Fabian Juries was the two-try hero as South Africa ended New Zealand’s unbeaten 47-match streak by winning the final of the Adelaide World Series Sevens 15-7 on Sunday. The South Africans, beaten 26-12 by New Zealand in last weekend’s Hong Kong Sevens, turned the tables with the flying Juries scoring two of his team’s three tries to topple the runaway series leaders.
The New South Wales Waratahs put a tumultuous week behind them to claim their first scoring bonus point of the season with a five-try spanking of the Auckland Blues in their Super 14 game on Saturday. The Waratahs gave their most accomplished performance of the season to down the third-placed Blues 37-16 to move into sixth place and press their semifinal claims.
The Western Force came from a long way behind to snatch a thrilling 15-14 win over the Bulls in Perth on Friday night. Down 14-3 at half-time and staring down the barrel when still trailing by four points and with the Bulls in possession with just two minutes to go, the Force scored the winning try through rugby league convert Ryan Cross in the 79th minute.
The Waikato Chiefs ruined Stirling Mortlock’s return from injury by romping to a 42-28 win over the ACT Brumbies in a Super 14 match in Canberra on Friday. Australia captain Mortlock was playing his first game of the season following shoulder surgery but was powerless to contain an inspired Waikato side.
The Otago Highlanders held off a brave fightback from the Lions to claim their first Super 14 win of the season, 29-20 in Dunedin on Friday. The New Zealanders looked on course for a comfortable victory when they scored their third try just after half-time to extend their lead to 21-3, but the South African side hit back with two quick tries.
An Australian man who leapt on to a crocodile after it seized his wife in its jaws, wrestling and poking it in the eyes until it let go, was praised on Thursday as a hero by startled onlookers. The 2,5m croc charged late on Wednesday from shallow water at Litchfield National Park, a popular outback waterhole south of Darwin.
The Sharks put their unbeaten record on the line in their opening Australasian tour match of the Super 14 rugby series against the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday. The Durban-based team, along with table-topping Canterbury Crusaders, are the only two teams yet to taste defeat in the southern hemisphere provincial competition.
A television technician in French Polynesia has been suspended after he accidentally broadcast part of a pornographic movie shortly after a regular religious programme, Australian media reported on Wednesday. The mix-up occurred earlier this month on the Tahiti Nui television network.
With email replacing letters as a way of keeping in touch, an Australian museum on Tuesday said it wants to stop a valuable archive of daily life from being lost with the touch of a delete button. Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum is asking Australians to send them all kinds of emails and replies, including embarrassing messages.
New South Wales Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie’s contract will not be renewed beyond this year’s Super 14 season, the state’s rugby chiefs announced on Tuesday. McKenzie’s five years at the helm will end in July even if the Waratahs win their first title in the southern hemisphere provincial competition, New South Wales Rugby Union chief executive Jim L’Estrange said.
The Stormers scored one of the fastest tries in the Super 14 as they romped to a 32-16 win over Australia’s Western Force in Perth on Friday. Wing Tonderai Chavhanga caught the Force napping to touch down after just 48 seconds as the Stormers ended their month-long visit to Australia and New Zealand with three wins from four matches.
Australia’s New South Wales Waratahs survived a late fightback from South Africa’s Cheetahs to win their Super 14 clash 23-19 at the Sydney Football Stadium on Friday. The Cheetahs, who are yet to win a match this season, threatened to pull off an upset when they scored 12 unanswered points in the second half to cut the margin to a point.
A cattle farmer in Australia’s remote northern outback on Friday said he had found a giant ball of twisted metal, which he believes is space junk from a rocket used to launch communications satellites. James Stirton found the odd-shaped ball last year on on his 40Â 000 hectare property, about 800km west of Brisbane.
Crusaders coach Robbie Deans is expecting the toughest match so far for his unbeaten team in Friday’s New Zealand Super 14 rugby derby against the Hurricanes in Wellington. The six-time champions have looked dynamic in winning their first six games of the southern hemisphere provincial series.
An Australian toddler who saved his mother’s life by phoning emergency services has been nominated for a bravery award, national radio reported on Wednesday. Three-year-old Noah Opris called 000 on Monday and said his mother, who suffers from epileptic fits, was asleep on the floor and bleeding.
The ACT Brumbies overcame a crippling injury toll to beat the Cheetahs 29-23 in the Super 14 in Canberra on Friday. The Brumbies survived a late fightback from the visitors to chalk up their third win of the season while earning a valuable bonus point to stay in contention for a place in the finals nearing the halfway stage of the competition.
