The week’s best live action
NETBALL
The 2020 ANZ Premiership gets under way this weekend with 2019 champs the Central Pulse taking a stack of pre-season form into the competition opener against the Mainland Tactix in Blenheim (Sky Sport 3, Sunday, 4.00pm). Straight after that it’s an Auckland derby with the Northern Stars at home to the Northern Mystics (Sky Sport 3, 6.00pm). On Monday, the Southern Steel host the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic (Sky Sport 3, 7.00pm).
SURFING
It’s hard to overstate what a big deal the inaugural World Surf League Piha Pro is for New Zealand surfing. It’s five years since any WSL event was staged here and the Piha Pro is a special one. As a Challenger Series event, it offers equal prize money to men and women. Local surf star Paige Hareb told the New Zealand Surf Journal the event will be “the first time I’ve competed in New Zealand for equal points and prize money, which will be amazing – the future is now”. The women’s field is particularly strong, with five of the top-10-ranked surfers competing – including 2019 world champion Carissa Moore. In the men’s competition, all eyes will be on Kelly Slater, the greatest surfer in the sport’s history, surfing competitively in New Zealand for the first time since 1993. It will be, as our surfer friends say, sick. Coverage begins at 7.00am on Friday on Sky Sport 9.
RUGBY
After what seems like a long time – if not necessarily a bad time – the Blues are back at Eden Park on Saturday and will have high hopes against the struggling
Lions (Sky Sport 1, 4.00pm).