Sports Illustrated: leader in international sports.

So Sports Illustrated claims that they're...

...the league leader in original in-depth coverage of professional, local, college and international sports.

I find it easy to believe the first three claims (pro, local, college), but the 'international' call is perhaps a step too far. I've been counting international stories that have come through on the SI feed over the last month, and the grand total is ... 12. Compared to literally hundreds of US-based stories. No Ashes coverage, not a peep about Shane Warne's retirement and European football only makes it into the mix thanks to David Beckham being ordered to miss Tom Cruise's wedding. For interests sake, here's the non-American stories that were deemed worthy enough for SI coverage...

• Beckham ordered to miss Cruise's wedding
• Federer rips Nadal in Masters Cup semifinal
• Federer routs Blake to win Masters Cup title
• Five-time Olympic champ Thorpe, 24, retires
• Yacht capsizes during around-the-world race
• Zanardi's inspiring F1 comeback ends early
• Spanish cycling champ dies in racing crash
• Italy's Cannavaro earns Golden Ball
• Skiers worried about global warming impact
• Safin, Russia lock up second Davis Cup title
• Els wraps up South African Open with 65
• Match-fixing scandal rocks Israeli pro league

NBA: Knicks v. Nuggets brawl

Ten players were ejected (all those on the court at the time), seven have since been suspended (with NBA scoring leader Carmelo Anthony getting the longest suspension of 15 games), and the Knicks and Nuggets clubs have each been fined US$500,000, after one of the biggest all-in brawls ever seen in NBA history.



From the Houston Chronicle...

It was the NBA's scariest scene since the brawl between Pacers players and Pistons fans two years ago. The league is still recovering from that episode, and Stern made it clear the players must learn to control themselves.

"We're going to go after the players who aren't able to stop," he said during a conference call. "We have set up the goal of eliminating fighting from our game. We haven't eliminated it completely."

Anthony's suspension was the sixth longest in NBA history. Mardy Collins, whose hard foul on Smith sparked the fighting, was suspended six games and Knicks teammate Jared Jeffries will miss four. Also, the Knicks' Jerome James and Denver's Nene were both penalized one game for leaving the bench area during the chaos.

Auckland City v. Al Ahly - World Club Championships 2006: video highlights

As mentioned the other day, NZ's football champs Auckland City (not to be confused with the Beleaguered NZ Knights, who play in Australia's A-League), were the Oceania representatives at this year's FIFA Club World Cup. Here's the goal highlights from their match against African champs Al Ahly...

Scottish response to the Haka

After all the brouhaha surrounding 'appropriate' responses to the All Blacks haka (after the debacle that was this year's test against Wales), some clever clog from Scotland has come up with a suitable reply from that part of the kingdom...

The ins and outs of Rugby: the Maul

Following on from the video highlighting the new rugby scrum laws we posted the other day, here's some more footage for those of you not totally au fait with the vagaries of rugby union, in which the various techniques of the maul are highlighted...

The Dropkicks - Episode 36

The Dropkicks penultimate show of 2006 in which they discuss: Sevens, the Fiji Coup, the 1st Cricket Test NZ v. Sri Lanka and the ensuing runout controversy, cheerleaders, Willie Mason and the NY Jets!?, and we announce the winner of the Movember competition.

Download Episode 36 (right-click, save as...)

Beleaguered New Zealand Knights 'embarrassing'

Now even the NZ Herald is calling them the "Beleaguered New Zealand Knights"! Brilliant.

In the latest twist in the tale of our favourite under-performing football club (won 3, drawn 6 and lost 28 of their 37 matches since the A-League commenced last year) it seems their license is to be revoked (license to shoot? never really had one to start with, did they?), and that the Football Federation of Australia looks likely to hand over running of the club to New Zealand Soccer in the short-to-medium term while new owners for the club were found. From the Herald story...

Speculation is mounting that the FFA snatch back ownership of the Knights' licence with five weeks remaining in the A-League season, as they did with the Perth franchise in March.

