Matthew Haggart

Police arrested 18 people on Saturday night in Dunedin - five at Otago Stadium - and have praised the behaviour of rugby fans after the city's first Rugby World Cup match.

"Going the distance" was the goal for a group of Dunedin exercise buffs who wanted a challenge outside their usual gym-time get-together when they met for a special event to mark World Physiotherapy Day on Thursday.

A passionate display of the rivalry between rugby fans from England and Argentina dominated Dunedin's Octagon before the city's first Rugby World Cup clash

Stadium spectators didn't stop the chants and singing once they made their way inside the ground, although the loudest cheer was saved for a rogue streaker who managed to elude security staff to romp naked across the synthetic pitch.

Rugby fans kicked Dunedin's World Cup festivities off in jubilant style last night, as the city gears up for the much-anticipated first tournament clash at Otago Stadium between England and Argentina today.

Diehard rugby fans Tom Hudson and Jodie Burton have cycled halfway around the world, crossed Chinese deserts, battled Romanian bears and spread the good word about the oval ball code to make it to Dunedin for the World Cup.

A head for numbers and figures initially gave Tony a "sense of control" when he started playing the pokies, until his monthly bank statements highlighted the "horrendous" amounts he was losing on a regular basis.

The amount of money being lost gambling on Dunedin poker machines has decreased during the past four years, with Mosgiel, the central city and the suburbs of City Rise home to the venues where players are most likely to lose their cash.

The Dunedin City Council and the Queenstown Lakes District Council have escaped a round of road funding subsidy cutbacks for maintenance budgets, as other rural councils around the lower South Island take a hit.

A High Court injunction obtained by an Anzac Ave landowner will not allow the Dunedin City Council to operate traffic lights at the Frederick St intersection with State Highway 88 near Forsyth Barr Stadium.

Firefighters extinguished a burning shed on a commercial property in Milton, last night.

A major Australasian concert promoter has seen red after another top act in his roster of rock 'n' roll stars has been passed over by the managers of the Forsyth Barr Stadium.

A round of proposed job cuts at KiwiRail's Woburn, Lower Hutt, workshops has been halted after a group resignation of workers pre-empted it.

The writing was on the wall for Labour MP David Cunliffe at a University of Otago political forum yesterday, as a running stream of tweeted messages from students kept him looking over his shoulder.

Dunedin tertiary institutes have topped the tables again, their students ranked as having the highest completion rate of degree-level qualifications in New Zealand.

The habitat of a rare killer worm living in bush-covered reserves through the Caversham Valley is the subject of land purchase negotiations between the New Zealand Transport Agency and the Dunedin City Council.