The master - Spain's Sergio Busquets is set to dissect Germany. Photo / AP
The master - Spain's Sergio Busquets is set to dissect Germany. Photo / AP
The best of sport over the next few days as rugby winds down with an epic showdown, and football’s World Cup builds towards a pivotal game.
4) England v South Africa, Sunday, 6.30am — Sky
In case you haven’t had enough rugby for the year, stand by for yellow cards,red cards, TMO interventions and general chaos.
But fans of Rassie “Look At Me” Erasmus will be disappointed, the South Africa rugby overlord has been banned again on match days as punishment for more of his childish social media claims of referee bias against the Boks.
Erasmus is doing a brilliant job of building an us-against-the-world attitude in the Springboks camp ahead of the World Cup — it’s a mood South African rugby once unfortunately saw as a wonderful reflection of their settlers circling the wagons.
Director of rugby Erasmus is so dominant that people forget Jacques Nienaber is the coach. Despite the ban, Erasmus is still heavily involved in — or even running — the Springboks training sessions this week
England coach Eddie Jones also sees himself as a master off-field manipulator, so this game can be seen as a taster for next year’s World Cup.
It features two teams built for epic encounters, which is what happened at Twickenham last year when England won through a last-gasp Marcus Smith penalty.
In an earlier match on Sunday, Wales host Australia — appropriate curtainraiser timing for teams in poor form.
Or to put it another way, New Zealand’s reputation for producing great international rugby coaches is taking a hammering. Ian Foster, Dave Rennie, Wayne Pivac… it’s hardly been a stellar year for the brand.
3) Black Caps v India, Friday, Sunday, Wednesday, 2.30pm — Spark
Fresh from a 160-75 tie (isn’t cricket weird?) in their final rain-hit T20 game, the New Zealand-India roadshow goes long-form with the ODIs.
If you can handle cricket that lasts more than a few hours, it could be a bit of fun if the weather behaves. The forecasts for Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch are reasonably promising.
Kane Williamson in action during the second T20 against India. Photo / Photosport=
2) Hayden Wilde goes for the world triathlon title, Saturday, 11.50pm — Sky
Can it really be so long between drinks?
Bevan Docherty claimed the last triathlon world title for New Zealand, a memorable day in 2004 when he touched hands with Spain’s Ivan Rana before pipping him by a second in the sprint home, in Portugal.
The world triathlon crown was a one-race deal then, but is now decided over a championships series. Going into the Abu Dhabi finale the 25-year-old Kiwi Hayden Wilde leads on points with his constant rival, Brit Alex Yee, close behind.
If Olympic bronze-medallist Wilde can seal the deal he’ll end the year with a nice pot of gold, a total of about $280,000 in winnings.
1) Fifa World Cup: Spain v Germany, Monday, 8am — Sky
Phew — maybe losing that football playoff wasn’t all bad news, disappointing as it was.
Watching Spain pull Costa Rica apart was pure football joy. It could have been the All Whites — who lost the decider to Costa Rica — chasing Sergio Busquets and Co. to no avail.
It’s hard to beat watching a brilliant Spanish side at their best. They were utterly amazing against Costa Rica, owning the ball while working their unique angles and tricks around a flood of short passes.
This ugly World Cup — smeared by corruption and human-rights issues — needs Spain’s beautiful football and no one is more enjoyable to watch than Busquets, who runs the show from deep.
Meanwhile, Germany have their backs to the wall after losing to Japan, turning this heavyweight Group E showdown between European sides of contrasting styles into an even more fascinating contest.
As for the rest, England v USA (Saturday, 8am – Sky) is always an intriguing proposition, and the world will be expecting Lionel Messi to respond against Mexico (Sunday, 8am – Sky) after Argentina’s loss to Saudi Arabia.
Those relying on free-to-air have some good pickings: eternal favourites Brazil play Serbia (Friday, 8am — Prime) and champions France take on Denmark (Sunday, 5am — Prime).
