. The Hurricanes went down 52-10 and just looked shit, too much TV work huh?
Unfortunately Shaun Kenny-Dowall is in court, as we all try to get to the bottom of this ongoing saga involving he and his former girlfriend. There's some hefty accusations against Kenny-Dowall and there's a few things that don't really stack up so it's going to be interesting to see how this one pans out.
John Mitchell has been floating around the rugby coaching landscape ever since he got the flick from his All Blacks gig. Mitchell is now coaching the United States of America, who just lost to Brazil which is great for international rugby but an absolute Guts Bo for Mitchell and his reputation as a coach.