Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

Andrew Webster knows there’s one thing even he can’t coach and he’s added to his stocks of this precious commodity for the upcoming NRL season.

Pure, unadulterated speed.

Last season, before his untimely knee injury, halfback Luke Metcalf reportedly held bragging rights over his NZ Warriors teammates in this regard, but as he rehabs towards a competitive return maybe seven rounds into the schedule, he may have lost his crown.

The arrival of fleetfooted winger Alofiano Khan-Pereira from Gold Coast has added a whole new dimension of velocity to the roster.

“He is very fast,” the Warriors mentor marvels.

Faster than Metcalf?

“Definitely,” Webster insists. “That will upset Luke.

“Fast guys, it’s effortless for them. It’s really easy and they’re gliding, then they just put their foot down and run away from everyone.”

Khan-Pereira, 24, is in that class.

In 2023, his NRL rookie campaign, he became the first Gold Coast player to score 20 tries in a season. The following year, he crossed 24 times to lead the competition in four-pointers.

Along the way, he equalled the club single-game record, when he piled on four against the Warriors in a 66-6 rout.

Last season, Khan-Pereira seemed to fall off coach Des Hasler’s selection radar, playing just 10 games, and became a player desperately seeking a fresh start.

The Warriors may have let their share of homegrown talent slip through their fingers over the years, but they have also proved a fertile environment for outcasts needing to resurrect careers.

Khan-Pereira has followed the trail of breadcrumbs left by former Titans teammates Erin Clark and Tanah Boyd. Back at his junior club, Clark emerged from last season as the Dally M Lock of the Year, while Boyd was NSW Cup Player of the Year, leading the Warriors reserves to an interstate championship.

“I didn’t have one of the best years, I really wanted to turn that around and try somewhere new,” Khan-Pereira says. “I was fortunate to end up talking to Webby.

“It was a great chat and not too much about rugby – he just really wanted to know me as a person first. I really respect that and he got me excited about where the club was headed.”

Last season, the Warriors were stretched for depth along their backline, with a revolving door at centre and back-up fullback Taine Tuaupiki also the next best option on the wing.

Both Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak missed games through injury, and by the end of the year, DWZ copped much of the blame for a leaky right-edge defence destabilised by the constant changes further infield.

Webster insists his new recruit has the ability to snatch a starting spot off his two veterans.

“Lofi’s obviously very fast and the boys are loving how he plays,” he says. “He’s been exceptional and gives us plenty of competition in that area.

“It allows us a little bit of X factor – he can make a break and turn a half chance into a full chance.

“It’s up to him and it’s up to the other two not to let him in the door.”

After falling out of favour with Hasler, Khan-Pereira knows his attacking prowess won’t be enough to earn a regular role under Webster.

“I’ve really been nailing my focus down to getting a really good defence and good combinations with the boys I’ve been working with,” he says.

“Nothing’s ever given, you’ve got to earn it and that was one of the chats I had with Webby. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy and I can only put my best foot forward.

“You’ve got Dall and Roge there, two experienced wingers and two great wingers in my eyes. I’ll definitely be trying to push my way up there.

“I really want to become a consistent first-grader and get out of my comfort zone. My defensive movements and my decision-making are something I want to work on.”

Khan-Pereira – who is Samoan/Māori on his father’s side and Indigenous/Pakistani on his mother’s – adds to an already eclectic cultural mix at the Warriors.

He’s arrived at Mt Smart with a big reputation, but insists he hasn’t gone looking for early scalps on the training field.

Khan-Pereira has taken some time to scope out his new running mates, and with Metcalf still finding his way back to full fitness, he’s identified Watene-Zelezniak and teen sensation Leka Halasima has worthy rivals.

“I’m more like someone who sits back and scans the area for a bit,” Khan-Pereira grins. “It is great to have that skill, that speed, but you’ve got boys like Dall and Roge, when you try to run around them, their experience comes into play as well.

“I think they’ve caught on a bit and they’ve taken an extra step to the outside – it does get harder and harder for me to get around them.”

Webster warns of another newcomer that may yet challenge for speed honours – former Newcastle Knights half Jye Linnane.

“I reckon Jye is close,” he reveals. “I think he’s faster than Luke.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington Phoenix A-League women’s player Ella McMillan is passionate about helping the next generation step into the space she is in at the moment.

The 20-year-old is juggling two fledgling careers – as a professional footballer, and a second-year sports scientist.

McMillan moved to the capital at the start of 2022 when she was just 16 to join the Wellington Phoenix Academy.

The young centre-back was a mainstay of the women’s reserves side for the 2023 and 2024 seasons before the academy graduate signed a two-year scholarship contract with the Wellington Phoenix in August 2024.

McMillan grew up in Hamilton so leaving home so young was a huge step. When Ella’s younger sister Libby joined the academy a year later McMillan’s parents moved to Wellington in 2023 to support her and her sibling.

