WE ALL know how tough New Zealand breed their rugby players, so we can only imagine how cold it must have been in Aberdeen, Scotland, at the weekend. Admittedly, this pair were backs and not forwards, so they didn't have the extra cushioning needed to keep out the nip, but when two Kiwis have to be taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia, surely the conditions were extreme, to say the least. The big chill happened during Irvine's lower-league match against Aberdeen GSFP. Irvine's fullback Lance Elrick lost consciousness and centre Matt Kenny had to be taken to hospital, after the pair collapsed on the pitch from the effects of the terrible conditions. The incidents came just a minute from full-time, and forced referee Finlay Clark to call a stop to the nail-biting clash for fear more players might drop. "The score after 79 minutes was 0-0 and it was almost certain to go into extra time. It would clearly have been a danger to other players if we had continued," the chilly man in the middle said. Lance downsizes
Lance Armstrong, who slipped into Australia yesterday for his comeback to international racing at the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, is selling the house he built at Dripping Springs, Texas, and shared with former partner, singer Sheryl Crow. The price for the 390 square metre ranch home is $US12 million ($17m). It comes with a guest cottage, five bedrooms, five bathrooms, one creek and a swimming hole named Dead Man's Hole into which the testicular cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion revealed in his 2003 memoirs Every Second Counts used to jump into off its 15m waterfall as his "own personal way of checking for vital signs". He is building a new home where he and girlfriend Anna Hansen can raise their child, expected in June. Cat fan's hissy fit pays
Don't like your seat at the footy? You could always take the club to court. That's exactly what Geelong fan Ken Hamilton did, and with some success. Having paid more than $800 for family gold class membership seating at Skilled Stadium, Hamilton was furious when he discovered he had a dirty big pole in front of the family seats, obstructing the view of the field. He contacted the club and asked for new seats or a refund of half the price of the tickets. The club told him the seats were not considered to have a restricted view, and they did not have any alternative seating to offer. Hamilton complained to Consumer Affairs Victoria but got nowhere, so he took the matter to court, where it was settled before a hearing. Shaq earns stripe
American basketballer Shaquille O'Neal is noted for his size 23 shoes, his 216 centimetres, 147.5 kilogram frame, his rap music, and his hatred of standing at the free throw line. Now in the twilight of a career that began in 1992, O'Neal has always struggled when it came to shooting from the stripe. In the 1272 NBA games Shaq has played, he has been to the line 12,843 times, and hit just 6701 of those free throws, a 52 per cent success rate. The top 50 in the league shoot at better than 82 per cent. The big guy has had many people work with him on the problem, including Australian hoops legend Eddie Palubinskas. But this weekend, Shaq got it right. He hit seven out of seven free throws in Phoenix's 128-100 win over Dallas on Saturday, the first time he has not missed one in a game since April 2001. By comparison, Toronto's Jose Calderon has not missed a free throw this season, hitting 72 of 72. Mills and thrills
Still on hoops and Australian Patrick Mills stepped up again when it counted for Saint Mary's College at the weekend. With just 2.6 seconds on the clock and his team down by two to arch rivals Santa Clara, Mills hit a game-winning three-pointer to get the Gaels home 63-62. Mills had a season-high 31 points for Saint Mary's in a win that took them to a 14-1 record for the season and extended their winning streak to 11 games, just two shy of the school's longest ever, set in the 1958-59 season. Lleyton cops a serve
"Better than that Lleyton," was a sledge delivered by Wallaby Adam Ashley-Cooper when Hewitt faulted a serve in yesterday's charity match at the Medibank International. Ashley-Cooper, who's not very handy with the racquet, got a bit lippy during the charity game between the Wallabies team of Ashley-Cooper and Stirling Mortlock versus Hewitt and Chris Guccione. The Wallabies were trailing the tennis duo 5-2 at the time in the best-of-10 charity match to raise money for juvenile diabetes. Fortunately, the chair umpire then called for a change of partners and a quick game of paper, scissors, rock led to Mortlock picking up Hewitt as his partner. Hewitt was obviously impressed with the Wallabies skipper's serve, saying: "It didn't surprise me when he nearly aced 'Gooch'." Guccione, however, had the last laugh, when he and Ashley-Cooper won the match. Bozza beats the blues
Who is the happiest man at Sydney FC? Surprise, surprise, it's somebody who's not even getting paid to be there. In the sea of glum faces at training, Mark Bosnich has become the last bastion of happiness in a club besieged by poor form, lazy players and crap strikers. The former Manchester United keeper, who is with the club in a training capacity, bounces on to the pitch with a smile on his face and leaves for the sheds drenched in sweat. But even then, he's not finished. When all the other players had gone inside after completing training at the Sydney Football Stadium last week, "Bozza" spotted a few fans on the sidelines and abruptly challenged them to a penalty shoot-out. Of the four penalties, which were struck with varying degrees of venom, he only let one through. He's still got it. THE VILLIAN
KEVIN PIETERSEN The Big Wrap's glee at Pietersen's apparent determination to create civil war within English cricket turned out to be disappointingly short-lived. It has been replaced with the uneasy feeling that the Poms could lure one of Australia's finest - or Shane Warne - to coach against the baggy green in this year's Ashes, starting in July. Remember bowling coach Troy Cooley. Thanks KP. THE HERO
JASON SMITH So often milestone games turn to mud, even more so when you don't play for the powerful clubs, but the Sydney Spirit captain got to celebrate his 400th in style as he led the team to victory against Wollongong on Saturday night. Smith, 34, who played his first NBL game in 1995, had a relatively tough shooting night but still finished Sydney's third-highest scorer with 13 points, seven of them from the free throw line. THE NUMBER
122 Kiwi opener Martin Guptill produced the second-highest score by a debutant in an ODI with an unbeaten 122 against the West Indies. WEEKEND WARRIOR: JASON HOLDER
Although he was not the punter's pal, it was a huge weekend for Jason "Stubby" Holder when he stormed home aboard 50-1 roughie Phelan Ready to win the $2 million Magic Millions Classic on the Gold Coast on Saturday.
You've won plenty of big races both here and when you were riding in Hong Kong, and you've won five premierships in Adelaide, where does this rate? It's right up there with the best of them. It was a much needed win for me in terms of my career and the whole win has been a bit overwhelming actually.
Overwhelming in what way? Not so much for me. I'm excited, but my family. It's unbelievable. I've had my dad crying, my mum crying.
The nickname, Stubby? One morning John O'Connor said "I've got a nickname for you … Stubby." I said 'all right' not expecting too much of it, then the next minute everyone was calling me Stubby.