You're listening to a podcast from News Talks ed B. Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. This is Sportsfix Howard by News Talks ed B.
Hello there and welcome into the Sports Fixed podcast for Thursday, the twentieth of March. Already and what I said already, it was always going to arrive at this time. I'm Jason Pine.
It's hardly a surprise.
No, it always follows the ninetees. Ah, there it is.
Where did that come from? Great to be back on board with you again, Piney. It's been three long empty days without the two of us on Pineing Well.
I knew there was something coming at the end of that. While we while we congratulate one another on getting back together, let's have a look at what's coming up. Amazing scenes in Auckland last night with Sam Ruth becoming the youngest ever man, youngest of a person to go sub four minutes for the mile. We want to talk about that today. Football is going to be sent a stage in Wellington tomorrow night and then again in Auckland on Mondays the
all look to qualify for the next World Cup. You got a football interview lined up for us.
Indeed, sorry to steal your thunder and thanks very much for Chris Wood yesterday. But Ricky Hubert's going to join us to talk about the relevance of the forty eight teams and whether it diminishes the result from over the weekend, Should New Zealand get through, which they should, and what that means. Were forty eight teams obviously now and then of course and the one hundred year celebration, there's sixty
four team. So we've joked about this before, Pinty. Maybe we could put together a team and qualify.
Maybe someone who knows what expansion might look like in the future as well. We've got that to or to cover off, plus the big sports stories of the day, so let's get into it in other news. As always, we kick things off with the big sports stories going around today, and the biggest one by far, fifteen year old Sam Ruth has become the youngest person to break the four minute barrier for the mile, posting three minutes fifty eight point three five seconds last night.
The crowd rolls them down the home straight here at comdiaout Club Stadium, Tanna smiling Radia.
That's a sub for baby that's a sub.
For former All Blacks coach Ian Foster will spearhead the coaching staff for a combined Australia New Zealand side to face the British and Irish Lions in July. Foster was approached by Rugby Australia to take charge of the side when it plays the Lions and adelaide a week out from the first Test.
I wanted me to go away and think about it and I basically said yes straight away. It's a great opportunity if live series or iconic special and this is a new innovation from Rugby Australia to bring this team in and the chance to be involved in it was awesome.
And no retirement timeline for White Fern's cricket captain Sophie Devine just here that she prepares for the three match T twenty series against Australia starting on Friday.
Just taking things day.
At time, to be perfectly honest with you, I think again, it's probably one of the things reflecting on is not trying to look too far into the future. I just want to enjoy every day and just the most of being in this environment because never know how long you're going to be here for.
Leading of Vix.
We've got just the ticket.
It's Sports Vix, Power by News Talks.
IV Ricky Herbert. Big game tomorrow coming up for the All Whites, and then another big game coming up on Monday. I suppose the biggest point of this game will be if they lose either of them, which is highly unlikely. So before we move on to the topic of the day, you've got to rate the chances of these guys. I suppose the most important thing is as they get through that any injury.
Yeah, yeah, like I think you spot on us. I think you know. It's a wonderful opportunity. It's clearly different, isn't it from let's say, you know, the two times that we've gone to a World Cup, you know, fifteen games and nineteen eighty one, tough traveling all around the world, having to beat the fifth best Asian team in twenty ten, and now we get an opportunity through our own confederation
to go back to make it three times. So yeah, fingers crossed, hugely surprised if it doesn't happen, Darsie, But yeah, look, wishing them all the best and then be fantastic to see us back on the world stage, you know, competing against the best in the world, and you know that's what our sport needs.
Well, it's great to see Chris Wood really fully one hundred percent as the captain behind it, saying this direct route through Oceani And now that there's so many more teams that can actually get through to the World Cup, does that diminish at all what the All Whites will achieve by getting to the next World Cup. The fact that there are so many more teams.
