The Country Today - The Country TV edition

It's the whole show in one go! Today The Country is all about the documentary series Rugby in Our Blood, because Jamie gets a whole show to himself!

Today's musical accompaniment is from 1996. Why? On this day in '96 the All Blacks won their first test series in South Africa. So you get to listen to the Spice Girls.

On with the show: Winston Peters is first up. Today the New Zealand First leader goes in to bat for small town New Zealand and takes the bait over Silver Fern Farms.

The woman behind the camera is up next. Deborah Faith previews Rugby in Our Blood, a twelve part documentary TV series which showcases rural communities and the people for whom rugby is so much more than a game of two halves.

ANZ's Chief Economist Cameron Bagrie takes time out from sunning himself in Hawaii to comment on the high dollar, banks not passing on the latest OCR cut and his prediction of the 2016-17 dairy payout.

NIWA's weather forecaster Ben Noll says after a recent fine streak of weather, there's double trouble waiting in the wings in the Tasman.

Green Party Co-leader James Shaw has his say on the Havelock North water crisis. He reckons his party has deliberately stepped back from blaming it on dairy farming, although he suspects that is the cause.

Finally we catch up with our West Coast cow cocky Andy Thompson. This week he defends his industry from accusations of polluting our water systems, until such claims are proven.

Have a listen to The Country in the Soundcloud embed below: