{"id":564683,"date":"2026-08-10T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/564683\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:46:10","slug":"winners-losers-a-warriors-redemption-and-all-blacks-cause-for-concern-in-south-africa-christopher-reive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/564683\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners & Losers: A Warrior\u2019s redemption and All Blacks\u2019 cause for concern in South Africa – Christopher Reive"},"content":{"rendered":"

With an injury to Martin opening the door for Metcalf to return in his preferred position, the 27-year-old made an example of the competition\u2019s best team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This was the kind of performance \u2013 well, 65 minutes of it at least \u2013 that stokes the fires of belief in fans as the Warriors were superb from the opening whistle, with an intensity and physicality Penrith couldn\u2019t match in the first half. <\/p>\n

\"LukeLuke Metcalf impressed in the Warriors’ win over the Panthers. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Off the back of that, the backs were able to make their mark; Metcalf leading the way with a strong kicking game, while flashing his talents with ball in hand, nabbing two tries in the 28-12 win. <\/p>\n

There might be concerns about the Penrith fightback from the 60th to the 75th minute, but this was fuel for the It\u2019s Our Year brigade \u2013 and Metcalf\u2019s role in that probably has St George Illawarra Dragons fans counting down the days until he dons the Red V.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Loser: A cause for concern in South Africa? <\/p>\n

Exposed. Under pressure.<\/a> Areas of the game they would have hoped to deal with better. <\/p>\n

There has been some honest reflection from the All Blacks camp after their 38-21 win over the Stormers in Cape Town on Saturday morning in a contest that sets an uneasy tone for the long tour ahead. <\/p>\n

Dave Rennie\u2019s side drew the ire of a very involved refereeing group and struggled to adjust to the officiating, receiving three yellow cards in the contest. <\/p>\n

Their scrum was roughed up, the Stormers\u2019 driving maul consistently caused problems and \u2013 perhaps most alarmingly \u2013 they struggled under the high ball. <\/p>\n

\"AntonAnton Lienert-Brown and Simon Parker both sit off the field after yellow cards in the first half against the Stormers. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Their first outing of the tour,<\/a> with several usual starters missing … many expected a scratchy outing from the All Blacks in this contest. <\/p>\n

But perhaps not to that extent. The lengthy delays caused by TMO checks also didn\u2019t make for enjoyable viewing. <\/p>\n

The good thing about the tour is they don\u2019t have to wait long to address things, with Wednesday morning\u2019s match against Ma\u2019a Nonu and the Sharks their next hit-out. <\/p>\n

Perhaps in response to some of those issues, the All Blacks have brought in the propping combination of Ethan de Groot and Fletcher Newell, first-choice openside flanker Luke Jacobson \u2013 who will captain the team \u2013 while the entire starting backline has been changed. <\/p>\n

Onwards and upwards. <\/p>\n

Winner: A stark contrast<\/p>\n

The announcement of a foreign professional sports team travelling Downunder for a pre-season fixture often brings unrealistic expectations. <\/p>\n

When Tottenham Hotspur played Auckland FC a few weeks ago, unfortunately timed with the pointy end of the World Cup, fans would have been disappointed to see the club take it as a chance to give their wider squad a run, with plenty of high numbers on the field before a few of their bigger names entered in the final 30 minutes. <\/p>\n

There could be no such complaints when Chelsea\u2019s women\u2019s team<\/a> played an Auckland FC Invitational XI at Eden Park on Saturday afternoon. <\/p>\n

\"ChelseaChelsea thumped the Auckland FC Invitational XI 7-0 in Auckland. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

No, it wasn\u2019t their best, in-season XI, but almost all of Chelsea\u2019s starting lineup had international caps, including Ellie Carpenter (101 for Australia), new signing Katie McCabe (107 for Ireland) and Alyssa Thompson (32 for USA). <\/p>\n

Against an invitational team of Kiwi players put together for the match, Chelsea showed their class in a 7-0 win.<\/p>\n

Aggie Beever-Jones, who has 16 caps for England, scored a hat-trick inside 24 minutes. They led 4-0 at halftime, completely outclassed the Auckland side and potentially won a few new fans in the process. <\/p>\n

Loser: Gianni Infantino <\/p>\n

Everything around Fifa post-World Cup does not seem to be going to plan for the man in charge.<\/a> Now, after his plan to sell a stake in future World Cup profits to private investors was scuppered, heat has come on the organisation\u2019s president \u2013 largely out of Europe \u2013 with the position up for election in March 2027. Fifa has, unsurprisingly, supported the man at the head of the snake, but the next few months could provide an entertaining little sideshow.<\/p>\n

Winner: Rugby\u2019s unintentional hybrid <\/p>\n

Speaking to Newstalk ZB\u2019s D\u2019Arcy Waldegrave last week,<\/a> Wellington loose forward Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi admitted it wasn\u2019t his idea to move into the midfield in the NPC side\u2019s clash against Auckland. <\/p>\n

But anyone who saw him storm onto the ball from a long lineout, over the top of a defender to set up a try would argue that it\u2019s an experiment worth the Lions pursuing \u2013 particularly in the modern day where hybrid players are becoming more commonplace. <\/p>\n

Christopher Reive<\/a> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With an injury to Martin opening the door for Metcalf to return in his preferred position, the 27-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[190,5263,95,3390,8136,25346,16426,2516,2082,78,49876,111,139,69,52591,178711,15556,1240,46453,213,210,3006,4767,16566,8598],"class_list":["post-564683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-africa","tag-all","tag-and","tag-best","tag-blacks","tag-cause","tag-christopher","tag-concern","tag-for","tag-in","tag-losers","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-redemption","tag-reive","tag-runs","tag-south","tag-sporting","tag-sports","tag-through","tag-warriors","tag-weekend","tag-winners","tag-worst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}