With just weeks to go before the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Steve Luckings highlights 10 players to likely to make the biggest impact on the tournament.
Ma’a Nonu (New Zealand)
When a midfield luminary like Tana Umaga tweets that you are the greatest No 12 of all time, it’s worth paying attention. What Ma’a Nonu brings to the All Blacks can be measured most by their two most recent outings against Australia. The first, a 27-19 defeat in Sydney, saw the New Zealand attack lack punch in midfield. Nonu was on the bench for that game. The second, a 41-13 thumping at Eden Park, saw him restored to the line up, score two excellent tries and set up a third for fellow centre Conrad Smith. His running lines straightened the attack and he carried the ball up with trademark power and precision. Injuries permitting, he will become the sixth All Black centurion during the World Cup. A born leader.
Mike Brown (England)
The safest pair of hands in any sport that involves a ball – round or oval. Whether it’s defusing bombs under his own posts or leaping like a salmon over an opposition defender to claim a high ball to get his side on the front foot, few are equal to the England fullback. Brown regularly gains vital yards with the ball in hand and is a monster in the tackle. England’s unsung hero.
Eben Etzebeth (South Africa)
A tank in human form. When the 23-year-old lock, who stands at 2-metres tall and weighs 118 kilograms, gets going, there are few in world rugby capable of stopping him. Etzebeth has taken over from World Cup winner Victor Matfield as the Springboks’ line-out leader but he will lean on the considerable experience of his partner in the second row as South Africa plot to win the Webb Ellis trophy for a record third time.
Sean O’Brien (Ireland)
While many of you may have expected Johnny Sexton to be the man highlighted here – after all, he is the form fly-half in international rugby – ace scavenger O’Brien is cut from a different cloth. While the likes of David Pocock, Richie McCaw and Sam Warburton will be vying for the mantle of “king of the breakdown” at this year’s World Cup, few master this dark art better than the Irish flanker. Whether he lines up at 6, 7 or 8, the amount of turnover ball O’Brien wins is likely to determine whether Ireland can engrave their name on the famous trophy for the first time.
Israel Folau (Australia)
While many have made the switch from the 13-man game to the XVs code, few can claim to have played all three forms of Australia’s most-beloved oval-ball sports at the highest level, with Folau having made the move to union from Aussie rules football. Tall (Folau is 1.93m), strong, supremely fit and fleet of foot for a man weighing in at 103kgs, Folau many be the most celebrated footballer in a country that loves nothing more than celebrating its footballers. When he gets ball in hand, a current of electricity surges through the stadium in expectation that Australian fullback is about to do something special. His sense of timing is impeccable, joining the Wallabies line of attack to create an extra man or finish off flowing moves. A bona fide rugby star.
George North (Wales)
After being sidelined with a string of concussions since March, the enforced rest could turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Wales’ giant wing. With a half-century of caps under his belt already at the tender age of 23, North is one of the game’s most lethal finishers. Wales will need the 109kg flyer at his bulldozing best if they are to emerge from a pool that contains hosts England and Australia.
Wesley Fofana (France)
The only thing you can trust the French to be at a Rugby World Cup is French. The personification of unpredictability, Philippe Saint-Andre, one of Les Bleus’ all-time greats, has endured a turbulent three years in charge of the national team but it would surprise absolutely no one if they suddenly clicked at a major tournament and made it all the way to the final (see the tournaments in 1999 and 2011). If they are to click, it will be through the skill and terryfing pace of centre Fofana. They don’t call the Clermont man “the Cheetah” for nothing.
Stuart Hogg (Scotland)
The fullback doubles up as both Scotland’s best defender and most potent attacking weapon. His form in the Six Nations, where Scotland finished bottom having failed to win a single game, was scintillating, with three cover tackles on rampaging England runners in the opening 10 minutes the only thing that kept the scoreline respectable.
Juan Imhoff (Argentina)
Years of pastings at the hands of the Southern Hemisphere powerhouses looks finally be paying off for the Pumas. They claimed their first win in the Rugby Championship this summer with victory over South Africa and in Imhoff, who can operate anywhere across the back three, they have a lethal try scorer who can put the finishing touch on the hard yards Argentina’s famed forwards are renowned for making.
Sergio Parisse (Italy)
Rome produced many inspiring leaders from Caesar to Marcus Aurelius but on the rugby field Sergio Parisse is emperor. The Italian has carried the Azzurri for much of his 13 years in the national team, making his international bow as a raw 18-year-old back row and maturing into one of the planet’s most fearsome No 8s. The Stade Francais stalwart has great hands and breaks the gainline with monotonous regularity. The one Italian player other teams genuinely fear.
MATCH INFO
Borussia Dortmund 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Kimmich 43')
Man of the match: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
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The chef's advice
Troy Payne, head chef at Abu Dhabi’s newest healthy eatery Sanderson’s in Al Seef Resort & Spa, says singles need to change their mindset about how they approach the supermarket.
