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Speaker 1: Really sad news today. Norm Hewitt for All All Black, Well, no,

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Speaker 1: it's being a I think the first ever champion of

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Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars, big public campaigner for public health messages,

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Speaker 1: passing away at the age of fifty five after suffering

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Speaker 1: mode of neurone disease. Alex Smith is on Sports Talk

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Speaker 1: tonight and is with us now. This is a real

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Speaker 1: shock to me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, really really sad when that news began filtering through

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Speaker 2: this morning. And wonderful player on the park and remembered

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Speaker 2: for so many different things. I guess throughout his career

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Speaker 2: that I remember that confrontation he had with Richard cockran

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Speaker 2: England and Manchester, and that's one of those things. He's

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Speaker 2: probably best from Trafford it was. Yeah, that was a

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Speaker 2: remarkable moment and one that still gets talked about. What

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Speaker 2: twenty five years later, played with a broken arm for

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Speaker 2: a period in the NPC Final one year for Wellington

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Speaker 2: and then had his well publicized battle with alcoholism. Then

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Speaker 2: turned his life around and used that as a force

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Speaker 2: for good, wrote a very very compelling book I remember

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Speaker 2: reading That's around It, and became an advocate for the

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Speaker 2: Alcohol and Drug Help Line, and then had this twist

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Speaker 2: to you know, do Dancing with the Stars and you

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Speaker 2: think about what twenty years ago, Yeah, a rugby player,

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Speaker 2: much of a rugby player like Home, you were going

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Speaker 2: to do that, not only doing it, but winning it. Crushing, rushing, absolutely, killing, absolutely,

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Speaker 2: you know, a remarkable character and so multifaceted, and you're

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Speaker 2: really really sad news to hear that past.

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Speaker 1: I think I think about how he used his public

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Speaker 1: profile to talk about alcohol harm in the way that

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Speaker 1: I think was really brave for that time as well,

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Speaker 1: You're really brave, and you know he'd had that all

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Speaker 1: the bad headlines and stuff and he turned that around.

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Speaker 1: I just I thought he was a really remarkable individual

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Speaker 1: for doing that at a time when that sort of

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Speaker 1: response wasn't necessarily guaranteed. Toyo Harris, Yeah, it was the

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Speaker 1: remainder of the season.

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Speaker 2: Not good news for the worrying is a wrist injury

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Speaker 2: that he's been battling all season long, and they've tried

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Speaker 2: to sort of keep him going on. He's come off

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Speaker 2: the bench a couple of times and he's had a

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Speaker 2: we break from things, but they've decided now that that's

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Speaker 2: him done for the season, so needs to have it

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Speaker 2: properly sorted out and me back to next year. Not

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Speaker 2: what the team needs. They're currently in that battle for

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Speaker 2: the top eight and there down in eleventh at the moment,

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Speaker 2: chasing a playoffs. What they've got the Raiders this week,

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Speaker 2: which looms is a bit of a four point game.

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Speaker 2: They win that, maybe they're back in the reckoning. They

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Speaker 2: lose it, you'd probably say it's going to be really

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Speaker 2: hard to reel some of those teams back in. But

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Speaker 2: the kind of leader that is very talismanic for the Warriors,

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Speaker 2: you lose him. Shaw, Johnson's already not there, a couple

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Speaker 2: of other experienced players, you know, the season that had

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Speaker 2: promised so much at the start of the season, given

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Speaker 2: what they did last year within a win of the final.

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Speaker 2: It's all sort of crumbling at the moment for the Warriors.

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Speaker 2: And look, hopefully they can do it without them, but yeah,

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Speaker 2: big loss for them.

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Speaker 1: I want a number before you go of the starting

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Speaker 1: fifteen from last weekend. How many do you think it'll

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Speaker 1: be starting in Gadieger this week?

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Speaker 2: Let's say six I've plucked out of nowhere, especially how

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Speaker 2: right I am on Thursday when its name, but expecting

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Speaker 2: a few changes for the for the All Blacks, chatting

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Speaker 2: with Leo McDonald earlyer Patrick twep a lot too has

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Speaker 2: stayed at home because he's him meant to be back

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Speaker 2: by now and he's gone and play three Titanic games

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Speaker 2: for the Blues and the All Blacks. So they're going

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Speaker 2: to reach a few players, get some new ones in

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Speaker 2: there and better change for Fiji.

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Speaker 1: Very good. Thanks. So that is Alie Smith. He's on

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Speaker 1: Sports Talk this evening from seven o'clock for

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Speaker 2: More from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen live to news

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