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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from NEWSTALKSB.

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Speaker 2: While rival competitions like the NRL and AFL are packing

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Speaker 2: out the Easter long weekend with full rounds of matches,

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Speaker 2: Super Rugby Pacific has just three games sheeduled across the

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Speaker 2: Easter weekend, a decision that has raised some eyebrows among fans.

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Speaker 2: What is behind the lighter schedule and is rugby missing

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Speaker 2: a golden opportunity to stay front of mind over the

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Speaker 2: holiday weekend. Super Rugby Pacific CEO Jack Mesley is with

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Speaker 2: us to give us a bit of insight. Jack only

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Speaker 2: three Super Rugby Pacific games over Easter weekend, while as

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Speaker 2: I say, the NRL and AFL both have full rounds.

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Speaker 2: So why was that decision made?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Ga Pini, Yeah, so we've only got three games

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Speaker 3: this weekend, obviously two in New Zealand and just the

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Speaker 3: one in OZ. Decision was made because when we were

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Speaker 3: built out the draw, we had I think it was

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Speaker 3: six six home clubs with venues saying they were unavailable,

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Speaker 3: and then we've got two clubs that from religious reasons

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Speaker 3: didn't want to be hosting on Easter weekend. So it

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Speaker 3: left us with few options to schedule the weekend. And

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Speaker 3: you know, when we're working with clubs, historically our clubs say,

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Speaker 3: you know, the Easter weekends a difficult weekend for them.

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Speaker 3: Quite often people are leaving, leaving town, heading to their batch,

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Speaker 3: heading to regional areas, and so so that's sort of

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Speaker 3: their preference often is not to play on long weekends

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Speaker 3: as well.

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Speaker 2: I guess it's a big sports watching weekend though, isn't

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Speaker 2: it in terms of eyeballs on televisions. Is there a

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Speaker 2: risk that you're missing a major audience opportunity.

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean I think it's it's a very

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Speaker 3: cluttered market this weekend, and there are some big historic

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Speaker 3: games like the NRL and AFL have have built thirty

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Speaker 3: years of history of Easter games, and so yeah, it

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Speaker 3: is a very competitive landscape and some could say, well,

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Speaker 3: we're missing a trick by going up against them, you know,

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Speaker 3: Others could say, you know, we're being quite strategic around

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Speaker 3: how we place our matches and how we do compete,

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Speaker 3: and you know, we're pretty confident with with what we've

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Speaker 3: rolled out, and last night was a great example of it.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's great match down there down there in

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Speaker 3: christ Church and a big crowd, a big crowd there

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Speaker 3: as well.

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Speaker 2: Is there a scense that you have to be a

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Speaker 2: bit strategic, as you've just outlined, knowing that you know

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Speaker 2: you're not the only game in town, and that the

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Speaker 2: likes of the NRL and the AFL have historically big audiences,

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Speaker 2: more teams in their competition, that sort of thing. Is

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Speaker 2: this a strategic decision to almost give Easter weekend to them?

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Speaker 3: Well, I mean I think our I think it's it's

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Speaker 3: certainly down the list. Our primary kind of motivations are

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Speaker 3: to work with the clubs and what they want for

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Speaker 3: the draw, to make sure that we were supporting them

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Speaker 3: become sustainable, supporting them drivers much ticketting and membership as possible.

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Speaker 3: So that's our primary lens. I think that is a

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Speaker 3: secondary lens in terms of strategically how and where we

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Speaker 3: do compete. I mean in Australia this weekend, it's a

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Speaker 3: difficult weekend. I think we're running. We've got two games

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Speaker 3: in New Zealand this weekend. I think we're the only

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Speaker 3: the only major code playing. I don't think the NRL

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Speaker 3: playing in New Zealand. I don't think the A leagues

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Speaker 3: are playing in New Zealand. So yeah, it's certainly different

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Speaker 3: on different sides of the Tasman as well when it

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Speaker 3: comes to those strategic choices as well.

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Speaker 2: Were your broadcasts comfortable enough with the reduced schedule?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they are. I mean, I think the other element

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Speaker 3: to this is that being an eleven team competition, with

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Speaker 3: all teams having two buys, we've got to work out

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Speaker 3: where we place those buys. And so you know, there

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Speaker 3: is a choice here of if we could have an

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Speaker 3: a weekend with only three games, or we could have

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Speaker 3: two weekends with four games as opposed to our regular five.

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Speaker 3: So you know what's there's there's a bit of strategy

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Speaker 3: in working through the phasing of those bars and how

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Speaker 3: we roll out those bars. And you know, we're keen

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Speaker 3: to have as full of schedule as we can, as

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Speaker 3: many weeks as possible, and so by working with the

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Speaker 3: clubs on this weekend and only having three it means

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Speaker 3: that we we get another full week somewhere else in

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Speaker 3: the drawer that we can we can bring to bring

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Speaker 3: to our fans.

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Speaker 2: Does this feel like it will be your approach moving forward? Jack?

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Speaker 2: Is as Easter likely to look like this? And the

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Speaker 2: and the seasons are hit.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think like anything made. And you know,

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Speaker 3: as you know, we've been very upfront that we're going

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Speaker 3: to try some things that we're going to learn and

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Speaker 3: some things will work and something's wine and the important

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Speaker 3: thing is we learn and adjust. So so we'll do

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Speaker 3: a review of it for sure, and and you know

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Speaker 3: take that into next year. But also going back to

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Speaker 3: sort of one of the one of the key points

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Speaker 3: here is that you know, we had six six of

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Speaker 3: our venues unavailable for for Super Rugby this weekend, so

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Speaker 3: you know we'll need to work in with our venues.

