So today is the last day of July because tomorrow is the 1st day of August so I will be doing a blog about the 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) & 2011 (MMXI) triumphs of the All Blacks according to the book that I've got for my birthday (Along with the brand new Playstation 4 which I'm not playing at the moment (Well, I sometimes play a game called F1 2015 (MMXV) on Monday the day after a Grand Prix) although I managed to save some more money in order to by the PS4 but I'm still saving money to buy another controller for the PS4 which I will be using as a back-up or spare because I've already got one but the next game I'm going to get which is Dirt Rally so I would be getting that if I have enough money to buy), which is Sir Graham Henry celebrates The World Cups! 1987 to 2015.
1987 (The 1st World Cup was held back in 1987 with the All Blacks dominated the tournament in which they beat Italy (Including that all time great try from John Kirwan as well as Michael Jones scoring the 1st genuine try of the World Cup because the very 1st try of the World Cup was a penalty try), Fiji and Argentina in the pool games before taking on Scotland in the quarterfinals in which they won and Wales in the semifinals (Huw Richards got sent off for throwing that punch before Wayne 'Buck' Shelford threw a punch on Richards which went unpunished) before clashing with traditional rivals France (Who beat Australia with a desperate last minute try scored by Serge Blanco) in the final moments before New Zealand beat France 29 - 9 (With some great tries being scored by captain David Kirk as well as Kirwan) to win the very 1st ever Rugby World Cup title with Kirk lifting the World Cup title as seen on national television).
It was a bitterly cold mid-winter morning in Christchurch in 1987 and Craig Green was sitting on his tool bag on the roadside waiting for the pick-up that would take him to the work site where he would put in a day's toil as a roofing contractor.
It was not 7am and pitch black ''What am I doing here?'' thought Green ''I've just helped the All Blacks become the best rugby team in the world. I was a celebrity then but now I'm just Craig Green, labourer, wondering how I can pay the bills.''
Green's tax return for the previous year recorded an income of $6,000, less than a quarter of the national average wage.
The scorer of 110 tries in 1st-class rugby (And a record equaling 4 in the World Cup game against Fiji), Green was only 26 but couldn't see how he would continue to make such sacrifices to sustain his career.
He was a frustrated amateur 7 years before rugby would turn professional. ''It was pretty disappointing to realize there was nothing for the players in the wake of the World Cup triumph'' he said ''No bonus, not even a celebration dinner. It was a case of, 'Thanks, fellas, now get back to work - we'll call you when we need you.' ''
John Kirwan would recommend Green to the Treviso club in Italy, initiating a relationship that would flourish for 7 seasons, boost his sagging coffers and win him an Italian wife.
Not long after his return to New Zealand, rugby turned professional, with the players who'd succeeded him in the All Blacks suddenly on salaries of around $200,000.
''Good luck to them,'' said Green ''They won't need to be picked up at 7am for a day's labouring straight after playing an international.''
Green's heart-rending story helps put the inaugural Rugby World Cup, won so convincingly by the All Blacks, in context. Staged when rugby was still fearsomely amateur, the event which is now one of sport's glamour occasions, attracting millions of viewers worldwide and commanding ticket prices of more than $750 for a final seat, came only through the initiative and determination of the game's administrators in New Zealand & Australia.
Most of the Home Nations, and even the International Rugby Board, if truth be known, were lukewarm on the concept.
It took a lot of persuasion from the Kiwis and the Aussies to make it happen.
The whole event, involving 21 games in New Zealand & 11 in Australia, was shaped in 18 months. Incredibly, the tournament lacked a major sponsor until days before kick-off when the Japanese telecommunications firm of KDD - with no profile on the rugby stage before or since - stepped in and averted a mountain of blushes.
For an amateur event, the 1st Rugby World Cup was a resounding success, producing rugby as it should be played. The players triumphed, with officials for once taking a back seat.
The tournament would have been even better but for meddling by the IRB (Essentially British) administrators.
Not understanding how rugby consumes pretty much the wholde of New Zealand, they insisted the number of New Zealand, they insisted the number of New Zealand venues staging matches be restricted to 9.
Auckland and Wellington finished up hosting 5 matches each, Christchurch and Dunedin 3 each, and Rotorua, Napier, Palmerston North, Invercargill and Hamilton 1 each.
Whangarei missed out, so did New Plymouth and Nelson.
