Hayden Meikle

Maaaate, have youse heard the one about the jacks and the Lebs and the skips? Maaate, of course youse have.

Russell Coutts can't wait to get home - and he has not ruled out the possibility of returning to his former team.

I honestly don't know where to start with this one.

Matt Crawford had ''Manawatu'' next to his name but the promising young boxer burst with Otago pride when he won a national title at the weekend.

Well, it's over.

Two promising players from the Burnley club's development centre in Dunedin are winging their way to Malaysia.

You really don't hear much from Jonah Lomu these days.

Neil Broom? More like Neil Boom. The Otago Volts got an immense contribution from one of their under-rated stars as they swept to a dominant 62-run win over the Perth Scorchers in Jaipur early yesterday.

Four teams remain - and which will go on to claim the NRL title? The Roosters, Rabbitohs, Knights and Sea Eagles will look to their big guns to take them all the way. Hayden Meikle identifies the players to watch.

You can argue the Bismarck du Plessis case from all sorts of angles, but one major theme seems to have been ignored.

Malcolm Fleming knows Burnley has some ground to make up in Dunedin, but he remains adamant the club's development centre can thrive in the city.

Brendan McCullum played a captain's knock to lead the Otago Volts to victory in their opening Champions League qualifying game in India this morning.

Really, you can't go wrong if you include the word ''craft'' in the title of your new handheld game.

Former Dunedin man Ross Blackman's ''heart just stopped'' when he saw Team New Zealand nearly capsize yesterday.

Gavin Stark's name sticks out like a sore thumb in the New Zealand schools squad.

OPINION: The first point to make is that it is not necessarily a bad thing that the Highlanders are going through a mass exodus of players on a scale with any period in their history.

An English club running a development centre in Dunedin claims it will be business as usual despite the abrupt departure of its coach.

Promising openside flanker Hugh Blake will make his return from injury to help Otago face the daunting challenge of playing Canterbury in Christchurch on Saturday.

Three books by or about one of our greatest cricketers and all with titles that perfectly sum the man up.