Face fellow strugglers Harlequins tonight
In the NRL, Parramatta keep play-off hopes alive while Sharks take a bite out of Roosters
Kevin Walters, the Catalan Dragons coach, has urged his players to put their miserable campaign behind them and finish the season on a high as they face Harlequins in the Super League basement battle tonight.
The two sides are fighting between themselves to avoid this year's wooden spoon, with the Dragons in 13th and the Quins 14th with three rounds of fixtures left.
Walters, who is leaving the club at the end of this injury-ravaged season, has endured another tough week following last weekend's Challenge Cup semi-final mauling at the hands of the Warrington Wolves.
In keeping with the injury problems the club have had, he has lost Jamal Fakir, Jerome Guisset, Casey McGuire and Brent Sherwin to various knocks.
But, rather than wish away the time between now and when he boards the plane back to Australia, Walters has called on his players to finish on a high to give Trent Robinson, the incoming coach, something to start from when he takes over at the end of the season.
"Unfortunately we've had a bad week in terms of the players we've lost to injury," he said. "We thought we'd had our bad spell earlier in the year, but it looks like it's come back.
"It's tough, but it's not difficult for us to keep going. Of course we'd like to be vying for the play-offs, but we're not and we're not the only team like that. We still have a lot to play for. We're trying to avoid finishing bottom of the ladder and we have a new coach coming in next season so we owe it to him and to ourselves to have a good go in our last three games."
The Dragons' form has been promising over the past month with three wins from their last four outings, but the same cannot be said for the Quins, who have lost their last four. Like the Dragons, the London club are desperate to avoid finishing bottom, but Luke Dorn, their playmaker, admits a long trip to France is the last thing he and his teammates need.
"It's not glamorous," he said. "We're out there to do a job. We fly out the day before the game, train in the evening, play the match and fly back the day after.
"We don't want to come last. If we get a victory then we have every chance of lifting ourselves off the bottom of the table."
Meanwhile, the Parramatta Eels kept their NRL top-eight hopes alive with a 30-14 upset victory over the Brisbane Broncos yesterday.
A spectacular individual try by Luke Burt in the 72nd minute after he chipped over the head of Josh Hoffman, the Brisbane full-back, stretched the Eels' lead to 24-14 before Anthony Mitchell finished the job with a try on his debut in the final minute.
"We really dug deep," said Nathan Cayless, whose 217th game as the Parramatta captain eclipsed the NRL's previous best by Brad Fittler, the former Penrith Panthers and Sydney City Roosters great.
"We played to our potential tonight, we've kept our season alive.We played some footy tonight."
Lowly Cronulla Sharks inflicted a Friday the 13th nightmare on the high-flying Roosters with a shock 18-12 win.
Second-half tries from Nathan Gardner and Dean Collis secured a second win over the Roosters for the Sharks this season and put a major dent in Brian Smith's side's top-four aspirations. It also handed Shane Flanagan his first win as coach since replacing Ricky Stuart last month in what is only the Sharks' third victory in their last 15 games.
Gardner, who scored one of the tries of the season in Cronulla's 42-18 win over the Roosters in round 13, was the difference as he danced past two tackles to score 12 minutes from time after Collis had touched down after the interval.
In today's games the Gold Coast Titans entertain the North Queensland Cowboys, (KO 11.30am) while Canterbury Bulldogs play Canberra Raiders (KO 12.30pm).
* Agencies
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The biog
Birthday: February 22, 1956
Born: Madahha near Chittagong, Bangladesh
Arrived in UAE: 1978
Exercise: At least one hour a day on the Corniche, from 5.30-6am and 7pm to 8pm.
Favourite place in Abu Dhabi? “Everywhere. Wherever you go, you can relax.”
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
ABU%20DHABI'S%20KEY%20TOURISM%20GOALS%3A%20BY%20THE%20NUMBERS
%3Cp%3EBy%202030%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi%20aims%20to%20achieve%3A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%2039.3%20million%20visitors%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20nearly%2064%25%20up%20from%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%20Dh90%20billion%20contribution%20to%20GDP%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20about%2084%25%20more%20than%20Dh49%20billion%20in%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%20178%2C000%20new%20jobs%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20bringing%20the%20total%20to%20about%20366%2C000%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%2052%2C000%20hotel%20rooms%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20up%2053%25%20from%2034%2C000%20in%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%207.2%20million%20international%20visitors%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20almost%2090%25%20higher%20compared%20to%202023's%203.8%20million%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%203.9%20international%20overnight%20hotel%20stays%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2022%25%20more%20from%203.2%20nights%20in%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Company profile
Name: Steppi
Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic
Launched: February 2020
Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year
Employees: Five
Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai
Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings
Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Bio
Born in Dubai in 1994
Her father is a retired Emirati police officer and her mother is originally from Kuwait
She Graduated from the American University of Sharjah in 2015 and is currently working on her Masters in Communication from the University of Sharjah.
Her favourite film is Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro
US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years-of-age
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his/her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30-years-old and able to support the child financially
