Sports round-up

Rugby Union: Barely one third of New Zealanders are enthusiastic about the Rugby World Cup, a mere five weeks out from the sport’s global showpiece. A nationwide online poll found only 37 per cent were looking forward to the tournament, 35 per cent were not, and the remainder had no feelings either way. Figures showed lack of enthusiasm in the province of Canterbury which has been devastated by a series of earthquakes over the past 11 months.

Golf: Tiger Woods played an 18-hole practice round at the site of next week’s PGA Championship and pronounced the 7,467-yard Atlanta Athletic Club layout ready for the year’s last major event. “I had a blast out there on a wonderful golf course,” Woods said. “It should be a great test for a major championship.” Former world No.1 Woods, a 14-time major champion, fell to 28th in this week’s rankings ahead of his return from an 11-week injury lay-off at Akron, Ohio.

Athletics: Australia yesterday named a 47-strong team for the World Championships in South Korea, led by reigning world champions Steve Hooker and Dani Samuels. Also making the grade were Olympic silver medallists Sally Pearson (100m hurdles) and Jared Tallent (50km walk). Hooker won pole vault gold at the 2009 worlds in Berlin with only one clearance, at 5.90m, to record an emphatic victory and goes into the August 27-September 4 Daegu event as one of Australia’s top medal hopes.

Cycling: The Belgian teams Quick Step and Omega Pharma-Lotto announced that they will be merging into a ‘superteam’ next season. The new team will be known as Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step. It will be managed by Patrick Lefevere, the current director of Quick Step. The two sponsors will take turns in financing the team. Omega Pharma will sponsor the team for the first two seasons with Quick Step taking over for the next three years.