The Hurricanes are being talked up as a team of thugs ahead of Saturday night’s crucial Super 12 rugby match against the Waratahs in Sydney. The Waratahs are expecting the match at an almost sold-out Aussie Stadium to be ”physically hard” and even ”brutal”, says the Sydney Morning Herald.
Japan will sponsor sports in Iraq as part of its commitment to helping to rebuild the war-battered nation, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Thursday. Koizumi made the promise to a delegation from the National Olympic Committee of Iraq, in Tokyo seeking assistance to improve their nation’s ageing sports infrastructure.
The Border Bulldogs will have a fight on their hands when they host the Free State Cheetahs in East London in a Vodacom Cup match at the Absa Stadium on Friday. The Cheetahs, under former Springbok flanker Rassie Erasmus, are on a high following their win over the Blue Bulls and will be keen to keep momentum.
Captain Michael Vaughan completed a fluent 140 for England to draw the fourth cricket Test on Wednesday and inflict the worst home series defeat against the West Indies in almost 50 years. After trailing on the first innings by 466 runs, England was 422 for five when West Indies captain Brian Lara conceded the draw.
Malaysia stunned South Africa with three first-half goals to win 3-2 in the men’s Four Nations Challenge field hockey tournament in Canberra on Thursday. South Africa surprised by resting captain Craig Jackson and their defensive play suffered in his absence with Malaysia scoring three goals in the first half from set plays.
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<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Initial results from South Africa’s national election released early on Thursday morning indicated that the African National Congress (ANC) was heading for an unsurprising victory of near two-thirds of the vote, with 63,77%. Working off a low base of votes counted at 16%, the official opposition Democratic Alliance, with 19,75%, appears to be faring far more strongly than in the 1999 national election.
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Despite being disillusioned about the lack of service delivery in their area, residents of Diepsloot, a sprawling settlement on the outskirts of Johannesburg, turned out in their thousands to cast their votes on Wednesday. The voting mood was also fairly upbeat in Alexandra township in Johannesburg.
Special Report: Elections 2004
Swazis tired of hearing their country condemned for having a traditional African monarchy for its governing system are countering that this very culture makes Swaziland a unique place any tourist would want to visit. Swaziland’s new tourism board wants to reverse the declining fortunes of the national tourism industry.
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Police were investigating claims by the Inkatha Freedom Party that African National Congress supporters were seen pasting voter registration stickers into the identity documents of voters in KwaZulu-Natal, the Independent Electoral Commission said on Wednesday afternoon.
Special Report: Elections 2004