DSPN - Devlin Sports Podcast Network
Super Rugby Is NOT Dead, Lachlan signs off | Mailbag
01 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: Why is this Lachlan's final mailbag episode?
I think he can still perform well, and we've seen in Super Rugby he can have one really good game out of maybe four or five, and the other three or four of those games are not bad, but just not at the level that we once saw from Baden Barrett.
Baseball, NFL, basketball, they never stop. Even when this game stops at a game of NFL, you've been to plenty of them, it just feels like there's something going on. There's something going on. There's something going on.
And it's not two fat guys chasing the Colonel. Around town you saw heaps of Chiefs, Crusaders, Hurricanes, Highlanders jerseys. Not as any Blues ones, but I don't think Blues fans travel too well. Welcome to the DSPN.
John Walker wins the 1500 metres gold medal at the Olympic Games.
The Devlin Sports Podcast Network.
It's mailbag time, Lachlan, and it's your final mailbag, seeing as you're now off to brighter pastures, bigger future at Sky TV. So let's get it out of the way to start with, shall we? Here they come. And this was all a result of us chatting last week on mailbag. I'm very disappointed you're leaving Lachlan. You talk a lot of sense. I cut straight to the sad news.
Dang it, won't hear and see Lachlan on the show anymore, hairy moose. No, please, no. Lachlan's been one of my favorite parts of the podcast. He's going to be almost impossible to replace. I like the almost word in there. I'm really pleased for Lachlan, horribly unhappy for us. Martin, you're going to have to find another snarky young person to carry on this great work. Yes.
Lachlan is a big loss to the DSP and always enjoyed his contributions and
banter good luck with the next stage Lachlan hopefully you can guest at the sometime on the DSPN thank you Lachlan you were the cheerleader in conversations made for interesting blah blah shame to see Lachlan go key part of the channel wishing him all the best leaving some big shoes to fill so there you go lots of love for you Lachlan no thank you I appreciate the love it's been a lot of fun and no keep listening to the DSPN obviously watching yeah sorry watching as well excuse me listening and watching no very nice messages no really appreciate it
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Chapter 2: What was the significance of the Christchurch Super Round?
Andy, jandyi286, All Blacks number two in the world, exciting and talented young players coming to the All Blacks. I'm not sure what the hype is. I just put this in because we don't get that many messages like this, but I kind of like it. Steve Hansen on the program yesterday, if you listen to him as well, and he's a very wise man, very sage man. He's got all that experience and things.
And he's a calm the farm guy too. We panic a lot in this country about our rugby, about the standards, about the super rugby, whether or not it prepares players for test level, all this kind of stuff. But we do have a lot of talent in this country, and it's nice to appreciate it, and I appreciate that message.
We've always produced talent. I think the core issue that has been the case over the last how many years, seven, eight, nine years now, is the rest of the world has gotten a lot better. And we've maybe gotten a smidge worse, but we're not a huge amount worse, and we've got a lot of talent.
Another one. B. Wainham says, Ardy will be captain regardless of where he plays and he will lead us to win the World Cup. You don't get a lot of messages like that.
Can you have your captain come off the bench? I'm not saying Ardy will. I'm not saying he will. Ardy starts, I think, in everyone's team. But even if he comes off the bench. I remember Arsenal did this for a long time with Thomas Vermaelen. I think that was his name. Vermeulen? Vermaelen? No, Vermaelen. Arsenal. He was a defender. He was Belgian.
He used to come off the bench quite regularly, but he was their captain.
Well, the South African sub, Sir Khaleesi. Oh, for like half an hour a lot of the time? Yeah. It's almost like a spiritual captain these days. Yeah. Yeah, Artie will be at the World Cup, but I think it's a good point you raise about just how much wear and tear on him between now and then. Like, I estimate probably another 40, 20-something test matches, another 30 or 40 games of hard-ass rugby.
