Sports Today: Silver Ferns v Proteas | Wallabies v ABs | NFL

Sports Today – What a big weekend of big time sport from NFL’s Thursday Night Football to back-to-events across New Zealand where we had Rugby first and Netball next the day.

Netball: Silver Ferns v Proteas, Game 3 in Invercargill

What a game and series was for the Silver Ferns following a 3-0 series sweep where credit goes to Martina Salmon’s emphatic last-second winning strike with the win.

Martina has their full trust with Grace going into next month v the Diamonds and yes, let’s hope the Dame, NZ’s Dame in Dame Noeline Taurua comes back to coach this awesome group again ASAP.

Every time Martina gets her opportunity at such a higher level of pressure this time as the starting Ferns goal attacker, she does not put a foot or hand wrong.

Sure there were some rough edges especially when you’re new to the group but she does find her rhythm eventually at these crucial moments like this. We’ve seen that before every time Martina’s played Finals Netball even though she had less game time this year.

This goes from shooting afar as if two-point super shots always come into play at International level to long bombs and communicating well crucially with GG (Nweke) inside the D.

Forget about Meels (Ekenasio), Martina is ready for more tough challenges ahead, and she’s perfect for this next mission in a bid to help New Zealand protect their Constellation Cup trophy v the Aussies. 

Bring it on!! 

Can’t go wrong with Maddy Gordon playing the pain a bit mainly at C but made a big difference protecting her defense & connecting deep in attack. 

We didn’t see that coming when Maddy played WA for some time when the Central Pulse successfully defended their 3rd placed spot for Finals by a whisker at the busy end of the ANZ Premiership Season.

With Maddy at WD, she didn’t have any second thoughts when she came back on after she had her ankle strapped up. 

Her playing there behind Kelly Jackson & Parris Mason goes to show that Maddy handled those risks very well which was exactly what she needed to do to keep her opponents going sideways and for Maddy to find her attacking numbers at all times.

The question is will we see Maddy stay at her usual role at C or go deeper in front or back come next month? We’ll see because she’s top value here and everywhere.

South Africa, fair play starting with Elmere Van Der Berg, who had so much fun shooting buckets full 60, where counter-attacks was their name of the game.

She’s more than just a goal shooter who always side step defenders that we see in Basketball where one comes quick and jumps high straight up at the hoop whereas Elmere had no issue sinking these in every 20 to 30 seconds to the net.

Elmere will be more than ready to give her best shot onto her next challenge at a place she will be calling home next year in Australia which is the Adelaide Thunderbirds alongside her NZ opponent Kate Heffernan.

Exciting times ahead but Elmere will have to keep her A-Game on in the meantime for her country where there will be another three-game contest this time v Diamonds starting next Saturday in Bendigo.

Other than a good game on paper, South Africa needs to hold their rhythm when it comes to their 2nd half performance that extends into the last 15. Especially when the Ferns were at their best in the long runs.

They’ve tried to protect their lead followed by last-ditch bids to try and make history away from home but it’s just that one bit of discipline and poorly-timed errors the Proteas couldn’t hold on right there. 

Sports Today: Bledisloe Cup Game 1: All Blacks v Wallabies at Eden Park

All Blacks has done enough and well past enough close to full-time with the retention of the 2025 Bledisloe Cup at Eden Park.

The final score was a close one to call even though the battles were better than the last 10-15 years every time the Wallabies play away from home by 33-24.

So the series is already done and dusted with one game to spare next Saturday but under the lights at Perth’s Optus Stadium.

Cam Roigard the future New Zealand No.9 will embrace for years to come following his two-try display along with the kicking consistent Damian McKenzie as the reserve 10 for the unwell Beauden Barrett.

All Blacks were actually so good with their kicking game up high in the air and everywhere touching wood through key landing points including one successful 50/22 kick into touch also by Cam Roigard. It’s imperative for them to manufacture their expansive attacking approach where their men in black runners can release the hounds with wolf-like like well-timed catches and run metres gained New Zealand’s way. 