“It was a big decision but really grateful that I did make the move and when I moved down to join the academy, I also started my studies as well,” McMillan said.

McMillan had been interested in sports science for some time, so jumped at the chance to sign up for a Bachelor of Sport, Exercise and Health degree at Auckland University of Technology, majoring in sport and exercise science.

The Wellington Phoenix have a partnership with Auckland University of Technology (AUT) through the School of Sport and Recreation, which provides courses for many academy footballers in Wellington.

McMillan said the academy’s head of performance at the time, Steve Coleman, and technical director Paul Temple were integral in helping her get into the course.

“I ended up actually dropping out of school a year early to join the programme … I was always really interested in going down the sports pathway and being able to continue working in sport alongside playing. I’m really passionate about that kind of stuff so really grateful they let me into the course.”

As part of her course, she completed a 350-hour placement at the Phoenix academy, working alongside head of female sport science Issy Coombes.

McMillan finished the three-year degree at the end of 2024 and was appointed the academy’s youth female sport scientist at the start of 2025.

“It was a great opportunity. I’m really grateful the club was able to take me on, especially knowing they would have to be flexible with my training schedule. I’ve learnt so much over the past year and I just really enjoy working with the players on a day-to-day basis.”

McMillan said opportunities in women’s football had improved significantly over the past decade.

“There is a pathway … when I was younger there was no Phoenix women’s team, now I’m playing and working for the academy.”

McMillan said she liked to take a holistic approach as a sports scientist.

“…On helping the players be the best athletes they can but also the best people, so working with them in the gym, on the pitch, finding what areas of their game, their strengths and weaknesses and how we can look to improve that from a physical perspective. Looking at the mechanics, the technique, and especially with the younger players, that movement base and ensuring that we can reduce the risk of injuries from a young age.”

The Wellington Phoenix women have been hit with three season-ending ACL injuries so injury prevention is top of mind.

“It’s absolutely gutting for those three girls … I just feel for them, it’s a sucky situation to be in. I want to try and do everything in my control to hopefully reduce the risk of players being out for long periods of time. There’s more and more research coming out around that kind of stuff so we’ll just continue to keep learning more.”

At just 20, McMillan is barely older than the athletes she’s working with at the academy, but she sees that as a strength.

“I’m able to relate to them and connect to them better so I don’t think my age has really come into play a huge amount, especially not in this environment. I hope I can use that as a strength, rather than people viewing it as a negative thing.”

McMillan represented New Zealand at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in India in 2022 and was a key member of the Junior Football Ferns side at the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia.

She made two appearances off the bench in her first season as a professional in the 2024-25 summer and admits her first year in the A-league was tough.

“I didn’t get a huge amount of minutes but I learnt so much from a training perspective but also how to handle myself off the pitch and how to continue to be a professional and do everything I can to help the team even if that doesn’t require me on the pitch.”

Opportunities have again been limited in her second season but patience is key for McMillan.

She also wants to utilise her knowledge around strength and conditioning to improve her physical capabilities.

“That was always a bit of a weakness of mine so using my knowledge in that aspect to try and better myself from a physical performance stand point.”

In the off-season the Phoenix recruited the highly credentialed Bev Priestman, who guided Canada to gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“She’s outstanding, her communication is top of the line and her knowledge is really good so I feel like I’m able to learn so much off her to be able to progress as a player and to continue to develop.”

McMillan flats with a couple of team-mates and her sister Libby, who still plays for the Reserves team, lives with her parents in Wellington.

McMillan said the Phoenix women, who sit second on the A-league ladder, were buoyant about their prospects.

“We’ve come into this season with a fresh mindset and we’ve got to see ourselves as title contenders. We’re all really confident in the team and the way we’re playing, I’m really excited for what the rest of the season has install for us, results are starting to click now so really exciting times ahead.”

The Phoenix Women head across the Tasman this weekend, to meet the Newcastle Jets on Sunday.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A young Northland woman has made history as part of the first all-female crew to sail non-stop around the world.

Rebecca Gmuer-Hornell, of Ōpua, in the Bay of Islands, is also believed to have broken the New Zealand record for circumnavigating the globe by any sailor, male or female.

Her time, of 57 days, 21 hours and 20 minutes, is more than 16 days faster than the previous 74-day record set by Sir Peter Blake in 1994.

The 26-year-old was competing for the Jules Verne Trophy, awarded for the fastest circumnavigation of the world, and crossed the finish line off the French coast around midnight Monday New Zealand time.

Gmuer-Hornell told RNZ the race was a huge mental and physical challenge.

“But it’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was a little girl, to finally get it done for myself and for the sport. I don’t think I actually realised the magnitude of what we were doing until we came back, the amount of support we’ve had and congratulations from everyone has been insane, and we are super grateful for it,” she said.

