The second instalment of the NZ Sevens in Hamilton is done for the year and it is definitely finding its feet. I've posted several times about the Sevens in the past and I definitely do miss Wellington. It was a great thing to be involved in such a cool event right on my doorstep. And what happened to it in later years broke my heart a little. But I enjoyed it in Hamilton in the first year. The tournament definitely had a different feeling to Wellington and this has bedded in

This picture was taken just moments before I had a stupid idea. Certainly not my first. I thought that it might be good if all the kids in the picture, and their parents, pelted me with soft stress balls as a way to close my cross to the big screen. Stress balls aren't that soft when they are coming in large numbers at your head! But that's what the Sevens has always been about, making silly choices. Silly choices of costume, silly choices of how to spend your time and silly

This is the 2nd year for me MCing the Wellington Community Rugby Awards and, once again, it’s a great night! The cool thing about these awards is the way they actually celebrate the achievements of those people who are the heart and soul of Wellington rugby- the club stalwart players and volunteers. You could go a couple of ways with an evening like this. The first would be to do something simple at a local club. Or you could make it special. Getting these guys and gals into

That's the relationship status that's gets the most intrigue on social media. It also goes towards describing how I felt about the recent Lion's Tour I've worked on. It would be pretty obvious to anyone who has even dipped just a little into this blog of gigs I've done that I love rugby. More than that, I love sharing rugby with people. The great thing about the sports presentation gigs I get is that I'm sharing my love of rugby with people who are just as passionate about it

As you may have guessed - I love rugby. So when I was asked to MC the Wellington Rugby Awards I took it pretty seriously. Seriously enough to get into a suit! There had been a bit of bad press for Wellington Rugby (and rugby in general) in the lead up to the awards so it was really nice to celebrate the positive in Wellington Rugby- from the grassroots coaches all the way to the top of the region's mens' and womens' game. It was a nice balance between the relaxed (I think I g

This year, from Tuesday through until the Friday before the Sevens tournament begins Civic Square was the centre of a celebration of Sevens rugby. Billed as "Seven Days of Sevens" we were the final four days of that celebration and I got to MC the whole thing. It was amazing to see Civic Square fill up with school holiday groups, cruise ship passengers, Wellingtonian workers and the curious as we filled the lunchtime with music, sports, sevens stars and a host of other activi

Somewhere in the middle of the all-consuming Rugby World Cup there was another competition taking place - NZ's own National Provincial Rugby comp. It was a strange year for the ITM Championship (where the Lions found themselves this year) because the RWC forced a real truncation of the programme and so we saw mid-week matches and a shorter season. Again it was a real pleasure for Cohen and I to work with the Wellington rugby crew, Janine and Mel at Launch and Dom, Craig and t

I've had a good run with the sports events I've been part of this year - things have gone pretty well on and off the field and the Hurricanes run to the Super Rugby final was no different. On the night of the final we were pretty busy pre-match and I got the chance to interview some pretty cool people for the big screen - including Nathan, who queued all night for finals tickets and Tana Umaga. There was a really nice spot before kick-off where we got to introduce and bring o

Once again it was awesome to be involved with the match presentations for The Hurricanes this season as the onfield MC (also ably assisted by Cohen Holloway while I was out of town on another event). This time we managed to cover every one of the Hurricanes' games at home. It was another awesome experience and we expanded our role this year, not only talking to the awesome fans in the crowd but interviewing players before the game, managing half-time activations and I even go

Having had a taste of life back at the Westpac Stadium with the 2014 Sevens tournament it was great to be asked back to help with the match presentation for a couple of the Hurricane's Super Rugby Games this year. I was really lucky to be there for the win against Auckland and the narrow loss to the Highlanders. In much the same way as I was involved with the delivery of the "Boot for Ute" promotion at the Sevens I got to to help out with on field promotions for the Super Rug

Nothing much to report for this game - helping MC the presentation or the Stadium at the Hurricanes v Auckland game. A good fun time - but you can see from the photo the cool places I get to go with my job. I'm in the players' tunnel mid-game for the Hurricanes. A nice little thing I discovered was that Piri Weepu's mum works on security for every game at the Stadium and her spot is just inside the tunnel. Its so neat to see all the players come up to have a quick chat or a c