The Canta Goes Wild: Issue 9
The Canterbury Rams celebrating their NBL win over the Auckland Tuatara.
Canterbury Rams triumph after 31-year title drought
The Canterbury Rams have a huge reason to be celebrating for the rest of the year. They successfully managed to beat the Auckland Tuatara on opposition home soil 93 – 82.
Key players in the match were Corey Webster, a former Tall Blacks guard and Tevin Brown, an American guard. The team and their coach, Judd Flavell, was no doubt ecstatic with the win. Successfully winning the NBL, a win that hasn’t happened since 1992.
It has been a long, uphill battle for the team to get to this point. After leaving the NBL in 2008, being replaced by the Christchurch Cougars before they withdrew due to the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes. This win for the side has proven to all the teams in the NBL and their fans that they have made a comeback, and they sure as hell won’t be stopped.
Huge shout-out to Tim Smith, one of our beloved feature writers who is the Director of Scouting for the team.
Someone tell Eddie Jones he never had a chance…
I couldn’t think of anything worse than saying on live TV that the whole country of New Zealand should be scared of your side in the up-coming match, and then losing 38 – 7. The Australian side didn’t even hit double digits.
In front of a massive crowd of 83,994, the New Zealand team delivered, scoring six tries and caused havoc for the Wallabies who were definitely a step behind the All Blacks. With Scott Barrett definitely taking man of the match for not only his playing but for shushing Wallabies half-back, Nic White and taking out Tate McDermott in a hard hitting tackle.
Ardie Savea captained the side to victory in the most modest, humble way. In an interview with press after the match, he was only looking to the next match and seeing where the side could improve.
This win follows the All Blacks incredible win over South Africa for the Freedom Cup. Both of these results are promising especially considering the Rugby World Cup is just around the corner.
The Fantastic Football Ferns make history on home soil
Our Football Ferns made history in the opening match for the world cup which was held at Eden Park.
With a crowd of 42,137 people it was a record set for attendance for a football match in New Zealand and women’s sports events. But that isn’t even the crazy part. Hannah Wilkinson scored the goal of the century for the football ferns, earning them their first goal and their first win in a world cup match.
The game was one to watch with the Football Ferns putting pressure on the Norwegians from the start. After half time when Hannah Wilkinson made history scoring the side did well to keep a hold of the win.
Although the Football Ferns didn’t make it through and were knocked out of the world cup. They can rest easy knowing they have made history here in New Zealand and did the country incredibly proud.
Netball defending champions head to South Africa for World Cup
2023 seems to be the year of the World Cups. On that note, the Silver Ferns are currently overseas in South Africa attempting to defend their world cup title.
The side are currently through to the next stage of the Netball World Cup after cleaning up the competition in pool play, topping their pool. Their games have also been incredibly strong with their first game being a 76 – 27 win to the kiwi side against Trinidad and Tobago.
Their second match against Uganda was a nail bitter till the end with a proper challenge put up from the Ugandan side. Luckily in the second half the Silver Ferns managed to pull themselves together and take the win with just ten points in it, 54 – 44.
Even though the side won their last match against Singapore 80 – 19, they are still always looking for ways to improve. Ameliaranne Ekenasio, captain of the Silver Ferns knows her team is capable of more, regardless of how well they are doing.
This World Cup is definitely one to watch, especially with the possibility of facing the Australian rivals the Diamonds again in the final.