Look, I think there's going to be so much opinion out there, Darsi, and you know at times that's okay. The game's evolving around the world and I think, you know, so many countries. I look back now when I was young and growing up, I mean, you know, you had your heart set on sort of England. You followed English teams. That's where professional football kind of was. You know, it's
really global now and around the world. I mean a lot of our players are leaving New Zealand to go to different parts of the world to pick up professional contract. So it is evolving and I think, you know, the outcomes are going to be a little more clearer when the forty eight too. Sorry, forty eight teams do rock up to the twenty twenty six World Cup and see what those performances look like from a results based point of view. And it may take a couple of World
Cups to get it to a certain level. But look, I think it's great. I think it's fair and I think it puts the onus back on us now in New Zealand to make sure that our players are getting prepared properly, that our younger players coming through World Cup opportunities which we go to regularly, getting the level of competition they need before going into World Cups, because that's what all standards in good stead when we're at the big dance and we can compete against the best teams in the world.
So the easy enough route or the easier route through, you don't think diminishes New Zealand's involvement. Should it happen in the next fee for World.
Cup, well, look, I think we've got to go, don't we. I mean, I think it's you know, there's been a worldwide decision to change this. I mean there's going to be opportunities for you know, more teams coming out of Asia, more teams coming out of all the other confederations out of Europe, so you know, it is branching deeper and digging deeper into providing that opportunity. And yep, I think everybody would look at it and go, yep, this is
a fantastic chance. It's you know, our easiest chance, you know, And I say that in real respect because we've got a job to do tomorrow night. You know, we've got to go and win tomorrow night, and then we have to step up again and win against Tahiti or New Caledonia on the Monday. So there's still obstacles there to get over, and we need to respect what those teams will come up challenge wise, but we've got to be
good enough. And you know, the standard for us to be good enough is going to be recognized again, hopefully in twenty twenty six when we play some of the big countries in the world.
I'm hearing here, Recky that the fact there are so
many more teams that have got an easier path. You can't look at New Zealand and go, well, it wasn't as difficult as it used to be because they're in the or the pool with a whole lot of other teams to experience exactly the same thing in this lifts world football in general, because I'm interested when you bring all these teams in to competition, does maybe even stand at the World Cup level drop or inherently does it lift because people are going to the big dances you called it?
Yeah, Look, I think you know, I can only hope dar see that. It's just, you know, really challenges countries around the world to be better, and I think it's going to challenge us to be better because you know, and I'm saying this again with the fullester respect that you know, we should be able to go to a World Cup now every four years. It's what we do
between those four year cycles. And I think that's critical now that we really work hard as an organization to provide the national team with the best challenging competition, fixtures, quality games countries that we can and between those windows because the qualify the qualifying format is not going to change now, so we understand what that looks like, and we understand that we need to win fixtures to go
to the World Cups. But for me, it's what we do in between, and you know, I draw I'll draw that down a little deeper across you know, both genders, male and female, seventeens, nineteens, twenties, whatever the respective age groups are. That we're working hard as a football organization to make sure that we're implementing a very very solid football program for these players to not only qualify for the World Cup, but let's go and win a game or progress out of our group. And that's clearly an
opportunity for this team. You know, should we be there next.
Year, Let's talk about the progression of the team, Recki Herbert and what they have to do and use it on football.
Have to be overly engaged.
It's getting a quality competition the Aussies when there's no point in this, we're going to shoot off to Asia. Has that lifted the quality of their performance? They're better looking, better prepared. Have they made the most of this move to get out of Oceania?
Well, I think you're kind of twofold. You've got I guess from a personal opinion. I mean you've got a look and a lot of their youth teams have not
qualified to go to World Cups. But then you you know, you have the concept of they're playing Japan, they're playing China, they're playing Saudi Arabia, they're playing Kuwait, They're playing a lot of big countries coming you know through that that Asian confederation, you know, the Korean teams so regularly through qualifying, that competition is arguably as good is the you know, some of the majority of games that you get at
a World Cup anyway. So you know, I think they're getting tested, and I mean look at the you know, look at the last you know, a couple of cycles. I mean Australia had to go through a second qualifying campaign to get through to the World Cup. You know, they are in the mix at the moment on kind of what that looks like for them. We're up against an Indonesian team that you know, we were playing Indonesia in nineteen eighty one, beating them five mil at home
and turn away. Look where that country's got to now where they are very very difficult to beat in an Asian confederation on the global stage. So you know, the game is changing. Teams are getting better, countries are getting bigger, and there's more of those countries getting bigger and better and stronger with a lot more depth. So you know it's going to provide a challenge for US not so much in qualifying, but certainly when we go on the world stage sports.
