The ACT Brumbies broke the Sharks’ unbeaten run in rugby union’s Super 14, diverting attention from the return of New Zealand’s ”conditioned” World Cup All Blacks. The Brumbies beat the Sharks 21-10 on Saturday in Durban, halting the South African team’s winning streak at six games and depriving the competition of its only unbeaten team.
Derick Hougaard kicked 17 points to lead South Africa’s Bulls to a 22-13 win over the Otago Highlanders in a Super 14 rugby match on Saturday. Hougaard provided the Bulls’ first 15 points from penalties then converted their only try, scored by fullback Jaco van der Westhuizen, to finish with six goals from seven attempts.
The injury-plagued Waikato Chiefs steamrolled the error-ridden Lions 34-7 in Hamilton on Friday to register their first win in this season’s Super 14 rugby series. The Chiefs were spurred by feisty flyhalf Stephen Donald, who scored two tries, the tactical smarts of inside centre Tasesa Lavea and a never-say-die forward pack missing most of its big names.
The Super 14 rugby table faces a shake-up this weekend with the unbeaten Sharks within range of regaining the top spot when they host the Wellington Hurricanes in Durban. But should the Sharks fail, a second South African side in the Northern Bulls, who face defending champions the Canterbury Crusaders, are within striking distance of drawing level with the front-running Auckland Blues.
Office workers who spend long hours at their desk may be more prone to potentially fatal blood clots than passengers on long-haul flights. A study by Professor Richard Beasley in Wellington found that a third of patients admitted to hospital with deep-vein thrombosis were office workers who spent long periods at a computer.
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.
The Otago Highlanders ran in four tries to two on Friday to beat the Queensland Reds 33-17 and ensure they remained marooned at the bottom of the Super14 rugby competition. After a rough tour to South Africa early in the series, the Highlanders made the most of the home advantage at Carisbrook’s ”House of Pain”.
Super 14 rugby will test the resilience of its new pecking order when the sixth round begins on Friday. After years of underachievement, South African teams have placed themselves among the top of the standings after a strong start to the season. New Zealand sides — in the absence of 22 All Blacks — have come to occupy the mediocre middle ground.
Springboks Jean de Villiers and Breyton Paulse snatched intercept tries as the Stormers beat the Wellington Hurricanes 30-17 in a Super 14 rugby match on Saturday. De Villiers scored the first and Paulse the last of the Stormers’ four tries as the South African team, previously last on the championship table, took a bonus point from an away win.
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/ 28 February 2007
International currency fluctuations contributed to the New Zealand Rugby Union’s NZ,8-million (,4-million) loss in 2006, chief executive Chris Moller said on Wednesday. The result, better than its budgeted loss of NZ,2-million, compared with a NZ,7-million profit in 2005.
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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.
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/ 23 February 2007
A New Zealand high school has apologised for giving students a homework assignment to plan a murder and describe how they would get rid of the body, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. The principal of Howick College in Auckland, Bill Dimery, apologised to the parents of one 14-year-old boy who complained.
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/ 23 February 2007
Thomas Waldrom scored a try after the final hooter to give the Wellington Hurricanes an 11-10 win over the ACT Brumbies in another low-scoring Super 14 rugby match on Friday. Number eight Waldrom broke from a ruck in the last act of a drab match, to burst through the Brumbies’ previously resilient defence and score an unconverted stoppage-time try.
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/ 22 February 2007
A New Zealand fishing boat has landed what is believed to be a world-record squid weighing an estimated 450kg, officials said on Thursday. The gigantic sea creature is about 10m long and about 150kg heavier than the next biggest specimen ever found. Colossal squid are found in Antarctic waters and are not related to the giant squid.
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/ 22 February 2007
South African teams occupy the top two rungs on the Super 14 rugby ladder but their unaccustomed prominence will be challenged in the competition’s fourth round starting on Friday. The Durban-based Sharks are the only unbeaten team after three rounds and will sit out the fourth round, along with the New South Wales Waratahs.
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/ 20 February 2007
New Zealand completed a 3-0 whitewash in their one-day series against Australia after a thrilling one-wicket win in Hamilton on Tuesday. Australia had looked in command after totalling a massive 346-5, but the Kiwis stunned the world champions by posting the second-highest run-chase in one-day history to win with just three balls to spare.
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/ 19 February 2007
New Zealand’s stunning back-to-back victories over Australia have upset the cricket world’s rankings and captain Stephen Fleming believes it has thrown open next month’s World Cup in the Caribbean. Australia have been toppled from the world top spot for the first time since global rankings began in 2002 after losing by five wickets in a record chase by New Zealand on Sunday.
