The Auckland Blues took the outright lead in rugby’s Super 14 when they racked up 50 points for the second straight week against a South African opponent. The Blues followed last week’s 55-10 win over the Lions with a 50-26 win Saturday over the Cheetahs to secure their third straight bonus point and to open a one-point lead over their compatriots, the Canterbury Crusaders.
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/ 29 February 2008
The Wellington Hurricanes beat the Waikato Chiefs 39-19 with a six-try blitz in their Super 14 rugby clash on Friday. The Hurricanes finally played to their potential as they eliminated the errors that had plagued their opening two matches. They started with a roar and their wide running game ensured the bonus-point fourth try within 25 minutes.
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/ 28 February 2008
The Sharks and the Bulls will stage a replay of last year’s final in the third round of the Super 14 this weekend, with both teams attempting to prevent recent glory days from ebbing away. The Sharks won their first two matches by narrow margins, 17-10 over the Western Force and 12-10 — relying on penalties — over the Stormers.
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/ 25 February 2008
New Zealand opening batsman Jesse Ryder abused hospital staff while receiving treatment for a cut hand suffered in a barroom incident early on Sunday morning, New Zealand Cricket said. Ryder, who will be sidelined by his injury for three months, will write letters of apology to hospital staff, a bar owner and New Zealand teammates.
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/ 22 February 2008
Discarded All Black Ma’a Nonu scored the match-winning try as a second-half surge carried the Wellington Hurricanes to a 23-18 win over the Queensland Reds on Friday. Although unwanted for last year’s World Cup campaign, Nonu proved he is still one of the most damaging outside backs in the business.
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/ 20 February 2008
New Zealand and England played out a thrilling draw in their fourth one-day international (ODI) at Napier on Wednesday. Both teams finished on 340 runs, leaving New Zealand with a 2-1 lead in the series with one match to play. England batted first and made 340-6 with four players scoring half-centuries.
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/ 18 February 2008
A key conference on cluster bombs began in Wellington on Monday with more than 100 countries expected to decide whether to formally back a treaty banning the controversial weapons. The five-day conference is one of a series held as part of a Norwegian initiative launched in February last year.
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/ 17 February 2008
It’s a doggone chartbuster — a song audible only to dogs has topped New Zealand record charts, and is looking to go global. A Very Silent Night, recorded at a frequency only dogs can hear, was so popular among owners it hit number one at Christmas, but has been receiving mixed responses from listeners.
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/ 15 February 2008
England kept the five-match series alive by beating New Zealand by six wickets in the third one-dayer in Auckland on Friday. The visitors, chasing an adjusted victory target, cruised to victory with three overs to spare to cut their series deficit to 2-1.
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/ 14 February 2008
The new Super 14 season, which begins on Friday, could help determine whether South Africa’s dominance of world rugby was a one-year wonder. South Africa provided both teams in last year’s Super 14 final — the Bulls beat the Sharks — and the Springboks went on to win the sixth World Cup in France.
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/ 14 February 2008
Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming is retiring from international cricket at the end of next month’s home Test series against England, he told a news conference in Auckland on Thursday. The 34-year-old quit one-day internationals after last year’s World Cup and is now giving up Tests to focus on his family and business interests.
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/ 14 February 2008
Global warming, which is threatening the viability of the drought-stricken wine industry in Australia, could be a boon for neighbouring New Zealand which has been enjoying a growing reputation for its quality wines. New Zealand’s subtle flavoured wines, mostly whites such as Sauvignon Blanc but also reds such as Pinot Noir, are appearing on the tables of fine restaurants from London to Los Angeles.
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/ 13 February 2008
New laws more than new faces will add an element of unpredictability to the 2008 Super 14 rugby competition that kicks off Friday. The shadow of last year’s World Cup hangs over the tournament, adding a touch of intrigue, but it may be the adaptability of players to the experimental law variations that bears most heavily on its outcome.
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/ 9 February 2008
In a stunning reversal of form, New Zealand thrashed England in their opening one-day cricket international by six wickets with 20 overs to spare at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Saturday. The win came just days after England thoroughly outplayed New Zealand in all departments in two Twenty20 matches.
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/ 9 February 2008
All Blacks coach Graham Henry said he thought his international career was over after his team’s shock elimination from the Rugby World Cup last year, a newspaper reported on Saturday. In his first interview since being reappointed in December, Henry said he only stood for re-selection because of the public support he had received.
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/ 8 February 2008
A woman passenger on a New Zealand commuter plane has been charged with hijacking after she allegedly stabbed both pilots and threatened to blow up the 19-seat aircraft, police said on Friday. Neither pilot was seriously hurt and they were able to land the plane safely.