I know it's fair to say that Super Rugby Pacific this year has been fantastic. After years of punching down on Super Rugby for various reasons, I think finally this year the people that run the competition have turned up with quite the product. We don't necessarily know who's going to win. They go down to the last five minutes, the competition champions and favorites they've disappeared off the face of the earth. We have Mwana pacifica and Fijian drew it having a huge effect and a big toll on
some of the opposition. No, they haven't won everything, but they've taken it very very close. So at the moment it's all smiles and all celebrations for Super Rugby Pacific, and rightly so the big question is, and I know I sound miserable, I know I sound like I'm the bloody media, but let's face that I am. How long would this last? How long before Super Rugby Pacific falls off a cliff? And why dare I say it? When you look at the nature of the Blues ahead of
their game against the Crusaders. This weekend, you're seeing exactly why the competition may well fall off a cliff. It's called attrition. You look at the nature of the Blues lineup, you look at the amount of players they have lost through injury, and you start to see the effect of this hard nosed competition over weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. These players are not Superman, as much as they want to address them up as superheroes
last week, they simply aren't. And it's only a matter of time before teams start to stagger as their playing number is decreased through the vagaries of injury and too much time in the sick bay. Hey, I hope this doesn't happen. I hope we carry on with the same mega engaging rugby that we've had right from the get go of this competition. That there's something about what's happening to the Blues, and you look across the competition that suggests to me sliding off a cliff might come with
the injury. Told that a high contact and aggressive game like this tends to generate.
The chamber is now in session.
Sportsfax into the chamber. We go together and let's chat about what you just chatted to Ricky Herbert about, and that is the qualification process for the next World Cup in twenty twenty six. For a long time, I think we've you know, we've wanted Oceania to get direct entry to the World Cup, and I guess we hope that that would be through a thirty two team World Cup. The expansion to forty eight made it almost inevitable. What we you main takeaways from what Ricky had to say.
Well, I asked him a couple of times around does this diminish the success the team has should they get through which they should over the next few days, and Ricky kind of walked around a bit and he's like, well, it's all about lifting your game to compete at that level. And I get what he's talking about as opposed to be critical, and I like to see it. This way's explained, is that the new level to judge this team on is not if they qualify for the World Cup, but
how well they go in the first round. That's got to be the new mark, the watermark, doesn't it.
Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. I think because now qualifying for the World Cup through Oceania, with no disrespect to the other teams in Oceania, should be a walk in the park now for the All Whites, I fully expect them to win comfortably against Fiji tomorrow night and then comfortably against one of Tahiti or New Caledonia on Monday nights. So in order to to put the way that they're playing into context, they do have to achieve now higher than just making a World Cup.
Of course, there's the old testnut of should New Zealand have followed Australia's lead and joined the Asian Confederation. Yes, the path is a lot harder, but it does improve the level of your football. You get the chance to play against Asian teams, you know, Japan, South Korea and other Asian sides who are really playing at a high level,
thus improving your own game. The trade off, of course is and has been, you know, certainly at underage level and in women's football for the last however many years, is that apart from the senior men's side, Oceania has got direct int to every under twenty and under seventeen tournaments and every women's tournament, so there was no real desire to leave that behind. From New Zealand.
Football has the quality of Australian football. The silly name socker ruse. Can't they change it to the football or ruse now anyway? Is that actually lifted since they moved to Asia as there been a marked difference in the way they play the game?
Pony, Absolutely, it has, Yes, without doubt, it has one hundred percent. They have improved as a football nation and the way that their national team is playing. Look, they still get plenty of flack from their sporting public. They're a pretty tough crowd, the Australian sporting public. But yes,
the answer their question is they have improved. I think New Zealand if they'd done the same thing bit in the bullet when Australia did back in two thousand and six and decided, yep, we want to improve ourselves, you know, holistically globally, then the same thing would have happened to us. But that ship has sailed now and now we've got a forty eighteen World Cup and direct entry for Oceannia. There's absolutely no no tension, no desire to do this.
