Chris Rattue’s Watchlist: Ranking the best sports to watch this weekend

Chris Rattue lists the top sporting events to keep an eye on over the next few days.

6) Black Ferns v Wallaroos, Saturday 4.35pm – SKY/SKY Open

Another chapter of ritual slaughter and an opportunity to watch it happen
The rugby world champions put their exercises into practice.

We find ourselves in a time when it is hardly possible to keep women’s sport at the forefront and meet its noble goals.

A one-sided outlook like this, focusing on players who haven’t had the chance to make a name for themselves, is a case in point.

You can already feel the decline in interest after a somewhat successful World Cup in this country.

No wonder.

There was the usual blah, blah, blah about how Australia had learned a lot from their opening 50-0 defeat and that they were training really hard.

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Yawning.

5) Breakers vs Taipans, Saturday 7.30 p.m. – SKY

The basketball players are back after their heroics last season in which they turned a weak club into major finalists.

As for this year, who would know?

The star imports have all left, owner Matt Walsh has returned to the US and even the naming rights sponsor has changed.

To strengthen the team’s identity, the feared Finn “Diesel” Delany is back from Germany.

And we have to trust coach Mody Maor again.

There’s a hype surrounding someone named Zylan Cheatham, an American who couldn’t quite crack the NBA and is supposedly an energetic excitement machine.

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We’ll see, but it’s fair to say Maor knows what he’s doing when it comes to imports, judging by his first season as coach.

Breakers forward Zylan Cheatham throws a poster dunk against the Adelaide 36ers. Photo / NZ Breakers

4) Silver Ferns vs England, Saturday, 7pm – SKY/SKY Open

There is no such thing as bad publicity.

Thanks to the Silver Ferns’ first Test capitulation against a supposedly weak England team, the Taini Jamison Trophy netball series has gone from supposed non-event to good news.

To some extent, New Zealand often underperformed at international level, playing a distant second fiddle to Australia for a long time when netball was a two-way race.

But that still doesn’t fully explain why recent world champions have become such jerks.

They beat England in the second game, but another comprehensive win in this third and final encounter still won’t heal all wounds.

3) NRL Grand Final, Penrith v Brisbane, Sunday, 9.30pm – SKY

A little poor since the Warriors’ run of greatness came to an abrupt end last week.

Penrith and Brisbane are by far the best teams in the NRL this year. It would have been an injustice for both of them to have missed the Sydney showpiece.

Unusually for an NRL team these days, the Broncos have no Kiwi Test players, although Jordan Riki is set to change that soon.

New Zealand props Moses Leota and James Fisher-Harris lead the Panthers’ offense as they look to score three goals.

Penrith reach their fourth consecutive grand final, which in itself is a fantastic achievement in the salary cap era.

James Fisher-Harris and the Panthers are looking for an NRL Premiership threesome. Photo / Getty Images

2) All Blacks vs Italy, Saturday, 8am – SKY

A boring weekend at the World Cup, although Vaea Fifita’s suspension ruled him out of Tonga’s game against the Springboks on Monday morning (8am).

The All Blacks will be too good for Italy. Too good. Enough said.

1) Ryder Cup, from Friday 6.30 p.m. – SKY

The three-day golf club offers one of the best sporting activities in the world today.

Europe was smashed in America two years ago but hasn’t lost at home for 30 years.

Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland will headline the European Championships in Rome, but the team could struggle without key veterans like Sergio Garcia from the LIV Tour.

They face a top-class American dozen, including world number one Scottie Scheffler.

The US of A deserve to be slight favorites unless their team cohesion is marred by the inclusion of the controversial Brooks Koepka from the Rich Rebels LIV Tour.

Koepka, one of captain Zach Johnson’s favorites, is just too good and has too many big wins to be left out, although, tellingly, he wasn’t featured in a team photo.

Koepka will be the only one of 15 Ryder Cup players on the LIV tour to take part in this year’s competition at the club on the edge of the Eternal City.

The Marco Simone Course has been redesigned specifically for the Ryder Cup, with a focus on the stadium experience. Up to 50,000 spectators are expected each day, and as Ryder Cup watchers know, the team competition can bring out fans’ inner mongrel.

I can barely wait for it.

But wait, there’s more.

Not only will we experience thrilling golf action, but we may also get a glimpse of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

As for the backdrops, that’s up there.