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Speaker 3: I think there's a big expo in your town at

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Speaker 3: the venue for example. Yeah, we'll need to get in

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Speaker 3: and work with our venues and see what's available. And

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Speaker 3: that's a big part of this as well.

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Speaker 2: All right, just to finish one weekend, which is going

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Speaker 2: to be appointment viewing is about three weekends away now

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Speaker 2: super rounds in christ Church. We saw as you mentioned,

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Speaker 2: the Crusaders farewell Addington last night. Everything on target. Planning

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Speaker 2: going well for super Round in about three weeks.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, going really well mate, And you know we sort

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Speaker 3: of announced the entertainment and what's going on in town

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Speaker 3: as well. I think last week or the week before

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Speaker 3: which was which was really well received. All preparations for

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Speaker 3: the stadium are going well. There's a lot of test

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Speaker 3: events and smaller events on to test all of the

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Speaker 3: systems and things. But it's looking great. I saw Dan

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Speaker 3: Carter kicking goals off the deck down there the other

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Speaker 3: day and we're excited that he's also going to be

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Speaker 3: around for Sunday along with UNISEP. So mate, it's going

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Speaker 3: to be just such a great celebration of christ Church primarily,

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Speaker 3: but then Rugby and Super Rugby and the Crusaders after that.

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Speaker 3: But you know, I think you saw what this all

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Speaker 3: means to the city last night in that game. A

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Speaker 3: great crowd there to farewell the old stadium, and there's

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Speaker 3: just such excitement about one new Zealand stadium and the

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Speaker 3: Crusaders moving in to a new home for their for

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Speaker 3: their future.

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Speaker 2: YEP, looking forward to it very much. Indeed, Hey Jack,

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Speaker 2: thanks for providing clarity for us about the Easter scheduling.

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Speaker 2: Look forward to catching up in christ Church in three

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Speaker 2: weeks time.

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Speaker 3: Look forward to a buying thanks mate, No, thank you mate.

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Speaker 2: That is Jack Measley, CEO of Super Rugby, Pacific. You

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Speaker 2: might have some thoughts on the reduced schedule. I know

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Speaker 2: that some people are scratching their heads and wondering why

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Speaker 2: there isn't rugby to watch across the weekend, where the

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Speaker 2: other codes have have stacked their schedules and in fact

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Speaker 2: spread them out, I mean in URLs. The best example

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Speaker 2: of this what NRL have done over Easter weekend. They

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Speaker 2: started on Thursday night with that Sea Eagles win over

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Speaker 2: the Dolphins. There were two games last night, there are

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Speaker 2: another two today, two tomorrow, and then a Monday night

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Speaker 2: game as well. So they've spread their schedule out over Easter.

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Speaker 2: And now, of course they've got eight games. Super Rugby

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Speaker 2: at most have five, so I guess they could have

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Speaker 2: theoretically gone Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. But as Jack

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Speaker 2: just said that, I wasn't aware of this, but their

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Speaker 2: hands were tight in anyways, six home grounds unavailable he

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Speaker 2: mentioned Wellington. There's I was on a Wellington day. Oh,

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Speaker 2: Armageddon is on at Wellington today at Henry Stadium. So

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Speaker 2: with six home grounds unavailable and a couple of other

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Speaker 2: teams keen not to play for religious reasons over Easter weekend,

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Speaker 2: then you know I guess in many ways it's not

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Speaker 2: the worst decision in the world. Of course, we all

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Speaker 2: would have loved to have seen blockbuster super rugby games.

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Speaker 2: Perhaps is where you had a bit of time in

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Speaker 2: our hands over Easter, if you're perhaps away somewhere at

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Speaker 2: the Batch or somewhere you don't normally live and would

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Speaker 2: have tuned in for some rugby. But the collateral would

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Speaker 2: have been, you know, buyers. At other times they've got

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Speaker 2: to get these buyers in. So I must admit I

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Speaker 2: don't actually mind it, which is odd coming from someone

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Speaker 2: who just would watch would watch sport twenty fourths even

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Speaker 2: if he could. But there is a game on tonight

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Speaker 2: obviously which I think will be interesting to watch or

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Speaker 2: listen to. The Chiefs up against the Waratahs. That game

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Speaker 2: underway at five past seven at FMG Stadium in Hamilton.

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Speaker 2: Then the Reds against the Force at sun Corp. I

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Speaker 2: gets the main interest point there will be how Zach

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Speaker 2: Lomax goes in his debut. I think he's coming off

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Speaker 2: the bench tonight, isn't he for the Western Force? Named

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Speaker 2: among the reserves the former league player, So how will

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Speaker 2: Zach Lomax go? That might be mildly interesting. But Yeah,

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Speaker 2: as I was talking about this with Andy and a

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Speaker 2: couple of others earlier in the week, I wasn't outraged necessarily,

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Speaker 2: but I was like, why haven't they Why haven't they

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Speaker 2: scheduled games? Why haven't they given us something to watch

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Speaker 2: over Easter weekend? Well, by the sounds of it, a

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Speaker 2: couple of factors counted against them. So we move on

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Speaker 2: and look forward to next weekend, where there are some

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Speaker 2: quite interesting games to look forward to. Not least of which,

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Speaker 2: excuse me, is next Saturday night when the Hurricanes host

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Speaker 2: the Blues at the Stadium. Looking forward to that.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk said Be weekends from midday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio