Sportscafe

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.

Cathy joins the Sportscafe chaos and cricket legends Merv Hughes and the late great Dean Jones in the madness.

Glenn Maxwell joins Sportscafe from Melbourne - and when the boys bring up the finger-clicking scandal that's engulfed English club cricket this week, Maxwell starts doing some maths on his own career. He's got a theory about a few dismissals in his grade cricket days...

Also this week: Calum from the Talbot Bay Birdwatching Club explains how four blokes with binoculars racked up 20 million views, we look at NZ vs. AU at the Commonwealth Games and debate the per capita table, as well as Rohan Browning's amazing comeback story.

Plus: Chris Lynn on the Broncos' brutal fortnight, Connor Watson on the boot auction, and Ric discovers a new use for the per capita medal table