Well, he'll move into serious load management soon in the way that, like, Richie McCaw had just a whole break at the start of 2013 or something, didn't he? He didn't take a whole year off.
He took a big sabbatical.
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Chapter 3: How do fans feel about Lachlan's departure from the podcast?
Look, the way that they built Athletic Park. So they built it like this, okay. And the southerly came roaring up from that direction. So the Millard stand, which was the big stand, the really rickety kind of look. The one that's kind of a weird shape. Yeah. Should have been around that way.
So what you wanted was a big ass stand to block the southerly coming up because it was just straight from the sea. It was straight up Island Bay and straight into you. But they built it around the other way. Well, the ground was this way. So the goalposts were at either end where the southerly, but the big stands were on the, should have been around this way. So you had some protection.
The short answer is yes, it was awful. So why did they not build it that way then? How old are you? Look at every stadium in the country, mate. How many of them have they cocked up over the years?
All, except for, well, I'd say except for Christchurch, but we all like to try and pick out things we don't like. I'm just not a fan of the fact that they've done the same thing with Forsyth Bar and they've taken out that stand at the end. And it's obviously for concerts. It just looks a bit weird, doesn't it? It does. I'd like it if it was just all the way around.
Yeah, I kind of think that maybe what they should have done is at least kept the top tier and kept it like a big arena like that.
Yeah, maybe had a bit underneath that kind of tracks.
Yeah, that you could actually put the stage on and things. Yeah, because it just looks as though it's a bit unfinished. Yeah, it does. And the greatest unfinished stadium in the country is North Harbour. Where you go, hang on, where's the other stand? Yeah. What's going on? Mark Thompson, I like this. So where is the personal responsibility of players? And we were talking about this.
We were talking about upskilling players. I talk about this all the time. Not going to practice, not going to training, actually upskilling yourself. No, doing it in your own time. In your own time. He said, even at provincial level, after I dropped a few highballs, I spent ages every day catching highballs from anyone who had kicked me.
I spent hours throwing the rugby ball against the highballs in the gym. And playing Manawatu the next month, I didn't drop a single ball. These guys are pro. They have time to go and put in the extra mahi. I agree with you entirely, mate.
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Chapter 4: Can Ardie Savea effectively captain the All Blacks from the bench?
So yeah, of course, do it in your own time. I watched Aaron Smith once on a video. I think it was about half an hour just passing balls. He obviously had people that could help him because otherwise there's 100 balls up that end of the field and you've got to get them all together. But just watching him go through his routine, it was just practice is what it was, sheer practice.
And that bullet pass of his left or right, 30 meters, I mean, that changed games. He could hit Manonu at pace, which took out your first five, took out your open side flanker, took out all of that defense, right? Yeah. Again, it's the same. I totally agree with this guy. Get out there and practice catching the high ball under all kinds of conditions. Surely that's part of your job, isn't it?
Well, yeah, if you want to be the best. Isn't it? Wouldn't the motivation be if you've got to, because they're not the best right now, the All Blacks, obviously, if you want to become the best, you've got to do more work outside of, yeah, your usual routine, surely. Isn't that what part of it is? David Beckham.
What did he say? 20,000 free kicks. And at that stage, it's muscle memory. 20,000. I wonder how many New Zealand rugby players have caught 20,000 balls above their heads. The wingers, the fullbacks, 20,000. Maybe they have. Maybe there's some that are out there doing it wrong. Well, you never know. I doubt it.
I'll be glass half full. I doubt it. You know, you talk quite a lot about how you saw Dan Carter kicking balls around. Was it Remu era? Yeah. Many years ago? During the World Cup. Yeah.
Before he got injured. Practicing.
Weird concept. Okay, there you go. That's why we have load management. You sound the alarm. Dan Carter practising too much and then he got injured. He seems that I would love the sound of that.
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Chapter 5: What are the current issues with halftime entertainment in rugby?
