Web Week

Sporting chances

With cricket, tennis, golf and rugby all vying for attention, the ardent armchair sports fan could be justified in seeking special leave to sit at home and soak it all up. If your boss isn't that understanding, there's plenty of opportunity to keep tabs on what's going on from the office, with an abundance of local sports websites. Busiest of the lot in February was xtramsn, according to Nielsen/NetRatings - even if Danny Morrison's column on the front page yesterday was written when we still had a faint chance in the one-day cricket series against Australia.

King Rugby

The 2005 Super 12 season is only a couple of weeks old but rugby is already attracting plenty of interest. This site, run by the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, is not just about the national side - there are links, as well, to the NPC and Super 12. If you have the bandwidth, there's plenty of audio and video. As the buildup to the Lions tour intensifies, reassure yourself here that the All Blacks are at the top of international rugby's pecking order and none of the sides contributing Lions players are in the big three.

Surf's up

Perhaps surprisingly, this site attracted more visitors in February than golf.co.nz, according to Nielsen. In theory, golfers should have been flocking to their online home for news of the New Zealand Golf Open, staged last month at Gulf Harbour. But summer is also peak season for wave riders, who can view webcams on this site showing surf conditions at more than a dozen North and South Island locations.