Robbie Deans maintains sentimentality played no part in his decision to start Andrew Mehrtens alongside Justin Marshall for Saturday night’s Super 12 rugby match at Jade Stadium in Christchurch. So, Daniel Carter’s relegation to the reserves must fall into the sensible category.
Jeff Wilson’s sporting rebirth from All Black to Black Cap may inspire former Springbok rugby fullback Conrad Jantjes to make a similar switch later in his career.
The 25-year-old Jantjes settled on rugby as a professional career, but the former all-rounder has not ruled out returning to the cricket crease some day.
Online auctioneer eBay posted on Wednesday a 28% surge in earnings on turnover that topped -billion for the first time. The world’s biggest internet marketplace said it traded more than -billion worth of goods in the first quarter, earning net profits of ,3-million or 19 cents per share.
President George Bush signed the biggest rewrite of United States bankruptcy law in a quarter of a century on Wednesday, making it harder for debt-ridden Americans to wipe out their obligations. ”Bankruptcy should always be a last resort in our legal system,” Bush said.
Duncan Ferguson strengthened Everton’s grip on a Champions League berth as Manchester United’s fast-fading season took another knock with a 1-0 defeat at Goodison Park on Wednesday. The 33-year-old Scottish striker rolled back the years with a trademark 55th minute header which proved enough to earn the Merseyside club a first league win over United in 10 years.
Commuters left stranded by a bus drivers’ strike torched a bus and two cars at the Belle Ombre train station, Pretoria, on Wednesday evening. About 1Â 500 people were at the station when the bus was set alight, Pretoria emergency services spokesperson Johan Pieterse said.
Zimbabwe’s leading opposition party on Wednesday effectively severed ties with the South African government, saying that officials from the neighbouring country could no longer be considered neutral mediators. ”We haven’t broken off talks, but we will not engage with [SA officials] in any capacity where they purport to be facilitators on the Zimbabwean crisis,” said the Movement for Democratic Change’s secretary general, Welshman Ncube.
Hospital group Network Healthcare Holdings on Thursday announced an envisaged R1-billion deal that will result in broad-based empowerment groupings acquiring 10% of the group. The group said the BEE grouping would be newly constituted so as to "empower people in the most extensive sense".
A number of members of the South African Rugby Union management committee have filed a notice of motion to set aside the resolution of the Presidents Council taken at a meeting on April 15 in Durban regarding the new Super 14 franchises. The awarding of the franchise to the Central Unions differed with a government ”request” that it be given to the Eastern Province.
Iraq’s interim Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi, on Wednesday night escaped a suicide bomb assassination attempt, hours after officials said dozens had been killed in two separate massacres, raising fears of an escalation in the insurgency. Allawi’s convoy was attacked as he headed to his home in the Iraqi capital after talks on the formation of the new government.