The 2011 Rugby World Cup kicks off in New Zealand on Friday and players from all over the world have started arriving in Auckland.
Teams from 20 countries – including Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the US – will fight for a place in the final, which will take place on October 23.
While the men in your life obsess over the Wallabies’ chances of a win, we’ve chosen to focus on more important things – like the muscle-bound bodies of some of the competitors.
Here are our favourite World Cup hunks.
Wallabies centre Digby Ioane.
All Blacks fly-half Dan Carter in his Jockey ad campaign.
Australian fly-half Quade Cooper.
Australian scrum-half Will Genia.
Wallabies fullback Adam Ashley-Cooper.
Former Rugby League star turned All Black Sonny Bill Williams.
Wallabies centre Berrick Barnes.
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.
Wallabies fullback Kurtley Beale.
Australian flanker David Pocock.
Wallabies centre Pat McCabe.
Wallabies prop Sekope Kepu.
Wallabies winger James O’Connor.
Ok, so England captain Mike Tindall isn’t a hunk, but he is royalty!
It’s 8am and little Leo Swan Saville, all tumbling brown curls and blue eyes, can barely contain his excitement. Tugging at our sleeves, the two-and-a-half-year-old bundle of energy pulls us into the living room to show off his latest pride and joy. “New baby, new baby!” Leo exclaims, his face lighting up as he wiggles a finger at the newborn sleeping peacefully in the arms of his mother, The Circle co-host Chrissie Swan.
“His name is Kit, but Leo often just calls him ‘New Baby’,” explains Chris Saville, the boys’ father and Chrissie’s partner of four years. “Leo’s been so beautiful with Kit,” Chrissie says, smiling. “He loves having him in the house and always wants to hug and kiss him.” Breezing through her pregnancy, Chrissie gave birth to Kit at 39 weeks by C-section. The operation couldn’t have gone more smoothly.
Read more in this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale Monday, September 5.
Kit Swan Saville was Born at 5.29pm on 2/8/2011 at St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Fitzroy.
Weighing 3.02kgs and 51cms in length.
Chrissie’s partner Chris was by her side throughout the birth.
“Seeing your new baby for the first time really is one of the best moments in life,” Chrissie said.
Chrissie says she is enjoying watching little Kit’s personality shine through.
Chasing crocs in the Cape York wilderness is the perfect getaway for Terri, Bindi and Robert. PHILLIP KOCH joins them on their annual pilgrimage to “Steve’s Place”.
Terri Irwin shares her life and family with the world – but when she, Bindi and Robert head to the bush, it’s back to basics, cooking, eating and washing around a camp fire. That their temporary campsite is perched on the bank of the Wenlock River, which is home to hundreds of crocodiles, only makes it more appealing for this family of wildlife warriors.
This week marks five years since Steve Irwin’s shocking death on September 4, 2006, when he was killed by a giant stingray’s poisonous barb. His wife and children are on their yearly pilgrimage to “Steve’s Place”, 135,000 hectares of untouched wilderness that’s a living memorial to the Crocodile Hunter. “I think of it like paradise,” explains Bindi, who recently celebrated her 13th birthday. “Of course, I miss my dad but I do feel like he’s watching over us. He loved this place so much.”
Terri, Bindi and Robert, 7, who is the spitting image of his knockabout dad, are two weeks into a month-long trip to the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve at Cape York in far north Queensland. It’s a two-hour drive on dirt tracks from the tiny town of Weipa, which gets completely cut off from the world in the wet season. They camp on the banks of the river, sleep in tents and the kids do their school lessons with a tutor around a camp fire in between expeditions to find, tag and release crocodiles.
There are few luxuries, but they do have a washing machine powered by a generator and a camp shower which uses water from the river (they also drink river water). If anyone has time to fish they eat wild barramundi, but much of their food comes out of cans. They have one phone line which is shared among the 15 people who make up the research group. This year they also feel less isolated thanks to a new tower which provides Wi-Fi access… and is home to an eagle’s nest.