That’s good to see that for a start on the outside lens with early tries on the board but NZ also struggled to exploit some bits and pieces, especially when injuries haven’t helped much once again — such as the breakdown and most importantly, their execution sometimes where they were held up by Australia at the in-goal line twice. 

It wasn’t a good feeling like it was last time around or two v the Springboks as they better continue to be be a cohesive unit or things will eventually bite back to haunt them where the Aussies almost had their Aha! moment. 

Let’s look at the Wallabies now, they were the better team on open play or long game performance without looking at the result than All Blacks — if it wasn’t for the poor discipline and inconsistent attacking third areas plus rough handling with the ball. 

Imagine if they managed to convert that promising performance on paper into something sensational? We’ve seen it so often by a whisker over the last 1-2 months from the home three-match Lions tour to an almost perfect start of the 2025 Rugby Championship. They were a TRY or two away from finally being welcomed again at this hallowed turf (Eden Park) in nearly 40 years.

Forgot to point out the ref from this game was the same guy (Italian Andrea Piardi) who thought it was okay to award that controversial last-minute win to the Lions back in Game 2 of 3 two months ago.

It was a match that ultimately cost the Wallabies a series win opportunity — despite Jac Morgan dangerously tackling one away & unfortunately, no can do.

Despite some few unlucky and unfortunate mistakes and touch isolated deficiencies, this is the best Wallabies team by far in the modern era since the early 2000s, with the ultimate golden goal of being the No.1 ranked side again by the 2027 Rugby World Cup on home soil.

In the meantime, easy to say that a few stronghold Brumbies players were in the mix as always every year: From Super Rugby level (all the way to semis) to the biggest stage on the International arena. 

However, Billy Pollard is one of a kind, who injects good attacking and defensive variety as Australia’s trusted starting hooker, and also scored a career-first TRY too in the green and gold shirt.

NFL: Thursday Night Football, Seahawks v Cardinals

Brilliant show the other day in this week’s Thursday Night Football match-up with the Seahawks win over Cardinals following a successful last-minute field goal attempt by Jason Myers – he never disappoints behind the kicking tee.

Seen some really good offensive throws and yard gains by the Seahawks runners there with credit to Sam Darnold where not only they were able to convert that into tries, they made the the most of their offensive chances with dominant possession in place throughout the night.

That attacking structure Seattle has put in was set in stone where the throws were properly communicated well and barely lost while adding the extras through three-point penalty field goals. In addition, their tactics were on point too as said with the way the Seahawks rolled the dice – such as taking long-punts to goal and not overcooking their own passage of play.

No wonder they’ve been good at winning away from home or on the road, hands down. There’s a lot more than Seahawks just being good than winning games as again, they know what they were doing that Arizona couldn’t do start to finish.

Unlucky from Arizona, it took them a long while to get themselves back in the game. 

They weren’t bad at times every time these quick field goal opportunities were too good to turn down while throwing the pressure back at the Seahawks players – despite no registered touchdowns for the most part.

As said, Cardinals had somehow found their way back with back-to-back 4th Quarter big scores in quick succession by flattening up their landing points at the short side, and the game was still open to any result after all as the clock ticks down.

However, Arizona just could’ve got their rhythm together though right from kick-off to build a decent lead against someone who’s well good at winning away games like Seattle — rather than trying to put all eggs in one basket and hope for the best.

Sometimes they were also a touch isolated when throws went out on the full with dropped/missed catches, grounded sacks or were left helpless when trying to find their own decoy runners at worst. 

There goes Arizona’s missed opportunities who weren’t even out in front at all with the Seahawks able to stretch their lead.

And unless a miracle was found for the Cardinals to walk away like an intercept from out of the blue with a shock last-gasp win – still too little, too late to at least drag this out a bit longer into overtime.

Nonetheless, Seahawks stood tall over Cardinals at Arizona’s home by 23-20.