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/ 18 February 2007
Australia rebounded from their recent batting slump in spectacular fashion by smashing a record 336 for four in Sunday’s second Chappell-Hadlee series one-day match against New Zealand at Eden Park. Stand-in captain Mike Hussey led his team’s assault with a blazing 105 off 84 balls while Brad Hodge once again fell agonisingly short of his maiden one-day hundred,
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/ 18 February 2007
Australia have lost their place at the top of the world one-day international rankings after New Zealand batted superbly to register a thrilling five-wicket victory over their rivals on Sunday. South Africa, who beat Pakistan 3-1 in a recent home series, have become the first team to replace Australia at the top of the rankings since they were introduced in October 2002.
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/ 17 February 2007
The Wellington Hurricanes edged Auckland by a point in a thrilling local derby on Saturday to end the Blues’ unbeaten start to rugby union’s Super 14. The Hurricanes held on to a 23-22 lead for the last 19 minutes of a match in which the lead changed hands four times.
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/ 16 February 2007
New Zealand handed Australia their first ever 10-wicket defeat in one-day internationals with a crushing victory in the opening Chappell-Hadlee series match in Wellington on Friday. The Kiwis raced to a stunning victory with 23 overs to spare after fast bowler Shane Bond had destroyed the Australian batting line-up by taking 5-23 in their miserable total of 148.
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/ 15 February 2007
One crewman was missing after a fire erupted on a Japanese whaling ship in icy Antarctic waters on Thursday, following weeks of running battles between the hunters and militant environmentalists. The <i>Nisshin Maru</i> sent out a distress call before dawn, saying most of the crew had abandoned ship, with a few staying on board to fight the fire.
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/ 14 February 2007
Stung by losing their home tri-series final to England, the Australian cricketers flew into New Zealand on Wednesday looking for a whipping boy. ”I think we’re going to be pretty dangerous,” stand-in captain Mike Hussey warned ahead of the three-match Chappell-Hadlee series, which starts in Wellington on Friday.
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/ 9 February 2007
A 30m dash to the line by veteran lock Paul Tito saw the Wellington Hurricanes snatch victory from the Waikato Chiefs 39-32 right on full time in a Super 14 rugby match on Friday. Both sides were rewarded with bonus points in the high-scoring game with nine tries scored, five to the Hurricanes and four to the Chiefs.
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/ 2 February 2007
Flyhalf Isa Nacewa kicked 19 points to steer the Auckland Blues to a 34-25 win over defending champions Canterbury Crusaders in the opening match of the 2007 Super 14 rugby competition on Friday. Both sides scored three tries but Nacewa’s two conversions and five penalties kept the Blues in front of a depleted but defiant Crusaders.
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/ 31 January 2007
This proximity of year’s Rugby World Cup is expected both to add to and detract from the 2007 Super 14 competition which begins on Friday. Coaches from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand will use the competition to monitor the form of their established and fringe players ahead of finalising their World Cup squads.
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/ 29 January 2007
All Black inside centre Aaron Mauger will leave New Zealand rugby after the World Cup to play for Leicester in England, he announced on Monday. He will play for the Canterbury Crusaders in the Super 14 competition this year before taking up a contract for two-and-a half-years with the Tigers in December.
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/ 29 January 2007
A crater lake on a New Zealand volcano used as a backdrop in the Lord of the Rings films is on the verge of collapsing and could send a torrent of muddy water down the mountain. Melting snow on Mount Ruapehu has filled the lake to within 1,5m of its lip, according to the New Zealand Herald.
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/ 18 January 2007
A prisoner’s empty eye socket and dead birds filled with methamphetamine have been used in some of the more unusual attempts to smuggle drugs to prisoners in New Zealand, a report said on Wednesday. Previous attempts included throwing tennis balls or fruit containing drugs over prison walls.
Sri Lanka crushed New Zealand by 189 runs in their one-day cricket international on Saturday. New Zealand crashed to 73 l out in 26.3 overs at Eden Park in reply to 262-6 from the tourists. The brilliance of two veteran Sri Lankan players in 37-year-old batsman Sanath Jayasuriya and bowler Chaminda Vaas (32) was crucial to the victory.
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/ 26 December 2006
New Zealand waltzed to a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in their second and final Twenty20 cricket international on Tuesday to level the series 1-1. Veteran Nathan Astle was in blistering form with an unbeaten 40 off 37 balls, hitting the winning run with nine balls remaining.
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/ 17 December 2006
Two South African families who immigrated to New Zealand lost three of their children in a freak landslide as they played in a river at a popular picnic spot, it was reported on Sunday. The parents watched helplessly on Friday evening as the children were hit by tonnes of rock in the Pohangina River, near Palmerston North.