Sportscafe

On Friday night at Allianz, Connor Watson runs out against South Sydney in Jai Arrow's 100th and final game for the club - an appearance the NRL changed its interchange rules to allow after Arrow's MND diagnosis forced him to retire in May.

Connor, Tayla and Lynny break down the scenes on the Gold Coast last weekend and what Friday is going to feel like from the other side of the field.

Then Craig Wing joins us. He came through as a South Sydney junior, debuted for the Bunnies in '97, and ended up building most of his career at the Roosters after Souths were thrown out of the competition.

Nobody is better placed to explain this rivalry - and we asked him which one he'd actually pick. Plus: Neil Townley is 69 years old and still playing local footy every weekend. He gives the Sportscafe team a rev-up they will not forget.

In episode three of Sportscafe Legends, Marc Ellis and Ric Salizzo sit down on Herbie the housebus with Lucy Lawless - Xena: Warrior Princess herself.

She grew up in Mount Albert with no fences and no curfew, was nicknamed "uncoordinated" at school, and then spent six years and 24-episode seasons swinging a sword nine months a year. Xena big in New Zealand, but it was enormous in Italy, Turkey, the Philippines and Iran - and somewhere around episode eight, Lucy found out her character had become a global gay icon, via a stack of faxes from New York while she was standing on the side of set.

These days she'd rather direct than act, and keeps turning down offers from America to do it.

She also has a hobby that comes up about twenty-five minutes in, and it's not what you'd expect.

Marc and Ric get into what Xena did for the New Zealand screen industry, knowing Russell Crowe when he was running an underage nightclub, the first time in her life she felt proud of herself, and what Herbie is actually being used for.

CHAPTERS
Chapters

00:00:00 Welcome to Herbie
00:01:27 A slow start to the day
00:02:20 Growing up in Mount Albert
00:04:34 Slightly delinquent
00:05:49 How the acting started
00:08:28 Becoming a gay icon by accident
00:09:19 Marc was an extra on Xena
00:10:16 Russell Crowe before Russell Crowe
00:11:35 "My nickname at school was uncoordinated"
00:12:31 Nine months a year, 14-hour days
00:13:13 What Xena did for the NZ industry
00:14:55 Watching a film a day
00:18:50 Why she's directing now
00:21:43 New Zealand needs to feed itself
00:24:01 When kids were allowed to disappear
00:24:42 The murder trials
00:25:33 The hearing
00:26:10 Why she goes
00:28:30 Pizza etiquette
00:29:30 Star Wars, Tom Selleck and the Ewok problem
00:32:29 The proudest she's ever been
00:34:48 Never Look Away
00:35:31 Working with Marc Ellis
00:38:44 What Herbie is actually for

Sportscafe Legends is presented by Sal's Authentic New York Pizza and Southern Alps Lager. Herbie is fuelled by Gull.

In episode two of Sportscafe Legends, Marc Ellis and Ric Salizzo sit down on Herbie the housebus with La'auli Sir Michael Jones: 1987 World Cup winner, 55 tests, and the man John Hart once called almost the perfect rugby player.

He takes us back to West Auckland, where he grew up with 15 people under one roof after losing his father at four. He tells the full story of the 1989 knee injury that doctors compared to being hit by a car - and the eighteen-month road back that nobody thought was possible. And he explains why, twenty-six years after he retired, his food bank matters more to him than the rugby ever did.

Plus: where "Iceman" actually came from, cheating at Pictionary with Zinzan Brooke, and the gift that started a two-hour argument at a marae up north.

Legends is brought to you by Sal's Authentic New York Pizza and Southern Alps Brewing Co.

Welcome to LEGENDS - a new show from Sportscafe Media, hosted by Ric Salizzo and Marc Ellis, filmed on board Herbie, the 1971 Bedford bus.

Episode one: Manly Sea Eagles and New Zealand Warriors legend Matthew Ridge.

Fresh off travelling the length and breadth of New Zealand - Ridgey joins the boys from Bali for a conversation that starts with missing teeth and a flax backpack, and ends up somewhere none of us expected.

He opens up on the healer who put his family back together when his marriage was falling apart on the other side of the world, standing up in front of 150 people at a marae to talk about being on the receiving end of DV, why ego is the only thing that will ever ruin you, and what it actually takes to change without losing the bloke everyone fell in love with.

Plus: Marc gives Herbie away to Kiwi families doing it tough, the boys weigh up whether a Marc & Matthew show could work in 2026, and much more.
Two blokes who spent their careers trying to beat each other, now trying to work out how to be good men. It's funnier than that sounds.

⚠️ This episode contains discussion of family harm. If it brings anything up for you, the Family Violence Information Line is 0800 456 450 - free, 24/7.

🍕 Proudly presented by Sal's Authentic New York Pizza
🍺 With Southern Alps Lager
⛽ Herbie fuelled by Gull

Chapters

00:00:00 Teaser
00:00:57 Welcome to Legends
00:02:08 The tooth, the flax bag
00:03:03 Could a Marc & Matthew show work again?
00:06:07 Herbie: giving the bus to families doing it tough
00:06:45 On the road with Herbie
00:08:38 The great Kiwi roadie
00:09:56 Life is short and nobody remembers you
00:11:06 "Does the average Kiwi still think you're a...?"
00:12:02 France, the phone call, and the distant healing
00:14:37 The marriage that nearly ended
00:16:16 150 people at the marae
00:17:04 Ridge on domestic violence: "I was the one getting beaten up"
00:21:02 What Ridge learned about his own ego
00:28:03 Why France didn't work and Bali did
00:34:36 India: kids with nothing and the biggest smiles
00:35:33 The flax bag everyone asks about
00:37:29 "Why has the world become like this?"
00:39:48 "Swim, mate"

Alofiana Khan-Pereira has been at the Warriors for five months, but the star winger joins us to talk about standing in the V at Go Media Stadium for the first pre-match haka in NRL history - the goosebumps, the noise when it finished, and what it meant to a kid born in Lismore who only reconnected with his Māori side after moving to New Zealand.

Connor Watson is in studio the week Brian To'o joined the PNG Chiefs, and he's honest about what it's like watching a super club get built around you.

Tayla Montoya ambushes the boys with a round of questions, and Chris Lynn previews the first Test in Darwin in 23 years. Plus a Cathy Freeman classic from the archive, the bird watchers' return, and Joey's very expensive way of getting into his own house.