Rugby Direct

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott Smith and Liam Napier review the All Blacks' big win over South Africa in what was somewhat of a statement performance from them ahead of the Rugby World Cup.

We di…

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott Smith and Liam Napier review the first All Blacks' test of season 2023, the big win over Argentina in Mendoza, while we also touch on the controversial pitch invade…

This week on Rugby Direct, we're in wine country in Mendoza counting down to the first test of Rugby World Cup year for the All Blacks - an assignment against Argentina.

Elliott and Liam debate the l…

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott Smith and Liam Napier wrap the Super Rugby final as the Crusaders ascended to Seventh Heaven with their seventh title in as many years.

We talk the major moments an…

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott and Liam beam in from Te Awamutu to discuss the 36-man All Blacks squad named by head coach Ian Foster, who also drops by the podcast to offer his reasoning on some…

On this special edition of Rugby Direct, Elliott Smith and Liam Napier are joined by Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan for a feature-length interview covering plenty of issues around the game …

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott Smith and Liam Napier review the Super Rugby quarter-finals and debate whether Ardie Savea scored that try and whether the referee made the right call.

We also zero…

This week on Rugby Direct, it's a bumper episode as we look at the Super Rugby regular season, a new rugby Knight and a couple of new coaches for the local franchises.

The Crusaders have appointed Ro…

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott and Liam recap a busy week of rugby news with Will Jordan re-signing with NZR top of the list, before offering their thoughts on Wayne Smith's new performance coach…

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott and Liam discuss the breaking news out of Moana Pasifika that coach Aaron Mauger has resigned as head coach and won't be back in 2024. We contemplate the different …

On this week's Rugby Direct, we review the Chiefs fall to their first defeat of the Super Rugby season while the Crusaders have the better of the Blues in a highly-anticipated local derby... we discu…

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott Smith and Liam Napier discuss the Fijian Drua's win over the Hurricanes and Moana Pasifika's close loss to the Blues and what these sides need to do to take the nex…

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott Smith and Liam Napier react to NZR re-signing Damian McKenzie and Ruby Tui for a couple more years each.

They also assess the Chiefs v Crusaders match and other gam…

This week on Rugby Direct, Scott Robertson has announced his All Blacks coaching team for when he takes over after the World Cup.

So what do Elliott and Liam make of it?

We also debate round nine of …

This week on Rugby Direct,

Elliott Smith (Newstalk ZB's Blues/All Blacks commentator) is joined by Nick Bewley (Crusaders commentator) standing in for Liam Napier.

We discuss the Chiefs v Hurricanes …

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott and Liam discuss the latter's exclusive around the probable make up of Scott Robertson's coaching team for the All Blacks next year and beyond.

We also review round…

In this episode, Elliott Smith and Liam Napier run the rule over the Chiefs beating the Blues and continuing their unbeaten start to season 2023.

We also check in on the Kiwi sides and give a big rou…

This week on Rugby Direct, Elliott and Liam review the Super Rugby Aupiki decider which saw a shock win for Matatu.

We also examine the latest in the race for the All Blacks assistants jobs and revie…

On a special edition of the Rugby Direct podcast, Elliott Smith and Liam Napier discuss the appointment of Scott Robertson as the new All Blacks head coach.

We analyse what it means for Robertson him…

This week on Rugby Direct,

Elliott Smith and Liam Napier discuss the Crusaders' bouncing back with a win over the Blues at Eden Park, while the Highlanders are also in the winners' circle for the fir…