Football
New Zealand off to perfect start in Suva - A hat-trick from Ben Waine has helped the New Zealand U-23 men get off to the perfect start at the OFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Fiji.
Des Buckingham’s team put away a determined Samoan outfit 6-1 in their opening game in hot and fine conditions this afternoon at the ANZ National Stadium in Suva.
New Zealand, on the back of two impressive 1-1 draws with Australia, were well-organised and their quality in the attacking third of Clayton Lewis, Myer Bevan, Ben Waine and Logan Rogerson caused the Samoan defence plenty of problems.
New Zealand U-23 coach Buckingham was pleased with the team’s first performance.
“It’s a good start,” he said. “People tend to get all excited and nervous around the first game so it is good to get here and play, score six goals. This performance sets us up nicely for the second game [against American Samoa] so that will help ease some nerves and get us going. he said.
In the earlier game, the Solomon Islands beat American Samoa 6-0 in Group A. New Zealand meet American Samoa on Tuesday.
Weightlifting
Weightlifter Megan Signal put her best foot forward on the World Champs weightlifting stage, with New Zealand records and an Oceania Clean and jerk record.
Megan placed 19th overall, 23 placings up from last year with a 30kg improvement. Snatch: 92kg, C&J 115k and total 207kg.
Fellow lifters will compete on Friday starting 2pm NZT
Rugby
Congratulations to the All Blacks on their World Cup opening 23-13 win over South Africa.
Good Luck to: The Canoe Slalom team heading into the World Champs starting on the 25th and the Athletics NZ team heading to the IAAF World Champs in Doha starting on Friday
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