The Northern Territory news Sat 23 Jan 2010
NT news
The Northern Territory news; NewspaperNT
2010-01-23
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English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin; Australian newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin
Nationwide News Pty. Limited
Darwin
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Nationwide News Pty. Limited
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/216878
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/708759
www.ntnews.com.au Northern Territory News, Saturday, January 23, 2010 85 P U B : N T N E W S D A T E : 2 3 -J A N -2 0 1 0 P A G E : 8 5 C O L O R : K SPORT WERE READY: The Alice Desert Divas Karen Kent-Brown, Andrea Foot, Cherie Forbes, Thea Roach and Jenny Hamilton These divas are up to tackle any challenge THE Alice Desert Divas or ADD as they like to be called have set out to put womens rugby on the map in the Red Centre. Made up of players from touch to Australian football, the Divas Hottest 7s side is the first Alice Springs womens rugby representative team ever assembled. Their first task today will be to tackle Queensland ... literally, a majority of the team has never laid a tackle before. Player-manager Cherie Forbes knows what awaits but said the side has got into the healthy habit of laughing off nerves. When we talk about taking on Queensland, let alone Australian players we all just giggle to ourselves, she said. We are really excited to finally get out there and give it a go. For pretty much all of us this is the first time we have played a game of rugby. We know we are underdogs, but we will give it a crack anyway. ADD captain Karen KentBrown and Jenny Hamilton represent the sides only players versed in the game. But what they lack in experience is made up by pace, with Yulara flyer Andrea Foot just one of the sides quicksilver go-to-girls. There might be a few quick girls worth keeping an eye on, Forbes said. Coach Stanford Forbes is proud of the progress the side has made in nine weeks. This is really a training run for bigger things in the future, but its typical of the Alice Springs attitude to give it a go, Forbes said. Injury stalls Wills way to union By LAINECLARK in Brisbane INJURY has stalled convert Will Chambers (pictured) much-anticipated rugby union debut for the Queensland Reds. After being forced to sit out Reds training on Thursday with a strained back muscle, the Territorian was ruled out of Queenslands opening trial against arch rivals NSW Waratahs in Lismore tonight. But Reds coach Ewen McKenzie said the Melbourne Storm NRL premiership winner had simply been rested from the match and was expected to play next week. Its purely a precaution with a tough season ahead, but we expect him to be right for the following weeks trial against the Crusaders at Ballymore (next Friday), McKenzie said. The new Reds coach in his first season since taking over from Phil Mooney did re ceive some good news on the injury front. Young lock Rob Simmons has recovered from an ankle injury and is fit to join the squad for the Lismore trial. Rob came back a bit quicker than wed expected so hell fill the vacancy left by Wills withdrawal, McKenzie said. Will had been due to play the back half of the trial so well decide on the night how we handle that and Simmos game time. McKenzie said an extra player would not be added to cover Chambers withdrawal for the NSW clash. All eyes will be on McKenzie as he leads Queensland against the side he once successfully coached. There will be no direct replacement for Chambers so the already expanded squad will stay at 30. Fijian star drifts over to rival camp FromBackPage national will try fuse ageold rivals into a winning u n i t t h i s w e e k e n d with the side made up of Australian and New Zealand players. The Aussie Spirit duo of Damon Murphy and Simon Pride bring big game experience to the side with diminutive half back Luke Hamilton the man touted to have the cutting edge. Hamilton was last year named the player of the tournament at the New Zealand nationals. Highlanders Super 14 squad member Aaron Bancroft, who currently plies his trade for Otago in the Air New Zealand Cup, is a speedy in c l u s i o n a l o n g s i d e Waikato winger Glenn Robertson, North Har bours Josh York and Australian under-19 Tom C o x . K i w i M i l t o n Froggat, who coached Samurai to victory at the first Manchester 7s last season, has been given the job of bridging the trans-Tasman divide this weekend. Todays Hottest 7s draw ROUND 1 DRAW MEN: Saturday Field 1: 9am East Arnhem v Top End Taipans, 9.20am Tuggerenong Vikings v University Seconds, 9.40am NT Mosquitoes v Groote Eylandt Mudchooks, 10am Coopers Bula Boys v Palmerston; 10.20am Western Quokkas v One Brigade Spartans 10.40am SRC Borneo Eagles v Kirby Bush Lions. Field 2: 9am Randwick v Katherine Pirates, 9.20am Sunnybank v Brahmans Boks, 9.40am Kombat Cougars v Alice Springs Spacific, 10am Darwin Dingoes v Becker NCS Dirty Dozen, 10.20am Country King Brown v Uni Pirates. WOMEN: Saturday Field 1: 11am Queensland v Parap Tavern Bunnies, 1.20pm pm Amazons v South Darwin Bunnies. Field 2: 10.40am Amazons v First Brigade Fury, 11am ACT v KEAHI Victoria, 1pm Queensland v Alice Springs, 1.20pm ACT v Asian Felines, 3pm Parap Tavern Bunnies v Alice Springs, 3.20pm First Brigade Fury v South Darwin Bunnies, 3.40pm KEAHI Victoria v Asian Felines. Times to watch Field 1: South Sea Drifters at 11.20am, Wakimbizi at 12.20pm, Aussie Spirit 1pm, Davetalevu 1.40pm, ULR Samurai 2pm, Nadal wins top class match MELBOURNE: Australian Open defending champ ion Rafael Nadal triumphed in a high-class four-set slugfest with Germanys Philipp Kohlschreiber at Melbourne Park last night. Nadal, who had moved through the first two rounds with comfortable straight sets wins, had to fight hard to down the 27th seed 6-4 6-2 2-6 7-5. While Kohlschreiber looked out of his weight class against the bullish world No. 2, he took the battle to him from the outset, trying to go blow for blow with Nadals pounding, heavily top-spun baseline shots.