The consequence of this was that fixtures like Zimbabwe v Romania were played out before an Almost deserted Eden Park (Similarly Argentina v Italy in Christchurch) when the good folk of Whangarei would have adopted the teams they were hosting and put probably 10,000 into their stadium.
If you doubt that, note that 19,000 attended the Wales-Tonga game in Palmerston North (That city's only fixture), while 13,500 turned up at Rugby Park in Invercargill for the Wales-Canada match and a remarkable 30,000 packed Rugby Park in Rotorua for the 3rd place playoff between Australia and Wales.
Staging the tournament in May & June, which encroaches on winter when the weather can be diabolical, was risky, but miraculously all 21 matches in New Zealand were staged in fine (If sometimes extremely windy) conditions.
As host nations New Zealand was natrually expected to be hard to bowl but, based on performances over the previous 18 months, the Wallabies, prepared by Alan Jones, claimed the (Unofficial) No.1 ranking in the World.
They had followed up a famous 1st Grand Slam tour of the UK in 1984 with a Bledisloe Cup series triumph in New Zealand in 1986, after which the All Blacks had taken a fearful battering - literally & physically - from France at Nantes on their end-of-year tour.
The Nantes disaster resulted in the NZRU appointing a fresh selection panel for 1987. Brian Lochore was retained as convenor but Colin 'Pine Tree' Meads and 'Tiny' Hill were dropped, giving way to Alex 'Grizz' Wyllie & John Hart.
Lochore, Hart & Wyllie elected to be bold. Acknowledging they didn't posses the forward might to match teams like France, they opted for for a high-tempo game, one they were confident few other nations would be able to match.
To help implement this strategy, they installed John Gallagher, the Wellington-based policeman who had emigrated to New Zealand in 1984 & who had applied for naturalisation only in 1987, at fullback & 21-year-old Michael Jones as the openside flanker. Both would emerge as superstars of the tournament.
It was always expected that Australia would come through on its side of the draw to provide the All Blacks with their sternest challenge, but, to most people's astonishment, they would crash out against France in the semifinals.
In what ranks as one of Rugby World Cup's classic contests, France came from 0-9, 12-15 & 21-24 down to level at 24-all with 6 minutes to play at the Concord Stadium in Sydney, then uncorked an absolutely stunning long-range try, scored by Serge Blanco. Didier Camberabero converted from near touch to consummate Rugby World Cup's 1st massive upset.
Until that moment, the inaugural tournament had progressed pretty much according to the form book, with the exception of Fiji's upset win over Hugo Porta's Argentinian Pumas in Hamilton.
The Pumas were ranked 4th and were considered the team most likely to cause an upset; instead, they were upset themselves, walloped 28-9 in their opening encounter in Hamilton by a rampant Fijian side that scored 4 tries to 1. The Fijians had arrived in New Zealand only days after Colonel Rabuka's coup.
Although Fiji subsequently lost to the All Blacks and Italy - all 3 nations finishing with 1 win & 2 losses - it progressed to the quarterfinals by virtue of scoring most tries (6 compared with Argentina's 4 & Italy's 2).
With South Africa absent - it wouldn't enter the World Cup arena until 1995 - the quarterfinals predictably featured the 4 Home Nations, France, New Zealand & Australia, with Fiji the intruder.
The All Blacks eliminated Scotland 30-3, surprisingly embarrassing them in the scrums after 'Grizz' Wyllie packed down 80 scrums in practice midweek; France proved too strong for the gallant Fijians; Australia hammered Ireland and, in the only upset, Wales defeated England England 16-3 in a contest thatwas described as the most boring of the tournament.
The semifinals were contrasting affairs. The All Blacks blitzed their traditional rival Wales 49-6 at Ballymore in Brisbane, scoring 8 tries to 1, while the epic France-Australia game (Watched by a paltry 17,768 spectators at Concord Stadium in Sydney) went to the wire.
Not only did the Brisbane contest produce Wales' heaviest defeat in 107 years of international rugby but its lock, Huw Richards, had the dubious distinction of being the 1st player sent off in a World Cup contest.
Richards learnt of his penalty in bizarre circumstances. After losing his cool and weighing into Gary Whetton, he in turn was knocked to the ground by All Black No 8 Buck Shelford.
It took some time to revive Richards, after which referee Kerry Fitzgerald told him he was sent off! These days, video replays would have seen Shelford shown a red card too.
