Sports Today: Springboks v Wallabies Game 2, Netball, Off-Track NASCAR and Premier League Soccer

Handre Pollard the well experienced No.10 whose kicking game was top shelf from conversions towards sticks to creative crosses as if the sports fans are waiting for the fireworks to start at any moment at any time for the Boks in Cape Town.

Meanwhile, Ox Nche strong as an ox on the Boks frontline loose prop 1 with an excellent balance of pace and power to break down Wallabies like knocking trees after 70 odd minutes of play.

Finally, Corey Toole on the Wallabies left 11, who showed tremendous deft both defense & attack on debut as seen with the Brumbies.

What a way to introduce yourself in International Rugby after all this time at age 24/25 from the 7s program of course for starters where a few of ours made a name for themselves before Corey enjoyed 2-3 full seasons of provincial 15s rugby.

At least he didn’t make much mistakes unlike 1-2 Boks outside backs – just a pity that injuries and poor end game strategy including three missed late three-pointers allowed Boks to retain the Challenge Plate. 

Wallabies need to stay cohesive because you never know they could win both Rugby Championship & Bledisloe Cup.

We should take note and keep that promise where Wallabies were short like Game 1 last year v All Blacks at Accor of course in Homebush. 

Not only that, Wallabies almost tasted the winning series circle once again at the last two Tests earlier this month v the British and Irish Lions. 

Only if it wasn’t for that last-minute ridicule by Jac Morgan in that red shirt as the lone Welsh representative and ref decided to honour the TRY right on the slot which infuriated the home crowd.

But again, that dead-rubber win also at Accor was better than nothing despite the three-test series have already sailed ship.

Post-Game notes

So while 2025 may have been short of expectations when trying to be the best on-field, it’s all about the golden year of 2027 on home soil for the next Men’s World Cup and 2029 for our Wallaroos.

That’s crystal clear to everyone wanting to see Wallabies back on top of World Rugby.

Speaking of Wallaroos, top start by the girls hours before this one over in Salford, England; they’ve easily defeated Samoa by 73-0. 

If they can beat USA and maybe England, Wallaroos could go on to have a decent Women’s World Cup campaign – maybe even better depending on players coming back fit to play from injury, etc.

Regardless of that close Game 2 loss even without these top players lost to injury when things were scrappy all along, they know Wallabies can be up to the task against any side really who also had their own fair share of injuries and botched selections like the Boks and Lions. 

Better still, glad the Wallabies had their good battles over the two-week mini tour in the Republic v Boks. Although not so much with our playing group particularly Tom “Turbocharged” Wright the dangerous 15 whose injury was revealed to be an ACL knee tear. Shame we won’t see him for a long 6-9 months now much like Noah Lolesio that is going to hit both ACT Brumbies and Wallabies hard – we wish them well on their own recoveries.

Shoutout to Roz Kelly who did resurface on Stan Sport the other day after all during the network’s live and ad-free exclusive coverage of this match. 

It’s been a while since she left Nine/Stan (again) having just moved back to South Africa with her cricketing husband Morne Morkel and their two young boys.

So yes, she may no longer be on contract but glad to hear that she had a front row seat on-deck (one of these words she usually says every time on-air) as a now freelance host/reporter for our viewers.

Guess who also came back other than Roz? But in the opening Wallaroos World Cup early evening Game though on Nine and Stan – Natalie Yolannidis. 

She currently does sports reports and fill-in presenting for the network’s sports news department in Melbourne where she lives today. 

However, she does love her rugby much like Louise Ransome when they used to be at Fox Sports and that network had lots of rugby on their plate at the time. 

Don’t forget Natalie also did some World Feed sideline contributions at Rugby World Cups like the previous women’s tournament three years ago in NZ plus the men’s version two years ago in France.

Final score was Springboks 30-22 Wallabies where game was indeed scrappy on top of a long and hard fought physical contest with highs and lows by both teams but Boks clearly came out on top including a 20-10 lead at the break.

Off-Field notes

As the Rugby Championship takes a week-long pause before going back out on the road again for another two weeks of “mini-tour” games, there were lots of events to look back elsewhere over the past week.

NASCAR

• NASCAR will get a brand new title sponsor for their second-tier racing competition in place of Xfinity Wireless called the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starting next season. 
• From there, Connor Zilisch would be focusing on Cup every week by then because he‘s now officially replacing Daniel Suarez in the third Trackhouse Chevy Camaro (Number TBD) also starting 2026. 
• How good also seeing Kaulig Racing join forces with Ram to assist their return to NASCAR initially at Trucks level with five cars – kudos to CEO Tim Kuniskis for that. No change at least short term with Kaulig’s Cup and Xfinity operations staging Chevy.

Netball

• Super Netball season trade window closed last week with 9-10 NZ signings across several teams except the NSW Swifts (Grace Nweke’s already there since the start of this year & will stay on for 2026), two Melbourne clubs (Vixens and Mavericks) and West Coast Fever.
• Few players across the ANZ Premiership moving places within teams closer to home that makes work-life balance so difficult now that Sky TV didn’t bother to pay up and Netball New Zealand having no other choice but to let their top players go play in Australia while they can still don the Silver Ferns dress.
• Shoutout to the Pulse social team who kept everyone a good laugh in spite of their unfortunate exodus with their best players waking out the door. It’s not a good look for the competition itself in all seriousness including champions Tactix who are on the same boat as Pulse. 
• Okay, we could see a few other teams having a crack at the big dance if it’s not the Mystics, Tactix or Pulse. NNZ does needs to work their creativity on their player retention, however, so they don’t have to leave home. If not, they will just be as good as South Africa and Jamaica when it comes to the best National Leagues from to bottom, not Australia or England.

Going to miss Monday nights which was a unique thing religiously for Netball in New Zealand & was fortunate enough to see it all over the last two seasons but they better need a complete factory reset now without their International quality players.

Premier League

Last but not least, it was great tuning another Saturday night weekend of Premier League soccer on the main channel Nine this time Manchester City v Tottenham at the Etihad in Manchester straight after the Eels v Roosters in NRL. 

Didn’t see that coming when City not only bottled one but two first half goals where shots were half hearted that gave Spurs the benefit of the doubt at full-time.

Also great to see Nine & Stan host a party there at Federation Square in Melbourne with studio analyst and former goalkeeper of course Mark Bosnich stopping by as one of the attendees there. 

Glad there will be more screen time on Channel 9 for you Boz!!

One can hope Nine can show at least the best selected PL games throughout the season when Stan will usually have every match exclusive and ad-free like NBC has been doing for a long time in the US.

There’s still one more if you don’t want to miss this weekend: Chelsea v Fulham – same time, 9.30pm Saturday on Nine.