Read more about Terri, Bindi and Bob Irwin in this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale September 5, 2011.
Baby rumours swirl as the couple move in together.
In the seven years since her devastating divorce, Jennifer Aniston thought she’d never again be a bride. In fact, after a string of dud boyfriends, each leaving her feeling more lonely and disappointed than ever, she felt cursed when it came to love. But now, after years of waiting for Mr Right, it seems the spell has been lifted. Following a whirlwind five-month romance with Justin Theroux, Jen is convinced he’s the soul mate she’s been searching for, and the time is right for love, marriage and a baby carriage – in that order. The sooner, the better!
The smitten Wanderlust co-stars moved into their new love nest just last week. Now, after scoping out wedding venues during a romantic 10-day getaway in Hawaii, word is they’re preparing to tie the knot before the year is out. Already Jen, 42, and Justin, 40, have been spotted wearing matching chunky gold bands, said to be pre-engagement rings, on their left hands for several weeks.
And sources close to the pair say they’ve taken the next step by placing an order at an exclusive LA jeweller for wedding rings – two custom-made gold bands with intertwined Js engraved on the inside. A friend reveals, “They know they’ve both found ‘the one’, so they don’t see any point in holding back. They both want a small, intimate beach wedding with just a few of their closest friends and family.”
“Jen’s not obsessing over wedding details – she’s focused on sealing the deal with Justin,” says another close source, speaking exclusively to Woman’s Day. “She wants to marry him and get pregnant now.” Recent photos of the two in Hawaii hint there may be another, more pressing reason for Jen’s haste to marry – that she’s already expecting, and wants to tie the knot before the baby arrives.
Read more about Jen and Justin’s plans in this week’ Woman’s Day, on sale September 5, 2011.
Will Munsie’s cheery smile hides painful stories of life in the Aussie bush.
Don’t be fooled. Although he’s known for his high spirits and taking girls for a twirl on the dance floor, The Farmer Wants A Wife contestant Will Munsie knows first-hand the toll that isolated country life can take on relationships, and the strength of rural community spirit. Growing up in the southern Queensland town of Warwick, Will attended a school with only three other children in his grade and lived on the sprawling property that has been in his family for more than 100 years.
“I hope I can make a life for my family like the life I’ve had so far,” the 25-year-old says. “But life on the land can be pretty bloody hard.” From his youth, Will developed a deep love for the beauty of Australia – but also learned about the hazards of outback life. When he was 12, he made the appalling discovery that a neighbour had committed suicide. “There’s been tough times out here,” Will says, quietly, explaining that the family friend had been struggling with feelings of depression. “He just cracked one day and pulled a gun on his daughter and wife. They bolted and we – my brother and I – saw them fly past on a motorbike with no shoes on. We knew something was up. “Two days later, we went over to his place to see if he was all right, and we saw him hanging in the shed.”
Shockingly, the tragic circumstances, and trauma suffered by Will, were repeated a few years later, when Will, then 18, and his father discovered the body of another neighbour who had taken his life after separating from his wife and becoming estranged from his kids. “When my brother and I were younger, we were out shooting stuff and cutting the legs off dead animals and dragging dead cattle, and so you get very used to death and that sort of stuff, but it’s definitely a different thing when you see a dead human, especially someone that you know and you grew up with and you looked up to and was a great person. “However, you have to get over it and keep moving on.”
Although Will’s teenage experiences were devastating at the time, he says he still grew up with a deep appreciation of the contrast of life on the land, and while there can be loneliness, isolation and loss, it is often offset by birth and the beauty new life has to offer.
Read more about Farmer Will’s life on the farm in this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale September 5, 2011.
When actress Danielle Cormack first met Pana Hema-Taylor, she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Yet the single mum from New Zealand did all she could to keep her feelings in check. After all, she reasoned, Pana was 19 years her junior. How could they possibly have a long-term relationship?