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/ 7 February 2008
England beat New Zealand by 50 runs in Christchurch on Thursday to complete a 2-0 series sweep of their two Twenty20 internationals. England followed up their 32-run win in Auckland on Tuesday with an even more emphatic victory to continue their perfect start to the two-month tour.
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/ 5 February 2008
England continued their perfect start to their tour of New Zealand by beating the Kiwis by 32 runs in their first Twenty20 international at Eden Park in Auckland on Tuesday. England, who opened their two-month tour with back-to-back wins over Canterbury last weekend, compiled an impressive total of 184-8 from their 20 overs.
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/ 31 January 2008
An opening game against Australia clearly illustrates the massive task awaiting the Springbok Sevens team on Friday, when the third International Rugby Board Sevens tournament of the 2007/08 season kicks off in the Kiwi capital, Wellington. The South Africans are grouped together with the Aussies, France and Kenya in Pool C, by far the toughest of the four pools.
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/ 28 January 2008
New Zealand will dump star paceman Shane Bond after he signed for the rebel Indian Cricket League, the country’s cricket board confirmed on Monday. New Zealand Cricket has been trying to persuade the injury-prone 32-year-old to stay in the official fold, but no solution could be found.
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/ 28 January 2008
A New Zealand anti-apartheid campaigner has rejected a nomination for a South African award, saying he is dismayed over conditions in the country. John Minto was the national coordinator of the Halt All Racist Tours movement, and said black South Africans were now ”worse off than they were under minority rule”.
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/ 20 January 2008
The Stormers scored a runaway victory of 72-10 in their warm-up match against the Boland Cavaliers at Wellington on Saturday after leading 24-0 at half-time. The Stormers scored 12 tries, of which six were converted. It was a typical pre-season match with plenty of mistakes on both sides.
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/ 15 January 2008
A New Zealand man has been charged with driving a lawnmower while drunk, police said on Tuesday. Richard Gunn (52) was driving the lawnmower down a street in the northern New Zealand town of Dargaville late on Monday evening when police stopped him, police spokesperson Sarah Kennett said.
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/ 13 January 2008
Daniel Vettori and Stephen Fleming both fell agonisingly short of making hundreds after putting New Zealand in total command of the second test against Bangladesh on Sunday. Vettori scored 94 and Fleming 87 as the Kiwis posted a big first innings total of 393 on the second day the Basin Reserve.
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/ 11 January 2008
New Zealand’s Edmund Hillary, who along with Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first to conquer Mount Everest, died in hospital on Friday. He was 88. New Zealand flags flew at half mast at Scott Base in Antarctica on Friday, mourning the loss of one of the greatest adventurers of the 20th century.
Matthew Bell scored an unbeaten half-century in his first Test appearance in more than six years to ram home New Zealand’s advantage over Bangladesh on the opening day of the first Test in Dunedin on Friday. Bell made 74 not out to help the Kiwis recover from a slow start and reach stumps on 156-4 in reply to Bangladesh’s miserable first-innings total of 137.
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/ 28 December 2007
New Zealand produced a solid all-round performance to wrap up their three-match one-day series against Bangladesh with a 102-run victory under the Duckworth-Lewis system in the second game in Napier on Friday. New Zealand had scored 335-5 in their 50 overs, with Peter Fulton top-scoring with 83, before rain forced the players from the field.
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/ 22 December 2007
A magnitude-4,8 earthquake rattled a New Zealand city on Saturday after it was hit by a powerful temblor earlier this week that resulted in millions of dollars in damage. Thursday’s 6,8-magnitude quake wrecked an apartment building and two shops in the port city of Gisborne, 50km from the quake’s epicentre.
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/ 11 December 2007
A majority of New Zealanders support the reappointment of Graham Henry as All Blacks coach, although he recently led the team their worst performance in Rugby World Cup history, a survey shows. The survey, conducted by URM research and released on Tuesday, shows 61% of New Zealand approved of the decision last week to reappoint Henry for a two-year term.
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/ 7 December 2007
Graham Henry defied history on Friday when he was reappointed as All Blacks coach despite holding the reins during the team’s worst-ever World Cup performance this year. The New Zealand Rugby Union has traditionally been an unforgiving employer and no previous coach has survived a failed World Cup campaign.
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/ 6 December 2007
All Black coach Graham Henry attempted to save his job on Thursday during a grilling by New Zealand rugby officials in the wake of the team’s quickest-ever World Cup exit. In the past All Black coaches have quickly been discarded after failing to secure the World Cup. Henry has surprised commentators by choosing to fight to stay on.
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/ 30 November 2007
David Beckham proved his superstar status on Friday as he trained in front of more than 15 000 screaming school children ahead of a weekend friendly between his Los Angeles Galaxy team and the Wellington Phoenix. ”David Beckham is Hot. I’m Cold,” read one banner in acknowledgement of the biting wind.