The playoff for 3rd was notable for the petulant behaviour of Wallaby coach Alan Jones - ''Where's Rotorua?'' he scoffed - and the sensational finish by the Welsh, who scored in the 79th minute & clinched victory with a sideline conversion from Paul Thorburn, to the delight of most of the 30,000 spectators.
David Kirk was only the 3rd-choice All Black captain, after Jock Hobbs & Andy Dalton had been forced out through injuries, but he was a truly inspirational leader in the final, played before a crowd of 46,000 at Eden Park, scoring 1 try & creating another for John Kirwan in the 61st & 64th minutes, that finished off the French.
Grant Fox contributed 17 points towards New Zealand's 29-9 victory, bringing his aggregate for the tournament to an astonishing 126 points from just 6 outings, an average of 21 points a game.
He converted 30 of New Zealand's 43 tries & added 21 penalty goals and a dropped goal. His record still stands.
And so New Zealand became the 1st holder of the Webb Ellis Cup, and deservedly so, for it was clearly the most accomplished team at the 1st World Cup.
Who would have thought, therefore, it would be another 24 years before the All Blacks would have their name engraved on the trophy again?
Quarterfinals
New Zealand beat Scotland 30-3, in Christchurch
France beat Fiji 31-16, in Auckland
Australia beat Ireland 33-15, in Sydney
Wales beat England 16-3, in Brisbane
Semifinals
New Zealand beat Wales 49-6, in Brisbane
France beat Australia 30-24, in Sydney
Playoff for 3rd
Wales beat Australia 22-21, in Rotorua
Final
New Zealand beat France 29-9, in Auckland
24 years later, in 2011 (And so on in 2011, the All Blacks opened with a win over the kingdom of Tonga (Who hijacked us at the start) at Eden Park in Auckland (41 - 10) followed by Japan at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton 83 - 7 (The night before the mighty green throng of Ireland turned the tables on Australia, causing an upset), then France in Auckland (37 - 17) with captain Richie McCaw becoming the 1st All Black to reach 100 test caps followed by beating Canada at Wellington Regional Stadium in Wellington 79 - 15 (The day after Tonga providing another upset victory over France as well as Dan Carter, who was ruled out of the tournament altogether with a groin injury), then it is quarter final time as we scraped Argentina 33 - 10 in Auckland (Although Colin Slade suffered an injury similar to Dan Carter's), then finally beating against our traditional Trans Tasman rivals Australia (Who defeated South Africa in the quarter final which was better off forgotten) in the semifinal 20 - 6 (It was the night after the French flair titans (Who gave England the chop in the quarterfinal) defeated the Welsh (Who had beaten the mighty green throng in the quarters) in the other semifinal in which Sam Warburton got sent off for that famous spear tackle) before we once again took on France in the final, just as it was back in 1987, with the weight of the nation above our shoulders (Although Stephen 'Beaver' Donald was called up in the last minute whilst he was white baiting, YA GOT THAT!! WHITEBAITING), we have won us the CUP!!! HAIL TO THE KING BABY!!! I'VE GOT BALLS OF STEEL!!! And yeah, not only that we have ended our Rugby World Cup curse after 24 years of agony and pain, as if, not ONLY we beat France 8 - 7, we have managed to lift the World Cup trophy, not only because it is the greatest moment of my life).
Stephen Donald - Beaver to his rugby comrades - performed only a modest back-up role for the All Blacks in 2010, but it incorporated a calamitous 20-minute cameo in Hong Kong, where Graham Henry's men tackled the Wallabies in a showpiece encounter en route to Europe.
When Donald joined proceedings, as a substitute for Dan Carter, the All Blacks (Who already had the Tri-Nations Championship and the Bledisloe Cup in the bag) were ahead 24-12. Donald promptly missed a close-range penalty attempt, then, more seriously, with time running out, missed touch, allowing the Australians to counter-attack and score a match-winning try through James O'Connor.
Donald copped criticism for the defeat, the only one the All Blacks would sustain a year out from the 7th Rugby World Cup.
Coach Henry backed him. As the team headed for Europe, he said ''It was a difficult 20 minutes, but he'll bounce back. Some hadn't played international rugby for some time and found the pace of the game demanding.''
