For the second week in a row, the Cheetahs lost by one point to New Zealand opposition, this time going down 34-33 to the visiting Blues in a thrilling Super 14 encounter played in Bloemfontein on Saturday. The match was a great spectacle and nine tries were scored overall.
Kaizer Chiefs eased into the final of the Absa Cup at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace on Saturday afternoon after a gruelling but goalless 120 minutes against Mamelodi Sundowns. In spite of the unmistakable tension and excitement both on and off the pitch, play often deteriorated to an amateurish level.
Chelsea wrapped up their second consecutive Premiership title in style by beating nearest rivals Manchester United 3-0 in front of their own supporters on Saturday. The jubilation at Stamford Bridge in London was mirrored at Wigan’s JJB Stadium, where Portsmouth came from behind to claim a 2-1 victory.
The Stormers defied the odds to beat the log-leading Crusaders 28-17 in a fiercely contested Super 14 match at Newlands on Saturday night. Captain De Wet Barry got the Stormers off to a dream start in the first minute when he intercepted Crusaders hooker Corey Flynn’s pass and scored under the posts.
The Bulls held on grimly for a thrilling 34-17 win over the Sharks in an action-packed Super 14 match played at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday night. The Bulls led 27-3 at the break and played such complete rugby that one would have been forgiven for writing the Sharks off after just 40 minutes.
At least 24 miners have died in an explosion at a coal mine in north-western China, the government said on Sunday. Thirty-nine miners were working underground when the gas blast occurred at the Wayaobao Coal Mine in Shaanxi province, China’s State Administration of Coal-Mine Safety said on its website.
A series of earthquakes measuring from 5,5 to 6,9 on the Richter scale rocked Russia’s far-eastern Kamchatka peninsula early on Sunday, hitting the same spot where powerful tremors left hundreds of people without shelter last week, the Kamchatka seismological service said.
Girija Prasad Koirala was sworn in for his fifth stint as Nepal’s Prime Minister on Sunday in the Himalayan country’s latest step toward democracy. It was the first time that Koirala came face-to-face with King Gyanendra after weeks of protests forced the monarch to give up absolute power.
One of the two people accused of the murder of an Icelandic citizen whose body was encased in concrete has admitted guilt in the Johannesburg High Court, media reports said on Saturday. Desiree Louis Oberholzer (43), of Bryanston, admitted guilt in the murder trial of Gisli Thorkellson on Friday.
The search for a South African-registered aircraft that has gone missing in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) had not yielded any results by Saturday evening. The plane went missing only a day after captains Andre Nel and Charles Greyvenstein died when the South African plane they were flying crashed in the DRC.