Steve Hansen wants a “200%” improvement from his players for their clash with the Aussies
Around 70 school pupils attended the event, which included speakers in what might not be considered conventional tech jobs
The Auckland Blues remain in touch with the Super 14 competition leaders after thrashing the bottom-placed Central Cheetahs 46-12 on Friday.
The All Blacks will take on the South Pacific island nation of Tonga in the opening match of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, organisers said on Thursday.
The Sharks picked up their first bonus point of the season with a magnificent 35-31 win over the Blues in Auckland on Saturday morning.
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/ 13 February 2009
Although the Super 14 begins for most teams this year on Valentine’s Day, it can be assumed that there will be a minimum of love lost.
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/ 12 October 2008
The state of the economy in New Zealand was the key issue when the main parties formally kicked off their campaigns for next month’s general election.
Prop Tony Woodcock scored two tries as an invigorated New Zealand beat Australia 39-10 in a Tri-Nations rugby Test on Saturday.
Police in New Zealand are investigating a ”serious allegation” against four England rugby players over an incident in an Auckland hotel room.
An expanded United States conference-style Super rugby series is being touted by the New Zealand Rugby Union as a way of reviving the flagging Super 14 rugby tournament for the 2010 season. NZRU officials have begun a nationwide tour of all the franchises and provinces to divulge their concepts, which then need to be accepted by Sanzar partners.
Sunderland manager and former Manchester United star Roy Keane plans to complete his coaching badges with the All Blacks. Keane is studying for his European Football Association pro-licence, which is an obligatory qualification for managers in the English Premier League. As part of the course, students are required to spend time in another sport.
New Zealand high-performance referee coach Colin Hawke has questioned the performance of referee Paul Marks in the Hurricanes and Sharks’ Super 14 rugby game on Saturday. Hawke said he was surprised the Australian did not use all the aids available to him in the controversial Wellington game.
New Zealand Rugby Union boss Steve Tew was forced into the role of moderator on Thursday as Australian counterpart John O’Neill espoused a radical plan to revamp Super 14 rugby. O’Neill said ”high level discussion” had begun on a plan to expand the tournament to six-and-a-half months from February to August.
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/ 25 February 2008
Lack of fitness and a sluggish ability to adapt is holding back the South African teams early in the Super 14, according to Blues coach David Nucifora. The Blues thrashed the Lions 55-10 in Johannesburg on Saturday to follow the Crusaders’ equally comprehensive 54-19 triumph in Pretoria the day before.
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/ 19 February 2008
Nearly a third of New Zealanders are suffering from rugby fatigue, Research New Zealand polling shows. Research NZ director Emanuel Kalafatelis Wednesday said the poll found 29% of New Zealanders reported they would be taking less interest in the Super 14 this season, reports the NZ Herald.
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/ 4 February 2008
Crusaders and Wallabies coach Robbie Deans says players from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa should be free to play in any of the three countries’ Super 14 rugby franchises. He is also supporting Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O’Neill’s view that the competition should be increased to two rounds.
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/ 22 January 2008
Saffron-robed Buddhist monks, Nepali Sherpas and grey-bearded mountaineers paid homage on Tuesday to Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who conquered Everest, as thousands gathered in New Zealand to watch his state funeral. ”His loss to us is bigger and heavier than Mount Everest,” Ang Rita Sherpa told the service in a small church in Auckland.
Former world number one Lindsay Davenport continued her impressive return to the WTA circuit on Saturday, outclassing France’s Aravane Rezai 6-2, 6-2 to win the Auckland Classic. The 31-year-old American comeback mum needed just 51 minutes to dispatch the 20-year-old Frenchwoman, offering fans a lesson in power and precision tennis.
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/ 17 November 2007
The Spar Proteas netball team suffered a painful 52-49 loss against Malawi in the play-off for fifth and sixth place at the World Championships on Saturday. After crashing out of the quarterfinals earlier this week, the Proteas side set their sights firmly on holding on to fifth place on the world rankings.
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/ 14 November 2007
Former South African and current New Zealand netball shooting superstar Irene van Dyk is showing her former team some respect ahead of their World Championship quarterfinal clash set for Thursday, so she refuses to talk up the Silver Ferns’ chances.
Leading New Zealand rugby referee Paul Honiss says the All Blacks should chat more to referees, believing it would boost their chance of winning tight Tests. Honiss encouraged senior All Black players to follow the lead of veteran Wallaby halfback George Gregan, who has a reputation for persistently getting in the ear of referees, writes the New Zealand Herald.
Flyhalf Daniel Carter kicked seven penalties around a solitary try to prop Tony Woodcock as New Zealand beat Australia 26-12 on Saturday to win the Tri-Nations rugby series. Carter landed four goals in the first half, three in the second and missed only one of eight attempts to lift the All Blacks to a win over a dogged Australian team.
The All Blacks and Wallabies line up in Auckland on Saturday in an all-or-nothing Tri-Nations finale, a showdown which the All Black see as a perfect dress reheasal for the Rugby World Cup. Both the Tri-Nations crown and the Bledisloe Cup — the symbol of Trans-Tasman rivalry — are on the line.
France coach Bernard Laporte was full of praise for his young team despite their comprehensive 42-11 loss to New Zealand in the first Test at Eden Park on Saturday. The odds were heavily stacked against the French after they had to field an under-strength team because most of their senior players stayed home.
World Cup favourite New Zealand confronted its worst-case scenario when it lost flyhalf Daniel Carter to an injury while beating France 42-11 in a rugby union international on Saturday. Carter, principal cog in the All Blacks’ Cup machine, did not return to the field for the second half at Eden Park.
New Zealand’s players have been warned not to overplay their hand in Saturday’s first Test against France at Eden Park. Assistant coach Wayne Smith has ordered his players to curb their natural instincts so as not to give away any secrets before this year’s World Cup.
The All Blacks put their World Cup credentials on the line against a below-par French rugby side in Auckland on Saturday when the controversial reconditioning theory faces its first Test. Anything but an emphatic All Blacks victory is certain to provoke a highly vocal backlash in a country frustrated at not having won the World Cup for 20 years.
A New Zealand man is now sleeping peacefully after years of living with an infestation of mites in his ear finally came to an end. Paul Balvert’s ”noisy nightmare” went undiagnosed for two years before it was discovered by a nurse at a specialist clinic.
Angry Auckland Blues coach David Nucifora has blasted referee Stuart Dickinson for the manner in which his side was dislodged from the top of the Super 14 table by the Coastal Sharks on Saturday. Nucifora risked censure after he had words with the Australian at halftime and then criticised the referee at a post-match press conference.
Centre Isaia Toeava had a hand in three tries as the first-place Auckland Blues moved nine points clear in Super 14 rugby with a 26-8 win over South Africa’s Cheetahs on Friday. Toeava’s clean line breaks created tries for Steve Devine in the third minute, Doug Howlett in the 36th and Anthony Tuitavake in the 49th.
An opening scoring blitz set up the Auckland Blues for a 41-14 drubbing of the Golden Lions to stay on top of the Super 14 rugby table in Auckland, New Zealand, on Saturday. The Blues took maximum points from the game with six tries, two of them to winger Doug Howlett, who finished the game level with former Brumbie Joe Roff’s Super rugby record of 57 tries.
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/ 24 February 2007
Replacement winger Rudi Wulf scored two tries as the Auckland Blues overwhelmed the Queensland Reds 38-13 in a Super 14 rugby match on Saturday. Wulf scored a try in each half at Eden Park as the Blues scored four tries for a bonus point and moved atop the competition standings at 3-1 midway through the fourth round.