More Mean Sports Stars On Hyundai Code

PUBLICITY RELEASE
TUESDAY JULY 8 2008

More Mean Sports Stars On Hyundai Code - On Maori Television!

Netball star Daneka Wipiiti, rugby league legend Reuben Wiki and NZ Maori coach Donny Stevenson join award-winning sports entertainment show HYUNDAI CODE this Thursday July 10 at 8.30 PM (repeats Sunday July 13 at 4.00 PM).

She's fantastically tall - 194cm - and deadly accurate in the goal circle, two key advantages that have kept Daneka Wipiiti in top-level netball for a number of years now, though she's still only 25. Sports watchers will know her as the Southern Sting's star shooter, and part of the team that won the National Bank Cup competition last year, which she counts as one of her netball career highlights. A consistently strong performer in this year's ANZ Championship, she has played six games for the Silver Ferns in her time, and - a less well-known fact - she has also played for the national women's basketball team.

When it comes to first-class rugby league, 300 is the magic number. Only 10 footballers have played that many top-level games - just one of them a New Zealander - and that man is Vodafone Warriors prop Ruben Wiki. The 35-year-old made his NRL debut in 1993 with the mighty Canberra Raiders, and went on to notch up 225 games with them before moving to his current team, where he plans to retire at the end of this season. Other career highlights include the 2005 tri-nations competition and 55 games for the Kiwi team, from 2003-2006 as captain. The milestone 300th game was against Wests Tigers almost two weeks ago, an away game, but his fans will at least have the chance to show him some love in this Saturday's match against the Cowboys at Mt Smart Stadium.

Like another high-profile New Zealand national rugby coach, Donny Stevenson had a long career as a high school teacher before coming into his current role as NZ Maori coach. As a young man he was also a capable player and represented Otago, Auckland and Northland at provincial level and in various Maori teams. Fresh from victory against Australia A in Sydney last weekend - a clash that gave the underdog Maori team the Pacific Nations' Cup silverware - Stevenson says his goal now is to meet some more international-grade teams.

Voted Best Sports Programme at last year's Air New Zealand Screen Awards, HYUNDAI CODE is an hour-long show - now in its fourth year - and filmed live in front of a studio audience at Maori Television's Auckland headquarters. Tawera Nikau and Jenny-May Coffin are joined by Warriors' Wairangi Koopu and the 'Brofessionals' - aka Glen Osborne (Oz) and Matua Parkinson (Mutz) - for more news, inside stories and off-camera action with Kiwi sports stars excelling at home and abroad.

Book your ringside seat for hard-case interviews and plenty of laughs with HYUNDAI CODE - screening on Maori Television this Thursday at 8.30 PM (repeats every Sunday at 4.00 PM).

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