The Sydney Morning Herald today said the FFA's patience with the ownership and direction of the under-performing Knights had run out. It would make its move to give potential new owners as much time as possible to bid for the franchise next season.

NZS chief executive Graham Seatter had no idea when or if the FFA would claim back the licence but confirmed he had been asked less than a week ago if NZS would be prepared to assist in the running of the club until their final round match on January 21.

"Why wouldn't we?" Seatter told NZPA.

"At the end of the day it would be an embarrassment if a New Zealand team defaulted at the end of that competition.

"We're committed to make sure that doesn't happen."

Knights management were unavailable for comment this morning.

To the new owners: can we just get more kiwis playing in the side? If a bunch of 'technically limited' NZ amateurs can put on a semi-respectable show at the World Club Champs (losing 2-0 to African champs Al Ahly), then surely we can put together a mostly professional local team that can compete with some Aussie clubs? Surely?

A Dropkick does well

Congrats to fellow Dropkick Hadyn Green, who has placed third in the 1st Sportingo Challenge.

The Challenge was to write a piece on one of these two topics: Compare your most and least favorite games or What unites and/or divides sports fans? and Hadyn whipped up a piece entitled "Sport - Why Do We Follow It?"

Nice work Hadyn, and, indeed, one day you might get paid to do this sort of thing.

Movember - it was for a good cause, remember?

Well, all that whisker burn suffered by the female population of NZ when their menfolk decided en masse to grow moustaches for 'Movember' wasn't for naught. The NZ Herald reports that...

The hirsute month of "Movember" - when 11,000 men grew moustaches - raised more than $700,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Barry Young, president of the foundation, said the Movember campaign raised the profile of men's health issues and prostate cancer in particular. Prostate cancer kills 600 men a year.

Thanks to all those who chipped in with some cash.

And the winner of our very own Movember contest will be announced in the next podcast (should be online tomorrow - Thursday - some time).

New Rugby Laws Video

A quick video demonstration of the new rugby scrum that comes into effect next year...



A full run-down on the law change is available over at the IRB site, which also has a handy guide to the multitude of ways you can be penalised at scrum time.

Sigh.

The Dallas Cowboys are building a new stadium. It's really nice.

And what are we doing in preparation for the Rugby World Cup? Upgrading good old Eden Park.

Sigh.

Kiwis clean up at Indonesian A1 Grand Prix

Congratulations to Jonny Reid and the NZ A1 Grand Prix team who cleaned up both the Sprint and Feature races at the Indonesian leg of the global motorsports competition. Reid managed to win the race despite the efforts of German rival Hülkenberg and his judicious use of the PowerBoost button...

Relishing the wet conditions, Hülkenberg put Reid under heavy pressure for the lead over the first lap and drew level with the New Zealander down the pit straight at the end of the lap using the PowerBoost button. Reid however kept his line and jinked to the right down the straight into turn three to defend his lead from the German.

We kid you not: a PowerBoost button. It would appear the A1GP organisers may have been playing too much PlayStation, but, whatever the case, it certainly introduces a new element to what some might describe as the monotony of top-level GP racing. From the A1GP FAQ that describes the PowerBoost...

By changing the engine's parameters, the system can give the driver an additional 30bhp over a limited time during each race. Taking the A1GP car to its maximum 550bhp, the PowerBoost will encourage overtaking and even more exciting racing. Driver activated by a button mounted on the steering wheel, the PowerBoost function will only work if the button is pressed when the throttle is above 80 per cent and the car speed is above 60kph.

Awesome. And kinda puts cricket's PowerPlay into perspective, doesn't it? A real cricket power play would entail an additional 30km/h of speed on a Shane Bond delivery. We can but dream...

Anyway, this latest result augurs well for local motor-sport fans, as the next leg sees the debut of Taupo as a venue for the A1GP, with the weekend of the 20th/21st of January being the qualifying and race days.