So I think the improvement of New Zella footballers will now have to come through their clubs, and as you I'm sure have seen, that is happening both here and overseas.
And all over overseas as well as everywhere right through America and Asia and Europe and England, which is great to see. What about the overall quality of the World Cup with the forty eight teams, let's not talk about the sixty four that is another story. Do you think that will lift or is it saying let's go back to that opening round and see how well the groups play.
Yeah, I think with forty eight teams then the logic would suggest that the standard will be lower than with thirty two teams. I mean stands to reason, doesn't It does that if there are more teams, then you know lower ranked ones will get through. So on that, on that metric you'd have to say, yes, it is going to be a lower standard overall. But I do like the opportunity for teams to go to a World Cup, And Chris Wood said this yesterday at the press conference.
If it's truly a World Cup, then country from all over the world should have a pretty good opportunity of making it. So that's what directly entry for OCEANNEYA does. Look the I think exactly as you said before the performance of New Zealand. You know, in group play at next year's World Cup will be almost the new metric by which we measure the team. I think that's what we're heading. That's the road we're heading down.
Great stuff, chasing Pyne. You know all about football a lot more than I have and will say thanks for your education as always, that's fantastic. Now, Ruth, last night, do we celebrate this? Is it a junior record or is that diminishing what he did and that youngest man to ever compete and sorry ever break the formative mark in the mile has to be It has to be celebrated, you know, in whatever fashion you want to.
I think you know, when you're the youngest ever to do anything in athletics pursuits, whether it be track and field or anything. Really, have you the youngest player to ever you know, score a try for the All Blacks or the youngest youngest man deverscore century for New Zealand's Black Caps. This is you know, he is the youngest person ever to break a global standard for the mile.
If you can go under form minutest least not't forget dus last night you know, he and the bloke who finished third were only the forty ninth and fiftieth New Zealanders ever to do it of any age. So you know, we're not talking about something that is commonplace. Is it is quite rare. My main, you know, little thing sitting in the back of my mind is he is so young. So I hope that and I get the feeling that
he is. I hope that he's surrounded by good people who know how to guide him, because you know what's going to happen now. There'll be shoe companies knocking on his door. There'll be any number of American colleges coming down here and offering him big fat scholarships to come and run for them. He's only fifteen, you know, he's still a kid. He has to be able to be a kid, but hopefully fulfill the undoubted potential that he has.
Many times have we seen child prodigies just blow out before they're twenty years old across a number of sports. It is not uncommon, but we know that now. I'm sure as parents who are involved in the industry anyway, and all of his support crew are very very well aware of the falls of what he's just done. So we're wishing in the best. And don't break this bloke, Please don't break this land. He's going to look great in a black singlet.
Yeah he is. And I hope he also gets the chance to be a teenager.
You know you.
I remember my teenage days. I know you remember some of yours, So I hope he gets the chance. There, mate, too late, mister Ruth.
You can always be a teenager in your mid fifties. On testament you.
You are the personification of never ever acting your age. But that is always I've thought, anyway, a positive quality in you. Dusk. Anyway, we're getting into a really weird are are you here? So let's get out of the chamber.
Good idea, old man.
I'll follow you sports Effects, And on that note, I think we should bring Sports Fix to a close. I think it's the sensible thing to do. But don't worry. A fresh episode will drop into your podcast feed at about the same time tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken to us.
You've got to subscribe, of course. If you will, this will happen Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your work mate, tell anybody and get them all to do the same thing so Sports Fixed can carry on its merry old way and justify our employment, right poney, that's right.
Yes, we need the justification of our employment, which is actually on the radio as well, So we need to we need to make that clear to people that you are actually on the radio tonight and most weeknights, and I'm on the radio on the weekends.
It's a weekend sport twelve midday to three Saturday Sunday and then Sports Talk myself and or Piney. Actually we never do it together, do we? Maybe we should. That's seven to eight Monday to Friday PM on News Talk z B. Get amongst interact and thanksful listening to The Fix.
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