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Swimming with sharks Close encounter for Australian World Cup squad
SYDNEY (Reuters) -- The Australian rugby league team made a narrow escape from swimming with two 1.8-meter sharks during a training camp on the New South Wales central coast on Wednesday. The Australians, the reigning world champions, were preparing for their opening World Cup match against England at Twickenham on October 28. The players had just completed a swim out to a buoy 30 meters off the Terrigal beach when Mat Rogers and Ben Kennedy pointed to two sharks near the buoy, team spokesman Paul Ritchie told Reuters on Wednesday. "It was just one of those crazy incidents. No doubt the sharks will grow as the story keeps getting told." Rogers happens to play for the Sharks in the Australian national competition. "Mat Rogers has been surfing all his life and said it was the first time he had ever seen a shark," Ritchie said. "There are no more water activities planned," he added. Divers equipped with electrical impulse devices patrolled the waters of Sydney Harbor during the men's and women's triathlon events at the Sydney Olympics last month. Two surfers were killed by sharks off South Australia's remote western coastline in September. For the Australian rugby league players it was better to almost be swimming with sharks than to be falling off horses, which is what happened last year in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. A horse threw Robbie Kearns from his saddle during a "bonding session", breaking the Australian forward's collarbone and putting him out of action for 10 weeks.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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