Two years on, Danielle, now 40, and Pana, 21, are in love and have a one-year-old son together, Te Ahi Ka. And life, it seems, could hardly be better. “There was undeniable chemistry right from the start, but at the time I didn’t feel it was appropriate to act on it,” the Underbelly: Razor actress reveals to New Zealand Woman’s Weekly.
“Pana is so charismatic. He’s the sort of person who’s magnetic to other people – they want to be around him. I was aware of that energy and then, for that to be directed at me…Wow!”Pana, an actor who overcame a troubled past as a teenage gang member to star in acclaimed New Zealand film Boy, never doubted that Danielle was the one for him. Waiting for the “right time” to make his feelings clear, Pana wanted to get to know Danielle, who was working on a play he was in as a costume/set designer.
When Danielle – who had been staunchly independent and on her own for almost a decade – gave Pana a lift home one night, he was immediately smitten. “During the car ride, I couldn’t help but stare, thinking, ‘Wow, she’s beautiful’,” he says. “We had a chat and… I’ve never really left.”
While Danielle initially tried to convince herself the relationship wouldn’t last beyond the final curtain call on the play, she says that when Pana told her he loved her, “It all fell into place… that overcame any barriers I felt might have been there.”
Read more about Danielle Cormack’s Toy boy lover in this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale September 5, 2011.
They found that sex hormones strongly influenced people’s interests, which in turn affected the kinds of occupations they chose.
Women were more likely to choose careers that allowed them to work with people, like nursing and teaching, while people with higher levels of male sex hormones preferred to work with things, seeking careers in science, mathematics and engineering.
Study leader Sheri A. Berenbaum and her team studied teenagers and young adults with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) — a genetic condition that develops when foetuses are exposed to higher levels of the male sex hormone androgen in the uterus.
They compared the interests, skills and career aspirations of the people with CAH to those of their non-CAH siblings.
They found that while women with CAH were genetically female, their interests tended to be more stereotypically male. They were also significantly more interested in careers in maths, science and engineering than other females.
The report, published in the current issue of Hormones and Behavior, also found that career interests directly corresponded to the amount of androgen the CAH females had been exposed to, with those exposed to the highest levels showing the most interest in career that involved things instead of people.
There was no difference reported between males with CAH and males without the condition.
Your say: Why do you think more women are teachers and nurses, while more men are surgeons and engineers?
Models on the catwalk at the Myer Big is Beautiful fashion show.
Big is beautiful but fat should not be in fashion. That statement, made by The Australian’s fashion editor Damien Woolnough last week, sparked fierce debate in The Weekly office.
It started with Myer’s plus-size runway show at Fashion Festival Sydney, showcasing their size 16-24 clothes.
While most of the models in the show were professional plus-size models who looked healthy — over 6ft tall, size 16 and marathon runners — some of the ‘everyday women’ competition winners walking in the show were clearly not.
It has got us thinking. What exactly does healthy look like? Do overweight models send just as dangerous a message about health as their stick-thin counterparts with protruding ribcages?
At the Weekly we celebrate women of all sizes every day. While it’s easy to say that we celebrate ‘plus-size’ women, that sparks another debate.
Plus-size compared to what? Of course the plus-size market deserves to be represented — after all, nearly 60
But is celebrating the overweight adding another double standard to an already confused fashion industry?
Fashion media has us all so bewildered as to what is normal, what is healthy or unhealthy; I don’t think any of us really know anymore.
We are quick to condemn anyone who promotes models that are too skinny on the runway or in their fashion pages, and we are taught that big is beautiful and that curves should be celebrated.
But at what point do we stop promoting Australian health and start endorsing what has been called an obesity epidemic in this country?
At the end of the day, fashion should not have to be disregarded just because the model, whether she is a size 8 or a 16, doesn’t represent your own body shape.
Representing, and therefore promoting, the extremes is not healthy (physically and not to mention emotionally), for any of us.
Your say: Do you think obese models are just as dangerous as super-skinny ones?
When young Arwa imagined the man she would spend her life with, a rugby league player was not top of her thoughts, she tells Michael Sheather. Then she met Hazem.
