5) Blues v Force, Friday 7.05pm – SKY
The best game of a bad bunch of Super Rugby games this weekend.
4) Wellington Phoenix v Central Coast Mariners, Saturday 7.30pm - SKY
Ooooh…a Kiwi football match with meaning. We don’t get many of these.
The table-topping Wellington club can take a significant step towards securing their first league title with a victory here.
Unfortunately, disaster has struck with captain Alex Rufer suspended from this match.
The champion Mariners will overtake the Phoenix on top of the table, on goal difference, if they win in Gosford.
The A-league competition is a basket case of bad news stories right now. Ironically, some of the better news is coming from this side of the ditch, with the Phoenix having a great season and the new Auckland club being backed by billionaire Texan Bill Foley.
3) Formula One: Japan Grand Prix, Sunday 5pm - Sky
Is it game on for Carlos Sainz, Ferrari and co. or will normal service resume as Max Verstappen and Red Bull look to bounce back from their early Aussie GP exit? A potential watershed moment in F1 history.
2) Caitlin Clark, Saturday 2.30pm – SKY
Hook into the Caitlin Clark Phenomenon as her Iowa team takes on Connecticut in the superbly-hyped American college basketball semifinals.
Clark-mania is sweeping the sports world. The shooting sensation has even been called into the American Olympic camp.
Such is the interest in her that Iowa’s quarter-final against Louisiana State became the most bet women’s sports game ever in America.
But Clark isn’t the only star of the women’s college finals.
Opposing her on Saturday afternoon will be Connecticut point guard Paige “Buckets” Bueckers, rated by some as superior to Clark.
Ironically, South Carolina – the tournament favourites - don’t include the biggest names who have made this year’s tournament such a hit.
But they have Brazilian Kamilla Cardoso, all two metres of her, who has just declared for the WNBA draft. Clark v Cardoso shapes as the story of Monday’s final.
And a rising Kiwi star could be part of this incredible female basketball wave as the WNBA scoops up rising stars like Cardoso.
Waikato’s Charlisse Leger-Walker, who has had a phenomenal career at Washington State, has just put herself up for transfer and could be recruited by one of the big basketball universities next season.
1) Warriors v Souths, Saturday 5pm – SKY
Tohu Harris and the lads take on the underperforming Rabbitohs, a target in the Aussie media of late.
As the story goes, Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell have too much say at the NRL club.
And now they have lost their great try-scoring wing Alex Johnston to injury for this game in Sydney.
The Warriors welcome back hard-charging fullback Charnze Nicholl-Klokstad, a star of 2023, but lose classy second-rower Kurt Capewell and Luke Metcalf.
Not so fun fact: Souths crushed the Warriors twice last year.
