Wellington

The coaches of the Crusaders and Blues have lashed out at each other over ”negative” play after the best Super 14 rugby match of the season in which the Crusaders won 39-10. Crusaders coach Robbie Deans launched the outburst by accusing the Blues of being negative, and the Blues’ David Nucifora hit back, saying Deans should look at his own team’s first-half performance.

The Canterbury Crusaders rallied late for a 22-20 victory over South Africa’s Sharks on Saturday, keeping it within a point of the Wellington Hurricanes, while the Auckland Blues, Otago Highlanders and Bulls also won close games to improve their standing in rugby’s Super 14.

The Wellington Hurricanes ran in four tries to one in a 29-16 win over gritty South African side the Cats in their Super 14 rugby clash in Wellington on Friday. The Cats defence disrupted the free-flowing Hurricanes backline in a match peppered with errors. Two touchdowns ensured a flattering scoreline for the home side.

A South African grandmother caught carrying more than 3kg of cocaine hidden inside garden gnomes was found guilty of drug smuggling on Friday after a week-long trial in the Auckland High Court. Linda Martin (52) had denied the charge, claiming she had been framed by a Nigerian drug ring that put the four drug-filled gnomes into a suitcase she was carrying.

Four teams without a win after two rounds of rugby’s Super 14 have been drawn against each other in the third round starting on Friday, increasing pressure to lift their games. Australia’s Western Force play the Waikato Chiefs on Friday, and the Auckland Blues meet the Queensland Reds on Saturday in matches which may determine which of those teams remain competition contenders.

The ACT Brumbies became the first team to post back-to-back wins in rugby’s Super 14 when they beat South Africa’s Bulls 27-21 in a second-round match at Pretoria on Friday. Earlier, first-round losers the Otago Highlanders beat the Auckland Blues 25-13, and South Africa’s Cats edged the Waikato Chiefs 21-16.

Five first-class cricketers sharing an allegedly haunted house in the South Island city of Dunedin have been hit by a ”spooky” run of injuries since taking up residence in the former home for the terminally ill. The cricketers have all suffered injuries while living in the former hospice, now converted into a five-bedroom townhouse.

New Zealand, one of the few developed countries to allow imports of second-hand vehicles from Japan, is becoming a dumping ground for worn-out old cars, according to the Motor Industry Association. Although more than 103 400 new vehicles were sold in the country of 4,1-million people last year, the total fleet is getting older and older.

New Zealand vintage car enthusiasts have hired 40 karate experts to keep parrots away from their valuable cars during an upcoming rally. New Zealand’s native kea mountain parrots have a reputation for ripping out rubber and just about anything else that isn’t welded on to cars with their strong beaks.

A frustrated doctor has closed his medical practice in a small northern New Zealand seaside settlement and plans to reopen his surgery as a brothel next month. Neil Benson closed his Cooper’s Beach practice last year, complaining of a lack of support from health authorities, other doctors and the community.

A burglar trussed up like a chicken by a group of pensioners who found him robbing their pétanque club was a laughing stock in prison and would ”never be able to hold his head up in criminal company again,” his lawyer told a New Zealand court on Friday.

A Maori cultural performer who head-butted a Dutch tourist during a traditional indigenous welcome was on Monday ordered to do 150 hours of community work. Richard Minarapa Mitai-Ngatai (40) pleaded guilty last month to assaulting Dutch tourist Johannes Scheffers, because he thought Scheffers was laughing at the ceremony.

The New Zealand rugby union on Monday rejected allegations it offered inducements to other rugby unions to help it win the hosting rights for the the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The International Rugby Board said there would be no new vote for the 2011 hosting rights following threats of legal action by the Asian Rugby Football Union, of which beaten bidder Japan is a member.

Opening batsman Jamie How will make his debut for New Zealand in the first of four limited-overs cricket internationals against Sri Lanka at Queenstown on Saturday. Coach John Bracewell favoured How in the starting XI over veteran Nathan Astle, who was recalled to the squad when captain Stephen Fleming withdrew following the birth of his first child.

Sri Lanka’s return to New Zealand to complete a limited-overs cricket series interupted by last year’s Asian tsunami will bring back painful memories, the touring players say. The Sri Lankan team was engaged in the first of five limited-overs matches against New Zealand on December 26 2004, when earthquake-churned walls of water crashed into a dozen nations on the Indian Ocean rim.

The yellow card that Irish referee Alan Lewis wielded to send three All Blacks to the sin bin in last month’s rugby Test against England has been given a final resting place in New Zealand. Lewis has agreed to donate both the card and his match whistle, as well as his referees’ jersey, to the New Zealand Rugby Museum.

Volunteers and conservation staff were on Tuesday battling to save more than 120 pilot whales stranded on a beach on the South Island of New Zealand. The whales became stranded on Puponga Beach near Farewell Spit in the north of the South Island early on Tuesday afternoon as the tide went out.

The All Blacks will play Ireland twice at home and a compete in a single Test in Argentina as well as defending their Tri-Nations title in an expanded competition in 2006. New Zealand will play Ireland on June 10 at Hamilton and in a second Test at Auckland the following week, according to a schedule released by the New Zealand Rugby Union on Friday.

A man who robbed a New Zealand bank was so disappointed with his haul he tried again — this time by phone, police said on Saturday. ”He’s rung [the bank] and said, ‘I’m the guy who robbed you the other day and I want the manager to put some money in a bag and go and stand in the street,”’ said a police spokesperson.

New Zealand cricket coach John Bracewell has denied any rift with captain Stephen Fleming over the decision not to select all-rounder Chris Cairns for the just completed one-day series against South Africa. The New Zealand team returned home on Wednesday from South Africa after losing the one-day series 0-4.

Several members of the All Blacks rugby team touring Britain were disciplined by fellow players after boarding a train from Cardiff to London during an all-night drinking session, a Sunday newspaper reported. Coach Graham Henry said a private disciplinary session had been held and the players had been punished, but he would not say what sanctions were imposed.

A New Zealand oil company appealed on Thursday to 50 motorists who bought petrol at a give-away price after a worker put a decimal point in the wrong place on a self-service pump to come forward and pay the full amount. The service station sold petrol at 14,9 New Zealand cents (about R0,69) a litre for two days last month.

Each member of the All Blacks will get a NZ 000 ( 000) bonus if they win the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, a report said on Monday. The bonus, which will include NZ 000 for reaching the final and another NZ 000 for winning it, is part of a collective agreement due to be unveiled this week.

Israel is to reopen an embassy in New Zealand, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Friday, signalling a further warming in once chilly relations between the two. The relationship took a frosty turn after two suspected Israeli spies were arrested in March 2004 and charged with trying to fraudulently obtain New Zealand passports.

A life-size bronze statue of a legendary bare-breasted Maori young woman, known as Pania of the Reef and which has been a feature of the New Zealand city of Napier for 51 years, has been stolen, it was reported on Thursday. Tony Billing, of the Napier City Council, told Radio New Zealand locals are very angry about the theft.

New Zealand’s cricket team left for South Africa on Monday, pointing to speedster Shane Bond as a key to combating the hosts’ batting firepower in the five-match one-day series. Bond and Daniel Vettori, a left-arm spinner, will be key to containing the strong South African batting line-up, all-rounder Jacob Oram said.

Former All Blacks centre Keith Lowen has switched colours to South Africa, announcing on Saturday he had signed with the Central Cheetahs for next year’s expanded Super 14 southern hemisphere rugby championship. The long-serving Waikato Chiefs Super 12 player, and one-Test All Black against England in 2002, said he had signed a one-year deal with the new South African franchise.