Sportstalk with D'Arcy Waldegrave

The North Island-South Island rugby match has been confirmed for August 29 at Eden Park. The All Blacks assistant coaches have been appointed to mentor the teams. John Plumtree and Scott McLeod will take charge of the North Island while the South will be coached by Greg Feek and Brad Mooar. New Zealand Rugby has judged players will be eligible for an island based on the first province they played...

Warriors chief executive Cameron George has rubbished suggestions the club will consider withdrawing from the NRL if the players are unable to be joined by their families. Reports out of Australia suggested the NRL was worried the Warriors would return home after their game against the Sharks in just under three weeks if the players' families can't get into the country. However, speaking to the He...

The FIFA Women's World Cup will pump millions into the country. New Zealand and Australia will host the tournament in 2023, with the FIFA Council voting in favour of the trans-Tasman bid over Colombia. Pool games and some knockout matches will be played here, in five different venues. Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson says it's huge for the country. He says over a billion people watche...

After a long Covid-induced break, Supercars is roaring back to life this weekend. The event restarts in Sydney, with the drivers leaving the E-Series race behind and going back to the real thing.  Fabian Coulthard joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to discuss his excitement for returning to the game, and what he learnt from the E-races LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Sydney Opera House and Auckland's Sky Tower will be lit up simultaneously to highlight the joint bid from Australia and New Zealand in the final hours before FIFA decides on the venue for the 2023 Women's World Cup. The lights will go on in advance of a decision from the 37-member FIFA Council on Thursday in Europe, expected about 2 a.m. local time Friday on Australia's east coast and 4 a.m. i...

Todd Payten will be in charge of the Warriors for the remainder of the 2020 season. The interim head coach was thrust into the role over the weekend after Stephen Kearney was axed. Payten says the team will take it's time to find Kearney's long term replacement. "I'm interim coach for the rest of the season. It was made clear to me that this decision was a club decision and it was based around the...

Players kneeled in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and victims of the coronavirus were remembered as the Premier League made a sombre return on Wednesday from a 100-day shutdown that deprived England of its national sport. Back on the sideline at Manchester City was Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, whose positive COVID-19 test in March led to the longest suspension of the top-flight compet...

There was plenty to take note of at the Blues' first home game of Super Rugby Aotearoa on Sunday. Beauden Barrett's debut in the blue jersey, a sold-out Eden Park crowd, and then there were the questionable post-lockdown hair transformations. But the main draw was the team's 30-20 win over the Hurricanes. Blues player James Parsons joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to discuss that win, the hair, and to ans...

Over the past few seasons, consistency has eluded the Warriors. But heading into Friday night's clash against the South Sydney Rabbitohs, it's something the Kiwi side hopes to find. It's early in the season, but matches like this one could make or break the season. The sides sit just outside the top eight, each with a 2-3 record through the opening rounds, and with the middle of the table pack wit...

ASB Classic director Karl Budge has called for sporting institutions to use Covid-19 as an opportunity to reconsider how sports is delivered to the public. Writing in the NZ Herald, he says that the virus "has highlighted the flaws that have existed for some time within the sports sector". "That model was turned upside down during this time, and if we don't 'pivot', no government relief package wi...

The Blues are confident of playing in front of their biggest home crowd in more than a decade when they take on the Hurricanes in Super Rugby Aotearoa on Sunday. The reshuffled all-Kiwi competition is set to start this weekend - the first professional rugby in three months following the cancellation of the game globally due to Covid-19. New Zealand's move to alert level 1 this week means restricti...

Before the NRL returned to action, rule changes were introduce to help speed up the game. They've done just that, but Warriors hooker Wayde Egan believes the changes will do more to the game in the long run. The introduction of repeat sets in lieu of penalties at ruck infringements has seen the ball stay in play for longer over the past couple of weeks, with very little down time during games. For...

The Blues will play all their upcoming Super Rugby Aotearoa games at Eden Park after the stadium waived the fee. Eden Park had reportedly asked the Blues to front up with a hefty fee, but Eden Park CEO Nick Sautner The season kicks off on June 13 with the Highlander hosting the Chiefs in Dunedin. A day later the Blues take on the Hurricanes at Eden Park. Eden Park CEO Nick Sautner insists the fees...

A complicated situation for domestic rugby to work through as it tries to get a full Mitre10 Cup going for 2020. Some unions are battling to get to the startline for the competition starting in September due to the cost of player contracting in a Covid-19 world with little to no revenue. Taranaki, Northland, Southland and North Harbour are believed to be asking for players to take a 30-per cent pa...

A move to ban the use of saliva to shine a cricket ball because of the danger of transmitting Covid-19 may force bowlers to relearn or reinvent one of the sport's most prized but troublesome skills. The International Cricket Council's cricket committee, comprising a roll call of former top players, has recommended on medical advice that spit polishing the ball should be prohibited while the corona...

RJ Hampton’s tenure with basketball's Breakers is over. The 18-year-old will not see out the remainder of the season with the team and will return to the United States to ready himself for this year’s NBA draft. He's been nursing a hip injury over the past few weeks. Hampton joined the franchise as part of the NBL’s Next Stars initiative, set up to bring future NBA players to the league early in t...

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave butted heads with a talkback caller about the racist abuse an English cricket player received after yesterday's match.  Jofra Archer claimed a spectator racially abused him during England's first cricket test loss to New Zealand at Mt Maunganui. The fast bowler's tweeted: "A bit disturbing hearing racial insults today whilst battling to help save my team, the crow...

It's been revealed there were calls to see fighters spar in controlled conditions - before a charity boxing bout turned fatal. 37-year-old Kain Parsons died in hospital today, after being critically injured at the Christchurch fight at the weekend. One of the boxers on the card, Aragorn Urquhart, told Sportstalk his trainer wanted the amateur boxers to match up ahead of time. "That was something t...

New Zealand Rugby's stepping in to help the Blues. It's taking over Murray Bolton's 40 per cent stake in a bid to bring stability and better executive decision-making to the troubled Super Rugby franchise. NZR chief operations officer Nigel Cass says they're acting on Alan Isaac's independent report, which found the Blues board members aren't working well together. "A way to fix that is to change...