“They feel like they can’t buy one cucumber,” he says. “But I can walk into a shop – I feed two people at home – and I’ll walk into a shop and I buy one cucumber, I’ll buy one onion.”
Mr Payne asks for the sticker to be placed directly on each item, rather than face the temptation of filling one of the two-kilogram capacity plastic bags on offer.
The chef also advises singletons not get too hung up on “organic”, particularly high-priced varieties that have been flown in from far-flung locales. Local produce is often grown sustainably, and far cheaper, he says.
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Avatar (2009)
Director: James Cameron
Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver
Rating: 3/5
The specs
Engine: 3.6 V6
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Power: 295bhp
Torque: 353Nm
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed
Company profile
Name: Tharb
Started: December 2016
Founder: Eisa Alsubousi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Luxury leather goods
Initial investment: Dh150,000 from personal savings
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 666hp at 6,000rpm
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INDIA SQUAD
Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
SQUAD
Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Adel Al Hosani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Bandar Al Ahbabi, Mohammed Barghash, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Hassan Al Mahrami, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Yousef Jaber, Saeed Ahmed, Majed Sorour, Majed Hassan, Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Khalil Al Hammadi, Fabio De Lima, Khalfan Mubarak, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Ali Saleh, Caio Canedo, Muhammed Jumah, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
Starring:+Glen+Powell,+Daisy+Edgar-Jones,+Anthony+Ramos
Rating:+2.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Eco Way
Started: December 2023
Founder: Ivan Kroshnyi
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Electric vehicles
Investors: Bootstrapped with undisclosed funding. Looking to raise funds from outside
The UAE's journey to space
Director: Nag Ashwin
Starring: Prabhas, Saswata Chatterjee, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Shobhana
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KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Revibe
Started: 2022
Founders: Hamza Iraqui and Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Based: UAE
Industry: Refurbished electronics
Funds raised so far: $10m
Investors: Flat6Labs, Resonance and various others
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures
5 of the most-popular Airbnb locations in Dubai
Bobby Grudziecki, chief operating officer of Frank Porter, identifies the five most popular areas in Dubai for those looking to make the most out of their properties and the rates owners can secure:
• Dubai Marina
The Marina and Jumeirah Beach Residence are popular locations, says Mr Grudziecki, due to their closeness to the beach, restaurants and hotels.
Frank Porter’s average Airbnb rent:
One bedroom: Dh482 to Dh739
Two bedroom: Dh627 to Dh960
Three bedroom: Dh721 to Dh1,104
• Downtown
Within walking distance of the Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa and the famous fountains, this location combines business and leisure. “Sure it’s for tourists,” says Mr Grudziecki. “Though Downtown [still caters to business people] because it’s close to Dubai International Financial Centre."
Frank Porter’s average Airbnb rent:
One bedroom: Dh497 to Dh772
Two bedroom: Dh646 to Dh1,003
Three bedroom: Dh743 to Dh1,154
• City Walk
The rising star of the Dubai property market, this area is lined with pristine sidewalks, boutiques and cafes and close to the new entertainment venue Coca Cola Arena. “Downtown and Marina are pretty much the same prices,” Mr Grudziecki says, “but City Walk is higher.”
Frank Porter’s average Airbnb rent:
One bedroom: Dh524 to Dh809
Two bedroom: Dh682 to Dh1,052
Three bedroom: Dh784 to Dh1,210
• Jumeirah Lake Towers
Dubai Marina’s little brother JLT resides on the other side of Sheikh Zayed road but is still close enough to beachside outlets and attractions. The big selling point for Airbnb renters, however, is that “it’s cheaper than Dubai Marina”, Mr Grudziecki says.
Frank Porter’s average Airbnb rent:
One bedroom: Dh422 to Dh629
Two bedroom: Dh549 to Dh818
Three bedroom: Dh631 to Dh941
• Palm Jumeirah
Palm Jumeirah's proximity to luxury resorts is attractive, especially for big families, says Mr Grudziecki, as Airbnb renters can secure competitive rates on one of the world’s most famous tourist destinations.
Frank Porter’s average Airbnb rent:
One bedroom: Dh503 to Dh770
Two bedroom: Dh654 to Dh1,002
Three bedroom: Dh752 to Dh1,152
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 10.5L/100km
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Price: From Dh129,999 (VX Luxury); from Dh149,999 (VX Black Gold)
The specs
Engine: 1.8-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 190hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm from 1,800-5,000rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 6.7L/100km
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WISH
Directors: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn
Stars: Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
Price: base / as tested: Dh382,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 428hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 3,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
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- High fever
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- Muscle and joint pains
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Swollen glands
- Rash
If symptoms occur, they usually last for two-seven days