World Cup Ruck and Maul: New Zealand's hall of fame will put you on the right track

Put the boot in: James Hook's missed penalty put a Dunedin DJ in a spin (GETTY IMAGES)

The New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, housed in the 105-year-old Dunedin Railway Station, may sound achingly parochial but the ornately tiled rooms are worth a look and a smell.

It contains memorabilia donated by world-renowned figures including John Walker's running vest, Ivan Mauger's bike and Peter Snell's spikes, with a sheep-sheering hut and wood-chopper's log thrown in. Press a button and you can sniff the All Blacks' embrocation – no, really – and there's also the ball used in "Obolensky's match". Nice of them to commemorate England's biggest ever win over the All Blacks in, er, 1936. This country slightly larger than the British Isles but with a population of only four million has produced champions in speedway, netball, track and field, eventing, rugby union and league, cricket, weightlifting, tennis, kayaking, motor racing, badminton, boxing, squash, horse racing, wrestling, yachting and more besides.

Press at rest

Having tried Queenstown's jet rafting, bungee jumping and skiing, the English rugby media staggered back to Dunedin to be challenged to the "Gutbuster" – twice up and down the world's steepest residential street, racing a 60-year-old man with a NZ$100 bar tab at stake. We'll keep you posted. Sadly, two pressmen were grounded on Thursday when their sky-dives above the "Remarkables" mountains were abandoned. A 6ft 6in former England lock now writing for a newspaper didn't even make the landing strip, after being told there was no instructor heavy enough to jump with him. The whole thing was called off anyway when cloudy weather closed in. Just as well Ruck and Maul had decided on a quiet day's motoring on the south coast.

Shock jocks to Welsh rescue

"A Hard Day's Night" was played after England's match with Argentina, but broadcasting here is anything but a blast from the past. Mid-afternoon on Dunedin's The Rock 93.4 FM (at home that's the frequency for Radio Four), the talk-back presenter described a certain English referee as a "big fat penis" for not ordering a TV review of James Hook's missed kick against South Africa. A right of reply was not on the shock-jock's agenda.

Canada take it on the chin

Centre DTH van der Merwe and lock Jamie Cudmore are the only full-time pros in Canada's squad; they have a few semi-pros playing in England's Championship. But Clive Griffiths, the Canadians' Welsh defence coach, says the whole squad would love to play professionally in Britain if they didn't fall outside the Kolpak ruling that favours South Africans and Pacific Islanders. Canada fought to a good win over Tonga last Wednesday, but with France today, Japan and New Zealand yet to play, Griffiths has borrowed the World Cup's charitable campaign "Tackle Hunger" and turned it into a noun, as a quality to be instilled in the team. Two hundred fans greeted the victorious Canucks at Napier airport on Thursday with placards declaring "Fear the Beard". Most hirsute among a trio of lavishly-whiskered players is the flanker Adam Kleeberger who has been growing his mountain-man beard as a good-luck charm since a shoulder operation 10 months ago.

hughgodwin@yahoo.co.uk