Sportscafe

Laurie Daley joins us three days out from finals week, with a read on the premiership race, the Blues' Origin decider, and an answer on whether he'd ever take an NRL head coaching job.

Then Joey lays out an officiating theory about Mt Smart and The Warriors that's going to cost him a few friends in Auckland. Fair question or sour grapes?

Connor Watson on captaining the Roosters for the first time, the hospital pass that flattened his own halfback, and the off-season dinner he now owes him. Sharni Layton on Australian Survivor, the Commonwealth Games campaign she gave up to film it, and what happens to an athlete's identity after retirement.

Plus the Aussie squad for South Africa, the NFL landing in Melbourne, and three clips from the depths of the internet.

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck joins Marc Ellis and Ric Salizzo on Herbie for Sportscafe Legends.

He's played for the Roosters, the Warriors, the Kiwis, Toa Samoa, the Blues and the All Blacks. This is his last NRL season before a two-year deal at Wakefield Trinity - and with a knee reconstruction behind him, he's watching the Warriors' run from the sideline rather than the field.

Roger talks about growing up in Otara, being coached as a kid by Eric Rush, ringing Rushy to tell him he was leaving rugby for league, and why he picked 12 when he came back to union.

Timestamps:

Chapters

00:00:00 Cold open
00:00:43 Welcome to Herbie
00:02:11 League fitness vs rugby fitness
00:02:53 Why he chose 12
00:04:31 Learning the game at first receiver
00:05:29 Eric Rush the junior coach
00:07:58 The phone call to Rushy
00:08:44 Why league suited him
00:09:53 Community and 40 memberships
00:10:59 The pathway out of school
00:12:05 A premiership in his second year
00:12:40 When he knew he had a gift
00:14:15 Getting knocked back
00:15:06 Blazers, kit and choosing union
00:17:32 Coming home to the Warriors
00:18:11 Saying no to mum and dad
00:21:39 Heroes: Rushy, Carlos, Benji
00:22:11 Eric Rush and the water slide
00:23:37 Watching this Warriors season injured
00:24:45 Two ACLs and the next surgery
00:25:36 All Black 1204
00:27:11 Wakefield, and letting go of the plan
00:30:41 His brother, LeBron and a PlayStation launch
00:34:15 The Herbie project
00:34:52 Otara was a village
00:36:42 What the travel cost him
00:39:15 What's changed at the Warriors
00:41:23 What it takes to win a premiership

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.