Rugby Union

Welp, just like that, round two of the NPC is in the books, and I think it would be fair to say we have learnt quite a bit about each team, especially now having that 160-minute sample size of each province. After last week’s initial power rankings, it is time for us to dive into yet another edition of the series, and you can expect a bit of movement, with some teams impressing and even a few disappointing. 14. Counties Manukau | 0-3 | Previous Ranking: 14 Counties now fall to 0-2 and have also dropped down the rankings two…

Join Archie Wilson as he breaks down the first All Blacks game of the Greatest Rivalry Tour. 0 Days 0 Hours 0 Mins 0 Secs Rugby's Greatest Rivalry Saturday 8th Aug Stormers $17.00 vs New Zealand $1.01 Rugby's Greatest Rivalry odds correct as of 07/08/2026 and subject to change. Stormers vs New Zealand 5:00am Saturday | DHL Stadium Over 64.5 Total Points @ $1.90 The Stormers, of course a former Super Rugby side now in the URC, provide an opposition that only the likes of Patrick Tuipulotu, Beauden Barrett, Anton Lienert-Brown and Rieko Ioane potentially have experience taking on. One…

Archie Wilson breaks down every game of Round 2 and provides his best betting plays of the weekend. North Harbour vs Counties Manukau 7:10pm, Thursday | North Harbour Stadium North Harbour -6.5 @ $1.85 Honestly, I was blown away by what I saw in round one from North Harbour, as with essentially a completely overhauled squad, they looked the most dangerous they have been in years against Tasman. They were playing a free-flowing brand of footy that allowed them to keep up with, and at some stages lead, a side that has been a recent powerhouse in provincial rugby. For…

The new NPC season is officially underway, with round one of the campaign done and dusted. While there is plenty to learn from the first 80 minutes of each team’s season, it is still a long road ahead, and just because you had either a good or bad outing does not always mean it creates the blueprint for the rest of the year. So, what we are starting off is our own power rankings, where we are going to take in all of the context, from squad depth to performances and results, and each week provide our rankings of the…

Archie Wilson breaks down every game of Round 1 and provides his best betting plays of the weekend. 0 Days 0 Hours 0 Mins 0 Secs New Zealand NPC Thursday 30th Jul Waikato $2.05 vs Bay Of Plenty $1.72 New Zealand NPC odds correct as of 30/07/2026 and subject to change. Waikato vs Bay Of Plenty 7:10pm, Thursday 23 July | FMG Stadium Waikato Bay Of Plenty To Win @ $1.67 The season opener is a beauty, with last year’s semi-finalists Bay of Plenty travelling to Hamilton to take on the mighty Waikato. Both of these sides look set to…

Just days away now from the kick-off of the 2026 Hilux NPC, and we are down to our final four teams for our player to watch series. If you are interested in checking out the first 10 names selected for this series, you can check out part one (here) and part two (here). With that, there are still a couple of really exciting names to talk about for this season, so why not crack into rounding out this series? Northland | Reesjan Pasitoa Northland are in need of some of their bigger names stepping up this season if they are…

Part one of the series is in the books, and we are finally getting announcements from all of the provinces for their 2026 squads. With that said, it feels like the right time to build off what we did last time (which you can check out here), and look at the next five teams on the list, providing a player to watch from each side in the upcoming campaign. Waikato | Malachi Wrampling New Zealand are certainly never short of loose forward talent, and Waikato have another name starting to climb the New Zealand ranks this year in Malachi Wrampling.…

The 2026 NPC is just around the corner, kicking off in around 10 days’ time. In light of this, we wanted to bring back a series we had last year called “5 Players to Watch”. However, instead of just running back the short version, we are going to extend the series and show love to all 14 teams in the competition. This year, during the countdown to the 2026 season, we are going to release a three-part series where we pick one name from each province who sticks out to us as a potential player to watch throughout the campaign.…

Hands down, the best All Blacks performance of the Dave Rennie era and one of the best I have seen in a long time from a side in the black jersey. Against Ireland, they were in control from the jump and never really looked back, with the majority of the side putting up good to great performances. That level across the board made it difficult to pick the top five players from the weekend, because so many names deserve a shoutout. But duty calls, and we have narrowed it down once again. 1 Point – Ruben Love Plenty of contention…