Six-time champions the Canterbury Crusaders have boosted their team for an anticipated tough battle with the New South Wales Waratahs in this weekend’s feature Super 14 rugby clash in Christchurch. The Crusaders have the opportunity to open up a potential eight-point gap at the top with a bonus-point victory over the Waratahs on Friday.
A senior Australian Rugby Union official agreed on Monday with aspects of a written complaint about South African referee Willie Roos’s performance during the ACT Brumbies’ loss to the Wellington Hurricanes on Friday night. Peter Marshall said Roos’s decision to award 39 penalties and free kicks had a negative impact on the game.
Australia utility back Julian Huxley has conceded he will never play rugby again after confirmation he needs surgery to remove a brain tumour. Huxley discovered he had a benign tumour while undergoing scans after he began convulsing on the field during a Super 14 match for the ACT Brumbies earlier this month.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton avoided the mayhem around him to open the Formula One season with a pole-to-flag victory in a crash-strewn Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. The 23-year-old Briton, last year’s rookie sensation, finished 5,4 seconds ahead of Germany’s Nick Heidfeld in a BMW Sauber.
Under-fire Queensland Reds bounded out of the Super 14 rugby doldrums with a 40-8 demolition of fading champions the Northern Bulls of South Africa in Brisbane on Saturday. The Reds cashed in with five tries for their first bonus-point victory in the southern-hemisphere competition in four years.
Animal rights activists declared themselves human shields on Saturday and vowed to prevent authorities from killing kangaroos that have overrun a Canberra military base. Last week, the Australian government enraged animal lovers by approving the killing of about 400 kangaroos at risk of death from starvation.
Lewis Hamilton got an early psychological edge over Kimmi Raikkonen, winning pole position for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix while the world champion will start near the back of the grid. McLaren’s Hamilton had the fastest times in the second and third runs of the three-phase qualifying session.
New Zealand’s Wellington Hurricanes stretched their winning streak to four games with a 33-15 Super 14 smashing of the ACT Brumbies at Canberra Stadium on Friday. The Hurricanes blew away the weakened Brumbies by five tries to two and condemned the Brumbies to their first home defeat in seven matches.
The Canterbury Crusaders showed their championship qualities to climb off the canvas and beat the Western Force 29-24 in a pulsating Super 14 clash at Subiaco Oval in Perth on Sunday. The Crusaders trailed 24-12 midway through the second half, but scored the last 17 points of the match to remain unbeaten in 2008 and claim top spot on the table.
The Stormers climbed off the bottom of the Super 14 rugby standings with an bonus-point 34-16 win over Australian strugglers Queensland Reds in Brisbane on Saturday. The Cape Town-based team played enterprising rugby to come away with four tries in their third straight win in Brisbane and the sixth win in their past 10 games in Australia.
Lote Tuqiri and Dean Mumm scored tries against the run of play to guide the New South Wales Waratahs to a 24-17 win over the ACT Brumbies in a Super 14 match on Friday. Wallaby wing Tuqiri intercepted a loose pass from Adam Wallace-Harrison to level the score, and then replacement lock Mumm charged down an attempted clearance to score the match winner.
Two lesbian lovers, one who drank blood as part of a vampire culture, were sentenced to life in prison on Friday for what an Australian judge said was the ”evil” killing of a girl they bludgeoned to death with a concrete block. Jessica Stasinowsky (21) and Valerie Parashumti (19) pleaded guilty to murdering 16-year-old Stacey Mitchell in Perth in western Australia in 2006.
Super 14 frontrunners the Auckland Blues are looking to complete their triumphant South African leg with maximum points against the unbeaten Sharks in Durban on Saturday. New Zealand powerhouses Auckland and the Canterbury Crusaders have shredded South African opposition to state their claims for the southern hemisphere provincial crown.
An Australian man has been arrested after taking a new car on a test drive that lasted 6 200km, five days and almost took him from one side of the continent to the other. Police said the 30-year-old man walked into a car dealership in the southern city of Melbourne last Friday and asked to take a 2008 model Honda Accord for a spin.
Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds will face no action after he knocked over a streaker in his side’s nine-run one-day international loss to India in Brisbane on Tuesday. Robert Murray David Ogilvie stormed the field and ran towards Symonds, who shoulder-charged him to the ground.
India ended their tour of Australia on a high note when they beat the hosts by nine runs on Tuesday to win their best-of-three finals series 2-0. Sachin Tendulkar scored a superb 91 and paceman Praveen Kumar went on to capture four wickets as the tourists followed up Sunday’s six-wicket win in Sydney with a thrilling victory at the Gabba in Brisbane.