NZ Rugby World

If everything goes to plan for the All Blacks at the World Cup, they will play at Yokohama Stadium twice. They have the guarantee of starting their campaign there against South Africa and the promise of going back if they make it to the final. For th

All Blacks skipper Kieran Read has confirmed that he is now in the last 10 months of his test career. Read, who will turn 34 at the World Cup, says he won’t be looking to extend his New Zealand contract and instead will head off shore after the tourn

This is it for Kieran Read, the last big push. He will retire from test football after the World Cup – cart his battered body off to some foreign clime where he and his family can have the overseas experience they have always dreamed of. A test caree

It didn’t take long, certainly not as long as anyone imagined back in 2016 when the picture looked entirely different. Back then it was all about Jerome Kaino. The veteran was getting on, that we all knew, but he had a couple more good seasons at lea

There must be times when Beauden Barrett can only shake his head, shrug his shoulders and not take things personally. He was World Rugby player of the year in 2016 and 2017 and yet by July 2018 he was being treated almost as an imposter in the All Bl

ARDIE SAVEA This was the year Ardie Savea came of age as a test player and made his mark every time he played. He was in great form ahead of the tour and kept it going in Japan and Europe. He pilfered critical turnovers in the three big games and was

Pieter-Steph du Toit was hailed “a freak of nature” by his coaches and teammates when he arrived on the test scene in 2013. Over the next four seasons, a concerted effort was made to harness Du Toit’s physical talents at franchise level and at the Sp

Is Auckland rugby back? Try telling the more than 20,000 people who were present during the incredible extra-time Mitre 10 Cup premiership final between Auckland and Canterbury at Eden Park that it isn’t. On a late afternoon in October which began in

“We had a genuine belief that we could win the Meads Cup based on our 2017 results. Had a great team spirit, halfback Ben Bonnar really helped create a culture where fun was a huge part of everything we did. Alcohol was just an optional extra. “This

By finally qualifying for the Meads Cup, for the first time since the inception of Heartland Championship, the 2018 Thames Valley campaign could already have been regarded as an unmitigated success. Common sense dictated that the fourth-placed plucky

WITH THE November internationals having finished and the Six Nations almost upon us, the focus of the England-obsessed media in this part of the world is changing to 2019 and the World Cup. After the travails of 2018, the question of whether England

IN THE LAST EDITION of NZ Rugby World I sent Santa a list of five things I hoped he would bring me for Christmas to make world rugby more attractive; ranging from the RFU winning back control of their own destiny, to Argentina continuing their progre