Feelgood story of the Summer...

From the Guardian. The story of a profoundly autistic seven-year old who comes out of his shell when he goes surfing...

Luke, whose expression is first stricken, then shocked, suddenly drops into a grin so big I see spray go into his mouth. He is chattering something that I'm close enough to hear, but the world, for some reason, has gone mute. It's a good couple of seconds before I figure out why: I am laughing and sobbing at the top of my lungs while hopping on the rocks in bare feet. There are several teens fishing for trout nearby, and they look me over like some six-toed frog that turned up on their hook. 'Lukey's surfing!' I yell, still pogo-sticking. 'My little boy is surfing!'

Read the full story here...

The Dropkicks - Episode 35

The Dropkicks have lunch at Chow, and between miso soup and assorted rice dishes discuss: Sevens Rugby; South Africa v. World XV; Beleagured NZ Knights; Athlete and Dick of the Week; and more...

Download Episode 35.

Cricket: New Zealand v. Sri Lanka, 1st Test 2006

My god - New Zealand playing Test Cricket!

Yes, it's hard to believe, but here we are, the #7 test-playing nation in the world, taking on the #5 outfit, with the chance to go equal 5th should we win the series 2-0. (Jumping South Africa in the process).

Anyway, at times like this, Radio Sport and cricinfo are our friends.

A good, if perplexing, start to the day. There was much mirth about the decision of the Sri Lankans to bat after they won the toss. It's almost as if they thought the media was tricking them about the green top and early swing. But no, the tourists went out onto Lancaster Park Jade Stadium in overcast conditions and, totally understandably, got cleaned up by Bond and the NZ seamer contingent for only 154 runs.

Even more amazingly, the NZ upper order didn't disintegrate after Jamie How was out for a duck with the score on 1. Instead, recent returnees to the NZ squad Cumming (fnarr!) and Sinclair put on 69 (fnarr!) for the second wicket. The day ended with Fleming in with Cumming at 85/2, and looking pretty set to maybe put on a big total and spend a couple of days trying to bowl the Sri Lankans out. (And one can only hope that as Fleming is nicknamed 'Flem', Cumming is likewise 'Cumm'.)

More coverage and recent analysis over at Blogging it Real, Mike on Cricket and Rain Stops Play. Ball-by-ball at cricinfo here.

...how good would Ms Johansson have looked?

Some classic Guardian online commentary of the current Ashes test match (although, not online any more, it would seem), as spotted by Mike on Cricket...

117th over: Australia 392-6 (in reply to 551; Clarke 54, Warne 4) Seeing Giles get a wicket on this pitch, with Monty in the stands, is a bit like seeing Lorraine Kelly look radiant in a particular dress. It's nice and all but you can't help but wonder: how good would Ms Johansson have looked?

One for the ladies....

The Stade Français rugby team have been getting their gears off for a calendar shoot since 2001, helping to make it one of the most popular rugby teams in France, and something of a pin-up favourite of the gay community around the world.

Here's Frédéric Michalak's photo-shoot from 2006...



Ummm, nice tattoos, Frédéric.

Ireland v. Pacific Islands: 26 November 2006 - video highlights

Including the Pacific Islanders' sipi-tau - their own equivalent of the famous All Blacks' haka.

[vaguely soporific soft-opera soundtrack, be warned].



Final score: Ireland 61 - Pacific Islands 17.

The Dropkicks - Episode 34

The latest podcast is now up!

This week the Dropkicks come to you without preparation, without the internet, but with the usual unusual mix of aplomb and stupidity. Despite these handicaps, we manage to review another week of top-notch sports action and news: International rugby, including the All Blacks v. Wales game and enusing haka controversy; South Africa v. England; Ashes Test Cricket. Dick and Athlete of the Week. Corrections and Clarifications. The Tri-Nations League Final Kiwis v. Australia. And the Beleagured New Zealand Knights.

Episode 34 (right click, save target as...)