Love sometimes appears in the most unexpected places. For Arwa El Masri, wife of rugby league star Hazem El Masri, it arrived with a jolt the moment she looked into her future husband’s eyes.
“I have always believed in love at first sight, but I never thought it would happen to me,” says Arwa. “But that’s what it was like. I knew the very first time our eyes met that he was the one, the person that my soul fitted to. It was such a supernatural feeling.
“And to have that certainty consume you is a little frightening, but also very beautiful. It was something so powerful that I couldn’t resist it, even though I tried.”
Meeting and falling in love with Hazem in 1997, when he was a rising football star with the NSW Canterbury Bulldogs rugby league team, is an integral part of Arwa’s life, now the subject of a deeply personal memoir, Tea With Arwa.
The youngest of three daughters in a Palestinian family dislocated by the Israeli occupation of their homeland, Arwa came to Australia in 1985 seeking a new life and a new home.
More than a decade later, she found both and a sense of completion when she met Hazem, a migrant from Lebanon.
“In Hazem, I found my home,” she says. “And it was thanks to my new country that I found my soul mate.
So meeting Hazem is bound up with the ideas and emotions of a new beginning and a new sense of belonging, both for me and for him.”
However, Tea With Arwa is much more than a love story. It is also the story of a young woman’s faith.
Arwa, 34, tells of her feelings about being a Muslim woman adapting to life in a Western culture and about how, at 23, she decided to follow her deeply held spiritual beliefs and wear the veil.
“Taking the veil is a very personal decision,” says Arwa. “Not all Muslim women wear one and that is their choice. But I chose to wear it because it was right for me as a sign of my respect for Islam and for myself.”
Wearing the veil or hijab, says Arwa, is an expression of modesty meant to shield a woman from unwanted sexual advances.
“It is a representation of a woman’s right not to be seen as a sexual being only and a refusal to be judged on physical attributes alone,” says Arwa. “For me, it is as much a feminist statement as a religious one.”
She says that taking the veil changed the way many people viewed her. “It didn’t change the people who know me, but people in the street looked at me differently,” she says.
“And, when they spoke to me, it was delayed, simple English, as though they assumed I couldn’t understand and had just arrived from overseas.
“I never let those moments deter me. I’m still the same person, with the same morals, respect for others and respect for myself.
“I wrote this book in the hope people would read my story and realise we are not so very different, that we all share a common humanity,” says Arwa, who weaves her story with her family’s favourite Middle Eastern recipes.
“Regardless of our religion, we are all looking for the same things: family, love and belonging. Those are all feelings we share.”
Tea With Arwa: One Woman’s Story of Faith, Family and Finding a Home In Australia by Arwa El Masri, is published by Hachette Australia, $35.
Read more of this story in the September issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: Were you surprised to read Arwa finds wearing a veil so empowering?
“I am lucky he didn’t hurt me,” she says. “I was frightened to be home alone after that, and there were many nights when I couldn’t sleep.”
Sadly, too many Australians have been victims of crime. Even for those who have not been affected, simply hearing stories like Lilian’s every day leaves many people, especially women, fearing for their safety.
The good news is that following a few simple safety tips can restore your peace of mind.
IDENTITY THEFT
Shred documents, envelopes or papers that show personal information such as your name and address.
Buy a lock for your letterbox to reduce the risk of your mail being stolen.
Keep your PIN number in a safe place and separate it from your credit card.
IN THE HOME
Keep the police phone number displayed in a prominent place and stored in your mobile.
Leave your spare key with a trusted neighbour, never outside.
Keep plants trimmed to ensure a good view of your house.
Make sure you have outside lighting on your property.
Always check the identification of callers before admitting them to your home. If uncertain, ask for the phone number of the organisation they represent in order to phone and check their credentials.
Avoid buying goods or getting any work done by strangers who call at your home unsolicited.
If you are often away or out late, install time-activated switches on the TV and lamps.
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