0 What a night!

With She Who Must Be Obeyed otherwise engaged, we had control of the remote last night. And on a wintry night, we parked ourselves on the sofa in expectation of a terrific night of winter sport watching.

First up was the Highlanders vs Crusaders match from Dunedin. This 'southern derby" was hyped up all week, and that's not always a good omen. But on this occasion, the match more than lived up to the build-up. The Crusaders prevailed 32-30, with a crucial last-second TMO decision going (correctly, in our ever-considered opinion) their way. Patrick Osborne was ruled to have simultaneously grounded the ball of the touchline and goalline in Israel Dagg's desperate tackle. It was a fitting end to a magnificent game of rugby.

Then our plans went awry; the rain, lightning and thunder had been intermittent from kickoff in the Dunedin match, but just as the Hurricanes vs Chiefs match was kicking off, Sky went into rain fade mode. We can only conclude that this was the culprit:

As the rain poured down outside, and as thunder shook the whare a few times the TV coverage came and went. We followed progress on Twitter, where we were reminded of the Sky Go facility. Each time however as we logged in on the iPad the TV coverage would be restored, only to go into rain fade again the moment we switched the iPad off! If you're thinking "first world problems" you'd be right, but we did have an entertaining Twitter exchange with Green Party activist Toad, who revealed that he has his live stream set to go on his big TV for emergencies such as this!

But when the final whistle blew, the Hurricanes had blown away the Chiefs by an amazing scoreline of 45 to 8, playing some sublime rugby in windy conditions. The two-time champion Chiefs were simply outgunned last night.

Those two results have thrown the New Zealand conference wide open; here's the points table as at this morning:

Super Rugby is facing a radical revamp, with fewer local derbies. After last night's local derby action, we'd have to question whether Sanzar is doing the right thing. And with four South African sides in the bottom seven, will a sixth South African side add anything to the competition? We have our doubts.

The night wasn't over however. The Vodafone Warriors rounded things off with a 24-16 away victory over Gold Coast. Andrew McFadden has the team playing a more solid style of league, and the Warriors are looking far more consistent. They sit just outside the top eight at the moment, but the table is very congested. The Warriors return to the spiritual home Mt Smart Stadium next weekend, and we're planning a visit in July.

It was a remarkable night of football last night, but there was one thing that shone out like a beacon. A bitter southerly gale blew through Dunedin a couple of hours before kick-off at Forsyth Barr, but under the roof conditions were near perfect. With night-time rugby now an embedded feature of the fixture list, the Christchurch City Council would be mad if they didn't replicate Forsyth Barr stadium when they build a football-only stadium in the city to replace the quake-damaged AMI Stadium.

0 Good news at last for the Vodafone Warriors

It's been a rough week for the Vodafone Warriors. But as the team prepares for its match against the Bulldogs at Eden Park this afternoon, there's been some good and welcome news; Stuff reports:

Simon Mannering and Jacob Lillyman have committed their futures to the Warriors in what is the only piece of good news to come out of the club this week.
Mannering and Lillyman were two of the highest profile players coming off contract at the end of the season and recently Mannering confirmed he was considering moving on.
However, today the club have announced that both will continue their time in Auckland with Mannering signing for another four years and Lillyman for three.
In a week where the Warriors suffered an embarrassing loss, axed their head coach and a war of words erupted between the club's owners, the re-signing of the duo will at last give fans something to smile about.
Whether the timing of the announcement was done to appease fans and move things on from the feud between Sir Owen Glenn and Eric Watson is something that can only be speculated on, but it should lift the mood ahead of tomorrow's game against the Bulldogs at Eden Park. 

For co-owner Watson, the signing of Mannering was pivotal to the club's future; read on:

Watson said it was crucial going forward that the Warriors retained Mannering.
"I've spoken at length to Simon," Watson told Fairfax Media.
"Simon has been a real Warrior and he is what typifies what we want to be as a club -tough, uncompromising, turns up every week and leads from the front.
"He travels more metres than nearly anyone in the NRL, makes more tackles - you know the stats.
"He has been very uncertain to the point where I've talked to him many times.
"If Simon were to go it would have given the media a feeding frenzy."
Mannering's agent, Steve Gillis, is sure to have milked the Warriors' crisis for all it was worth to get the most money he could for his client and Watson confirmed Mannering did have large offers from other clubs.
"Simon had many options and with the money in the NRL increasing significantly of late, players like Simon can command large contracts with any team in Australasia," Watson said.
"Simon could have waited and thought about what he wanted to do. Or he could step up now and support his new coach and take any doubt out of the system.
"Doubt is weakness. I believe we will be able to say that Simon's made the right decision." 

We hope that Simon Mannering has good a really good contract; he deserves it. He started with the Warriors, and looks like being one of those rare beasts in the modern era; a one-club footballer. That is commendable.

Jacob Lillyman too is an important part of the side. When he comes off the bench he makes plenty of metres with the ball in hand, and he is a ferocious tackler. He is the kind of player that any club would love to have, and needs to have.

We wish the Warriors well this afternoon. Today would be a great day for the players to get the Eden Park monkey off their back, and to get back into a winning habit. If they can shake off the turbulance of the past week, and if they take confidence from the leadership shown by Mannering and Lillyman in re-signing, there's no reason why they cannot win today.