Super Rugby is a great tournament and could be so much better if we had people in charge who actually really cared about the game and the competition to start making real changes and building the future now. Steve Hansen kind of alludes to this as well in the interview yesterday. Having people racing each other for 50 meters at halftime is not the solution. I agree with this entirely.
That entertainment is lame and it's nasty. Well, catch the colonel. I just think, look, honestly, really, is that all we can come up with? Go to America. Just look at what they do. The games never stop. Baseball, NFL, basketball, they never stop. Even when this game stops at a game of NFL, you've been to plenty of them. It just feels like there's something going on. There's something going on.
There's something going on. And it's not two fat guys chasing the Colonel up for five bucks with a KFC. It's not that.
I agree with the crux of what you're saying. I think the catch the Colonel thing, it is kind of naff, but it's amusing. It's a funny scene. I like the catch when the, what do you call it? What are they?
The...
Oh, the drones. Yeah, drones drop the ball and the punters have to catch it. That's good. But you're right, you've got to keep, something's got to be happening all the time. You've got to get someone running on there as soon as the teams come off. Have crawling babies having a race. Do that.
They have the cheerleaders, they have all kinds of stuff. But it just never stops. The rugby version of a half-court shot in basketball? Yeah, you think that when you're watching a game of NFL on TV, you think, oh, there's so many breaks. When you're in the stadium, there's no breaks.
No, yeah. Zero. When those breaks are made for TV, they'll just have a break because it's a TV timeout, they call it.
The two guys that we watched, it might have been on Saturday, who were catching the ball out of the drone. Okay, here's the lesson. The drone's up there. So what you've got to do is get kind of close to it. Both these guys, the drone was way over there, and they're standing here. By the time the ball drops, there's just no way. One guy ended up falling over a couple of times.
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Chapter 6: What memorable experiences are associated with Athletic Park's urinals?
Jay Jasner says, if it's a Christchurch next year, me and my Auckland mates have already got permission from the Better Halves to go for the weekend. I think it could grow into something great. Josh Hayes says, the stadium looks amazing. Watching at home, I couldn't help but feel a little bit left out. It looked like an incredible weekend. All of that. And
Again, we talked about this in the roundtable during the week. Super Rugby, just make the decision now. It's an easy decision. This is the easiest one you're going to have to make.
Keep it on the same weekend as well, Anzac weekend.
On the basis of what happened this year was overwhelming. So many things. Just put out a press statement. We're going back to Christchurch. Come back to Christchurch. Book your accommodation now. Book your tickets now and we're going to double down on it.
Just quickly, Magic Round in Brisbane, I think we've talked about this quite a bit during the week on and off air. It's been there for eight years and the crowd numbers have gone up and up and up and up every year. COVID sort of changed things a little bit, but up and up and up the last few years.
Now, I don't know if it's the same this year or it has been every other year, but at least last year when I went, Brisbane had a public holiday on the Monday. So having...
so I don't know if it was for the event or it was their own version of Labor Day I can't remember exactly but it's so that people can go along on that Sunday enjoy the rugby enjoy the league head out to a couple of pubs for some dinner afterwards and then know that they've got the Monday off to fly back home and settle in like you don't have to yeah you don't have to rush so keep it on Anzac weekend as well is my point
And I really like this one. I'm not going to say who the full name is, but my name is Mason. I'm 11 years old. I love the show. I listen every day when going to bed. I love hearing the chat. I also listen to the rugby run, Keep It Up Wado. That's Wado's show on Sport Nation. I just want to say I got tickets to the Super Round for Christmas. It was so good. I've been waiting.
for ages to go to the stadium. What an atmosphere. The Anzac tribute was great. I loved seeing Moana and Fiji play. The food was expensive, but it was just great to watch Crusaders, Waratahs with a pie in my hand. And I wanted to let you know it was great. I'm sad that Lachlan is leaving. Could you maybe give me a mention on Mailbag? And by the way, Jeff the Ref is my favourite segment.
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