“I think it shows that women around the world have been following it and looking up to us. And I hope it inspires young girls to think they can do it, because we were finally able to put this record in the books for women.”

Gmuer-Hornell was part of the eight-strong Famous Project crew sailing on a 31.5-metre maxi trimaran, IDEC Sport.

The vessel was captained by sailing legends Alexia Barrier (France) and Dee Caffari (UK), both of whom had sailed around the world multiple times, solo and crewed; while her crewmates included Olympians Tamara Echegoyen (Spain) and Annemieke Bes (Netherlands).

Gmuer-Hornell said she was surprised an all-female, non-stop circumnavigation had not been done before.

“But it’s just because there hasn’t been the opportunity for women to sail these boats that do high-speed records. It’s definitely a male-dominated thing. So it’s really cool to have been given the opportunity to sail a maxi trimaran for starters, let alone take it around the world.”

She was still trying to take in breaking Sir Peter Blake’s New Zealand record.

“Sailing has come a long way since then, and innovation has been huge since Peter Blake went around the world, but being up in the leagues with him is something I never, ever dreamed of. I think I’m slowly getting my head around it, but it’s been such a whirlwind over the last couple of days, it’s going to take a little while to sink in.”

Gmuer-Hornell was the boat’s rigger and port pitman, and at the last minute was also tasked with the job of drone operator.

Ahead of their 28 November departure, she anticipated the Southern Ocean would be the scariest part of the voyage.

“But it’s such a quick boat we were able to outrun all the low pressure systems. You can position yourself in the Southern Ocean in places that are better for the wind and waves, but coming back up the Atlantic, now it’s winter, there’s a lot of low pressures coming into Europe from the west, and that’s a lot harder to navigate,” she said.

“You have to go through them, you have to be in those eight-metre swells, liquid Himalayas we call them, and you have to be in that 50 knots of breeze. That was probably the most challenging part, the last 1000 miles.”

As for the most memorable part of the journey, Gmuer-Hornell said it was rounding Cape Horn.

“We call it the Everest of sailing. Someone came out with a statistic that only 25 women have rounded Cape Horn, and that fewer people have gone around the cape than have gone up Mount Everest. So it was a pretty big milestone for me.”

Gmuer-Hornell said conditions were “pretty good” with a three-metre swell and 25 knot winds, giving her a chance to fly the drone around the infamous cape.

“That was another really cool thing to do. Not many people have flown drones from maxi trimarans around Cape Horn. It was amazing.”

Gmuer-Hornell said there were several sailing legends and seven nationalities on board, which made for some “cool cultural dynamics”.

“It worked really well. The boat language was English, so that made it quite easy for me, but communication was easy. We all got on super well.”

Gmuer-Hornell said her advice to girls and young women who wanted to take up sailing was to seize every opportunity that came their way.

“You miss 100 percent of the opportunities that you don’t take. This opportunity was the biggest one I’ve ever been given, and it was one that seemed near impossible, and we managed to pull it off, even though we had a lot of technical issues, and there were a lot of times we thought we wouldn’t make it. But we overcame all of them. You’ve just got to keep trying.”

After 57 days at sea, the first thing she ate in the French port city of Brest was an oyster.

“Freeze-dried food does get pretty mundane after a while. Alexia [Barrier] and I are obsessed with oysters, so we requested that, and our wish came true.”

The Famous Project crew had only been back on land a few days but Gmuer-Hornell said they were already planning their next attempt at the trophy, on another boat.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to push the boat a bit harder than we were this time. We had a lot of technical difficulties, we know where we lost time, and we think we can beat our current record.”

The Jules Verne Trophy course starts and finishes at a line between Cornwall in England and Brittany in France, and takes sailors around the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), Cape Leeuwin (Western Australia) and Cape Horn (Chile).

There are no restrictions on the type of yacht or number of crew, but the race must be completed non-stop with no outside assistance.

The last attempt to claim the trophy by an all-female crew, led by British sailor Tracy Edwards in the year 2000, came unstuck when her vessel lost its mast in the South Pacific.

The current Jules Verne Trophy holder is Frenchman Thomas Coville, who set a time of just over 40 days on the trimaran Sodeno Ultim 3 earlier this year.

The trophy is named after the French writer Jules Verne, who penned the 1872 novel Around the World in Eighty Days.

Gmuer-Hornell is the daughter of Ōpua couple Manuela Gmuer-Hornell and Chris Hornell, a sailor and outboard mechanic who has driven chase boats in multiple America’s Cup campaigns and more recently with SailGP.

She trained as a yacht rigger in Auckland and recently relocated to the UK, where she finished second in the 2025 Admiral’s Cup, representing the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, and competed in the Ocean Race Europe aboard Team Amaala.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand