Rugby

Hansen offered his congratulations to Jones after England equalled the All Blacks' record of 18 consecutive victories for a tier-one nation by battering Scotland 61-21 in the Six Nations on Saturday.

The record will be England's alone if they can beat Ireland in Dublin this weekend, which would also see them clinch back-to-back Grand Slams.

Rather than be disappointed that New Zealand, whose own run ended against Ireland in November, may no longer have the accolade Hansen welcomed the competition.

North had been warned about his form by defence coach Shaun Edwards in the build-up to the game and responded by demonstrating his quality and power as Wales scored three unanswered tries in a hard-worked win.

RNZ reports Wales led 8-6 at half time.

Jamie Roberts clinched the game with Wales' third try in the 78th minute.

Ireland's New Zealand coach Joe Schmidt said his side paid a high price for a yellow card handed to first five Johnny Sexton which saw Wales score 10 points in six minutes either side of half-time.

An estimated one million people were killed during a 100-day period, among them Tharcisse's father and two brothers. Aged 13, he was forced to flee his home and then the supposed safe shelter of a camp to stay alive with his mother, sisters and remaining brothers.

However, he has been able to slowly and steadily heal his emotional wounds thanks to an unlikely source of solace -- the game of rugby.

England remain on course for back-to-back Six Nations grand slams but celebrations will be muted after they produced their worst performance under Eddie Jones.

RNZ reports it is a 17th game unbeaten for England who can draw level with the All Blacks record of 18 when they take on Scotland in their next Six Nations game.

Four days after Stuff broke news that Tuipulotu failed a test for a specified substance last November while touring with the All Blacks, results of the 24-year-old's second B sample came back negative.   

That cleared Tuipulotu, who faced a potential two-year ban, to return to training immediately with the Blues, but left several unanswered questions about the discrepancy in his two samples, which were tested nine weeks apart.

Police said the 51-year-old had been employed as a security consultant, but gave no further details.

But New Zealand coach Steve Hansen said the man had worked for the All Blacks for a long time and was "trusted and well-respected".

"Frankly, the charge seems bizarre and unbelievable," he said.

"However, as with all cases before the courts, there has to be a due process that takes place and it is not right or proper for us to make any further comment as this could jeopardise the outcome of the case," he added.

Arguably that 50-27 win against Os Lobos at the Rudolf-Kalweit Stadium in Hannover was every bit as significant as the victories achieved over France, Italy and Romania during the inter-war years when Germany was in its pomp as a rugby-playing nation.

Not only did the emphatic victory save them from relegation into the third tier of European rugby, it also instilled a sense of self-belief in Germany’s amateur players and broke the cycle of the side promoted into Division 1A, now known as the Rugby Europe Championship, going straight back down.

The Suva Sevens has a nice ring to it.

Former New Zealand sevens coach Gordon Tietjens, now in charge of the Samoan sevens team, has suggested taking the Wellington Sevens to the islands following their dire crowd numbers this past weekend.

He told 1News that a country like Samoa or Fiji would love to host a tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series.

Just 18,000 out of a possible 70,000 are believed to have attended the annual Wellington event.

Back in the day, DJ Forbes would clean out rucks, Tomasi Cama would unlock the defence and Tim Mikkelson would score the tries.

Sherwin Stowers was there, causing headaches for the opposition, and the youngster Scott Curry was coming through, proving a menace himself with his work up the middle.

Almost nothing has changed as New Zealand prepare for the Wellington Sevens, except that Cama is now coaching his former team mates, rather than running around on the field with them.

Hong Kong is in Fiji to prepare to participate at the weekend's Coral Coast Sevens in Sigatoka as one of two fully fledged international sides, the other being Germany.

Their former coach Gareth Baber, who has only recently arrived in the country himself to take the reins of the champion Fijians, was able to organise the session that will feature his extended squad that is preparing for the upcoming Wellington and Sydney legs of the World Sevens Series.

Interim-Hong Kong coach Jevon Groves said they will benefit from playing against one of the best teams in the world.