Assistant coach Wayne Smith said it was not easy for Donald in the circumstances ''You got to a dark place,'' he said ''I've been there myself. That's the accountability of the All Blacks jersey. He'll get another opportunity.''
Not everyone concurred with Smith's assessment. With seemingly the whole of New Zealand condemning him, events at Hong Kong Stadium took their toll. It would be a long time before Beaver would bounce back.
Carter wore the No 10 jersey exclusively in the 4 (Grand Slam) tests, Donald getting just 30 minutes against Scotland (Coming on with his team 35-3 ahead) and 3 minutes against Wales.
As the All Blacks wended their way home at season's end, Donald probably wondered whether he would represent the All Blacks again, especially given the progress Aaron Cruden & Colin Slade were making.
But, as would be recorded in Henry's autobiography, fate deals some intriguing hands and Beaver might still have an important card to play.
The All Blacks, having come gruesomely unstuck against the French at the quarterfinal stage in 2007 (And during the quarterfinals, France terminated the All Blacks dream of winning the World Cup just like as it was repeating the heroics way back in '99 through a blatant forward pass not seen by English referee Wayne Barnes (Although South Africa won the tourney beating England in the final), were the hottest of hot favourites, Henry and his brilliantly qualified assistants, Smith & Steve Hansen, were determined not (To use a dinkum Kiwi-ism) to bugger things up this time.
They put an incredible amount of time into analysing where things unfolded in Cardiff & how they could prevent a repeat.
The 2 major lessons learnt were:
(1) They had applied a Tri-Nations/Grand Slam mentality to the campaign, i.e. taking 1 game at a time, whereas World Cup rugby, once the post-section phase has been reached, is about sudden death. What you've achieved throughout the year and in the World Cup pool matches doesn't matter a hoot;
(2) Carter for the unexpected; in fact, prepare for the worst-case scenario. 2 worst-case scenarios had unfolded at Cardiff - the 2 specialist first-fives, Carter and Nick Evans, had both gone off injured and the referee did not penalize France for the last 50 minutes of the game.
Close analysis of the Cardiff quarterfinal revealed players becoming stressed in the 2nd half and losing focus ''They didn't handle the pressure'' noted Henry ''Their minds went blank.''
If the All Blacks were to be successful in 2011, they had to handle the unexpected; they had to embrace pressure. What was the worst that could happen this time? Dan Carter & Richie McCaw going down with serious injuries? Not Possible, surely!
The other major change since 2007 was the adoption of a shared leadership philosphy. Collectively devised by Messrs Henry, Smith & Hansen, along with manager Darren Shand & mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka, it involved the appointment of the magnificent 7 - McCaw, Carter, Mils Muliaina & Andrew Hore as on-field leaders & Conrad Smith, Brad Thorn & Keven Mealamu as off-field leaders.
The value of this leadership group would bear fruit in the desperate final half hour of the final.
As in 2007, the All Blacks breezed through pool play. After a tough 1st-up encounter against Tonga (Won 41-10), they demolished John Kirwan's Japan 83-7 & France 37-17 before moving on to Wellington to prepare for the clash with Canada.
While that game would be won handsomely, 79-15, it was what unfolded on the eve of that contest that traumatized the All Blacks coaches; indeed, the whole of New Zealand.
Carter, who for the 1st time in his illustrious career was to captain the All Blacks, was having a few harmless shots at goal on the Friday afternoon. 4 place kicks, that's all. The 4th was from straight in front of the posts. He swung through the ball as he had done thousands of times in his career, but this time pain seared through his left leg & he dropped to the ground clutching his groin.
He had torn the adductor longus tendon off the bone. His World Cup was over & a worst-case scenario was again confronting the All Blacks. ''We need to be strong & confront adversity'' Henry told his players ''Losing Dan is a hell of a blow but we've just got to get on with doing the business.''
Carter's injury allowed Cruden, so unlucky to miss original selection, to join the squad.
The French, battered by New Zealand, also lost to Tonga in one of Rugby World Cup's greatest upsets & were incredibly fortunate to advance to the quarterfinals, in the process becoming the 1st nation to do so after losing 2 pool matches. Their good fortune was that Tonga had stumbled against Canada, or they would have been, embarrassingly, on an early flight home.
Pretty much all the other 'seeded' nations advanced to the playoffs, Argentina at Scotland's expense (After winning a thriller in the rain in Wellington, 13-12) and Wales ahead of the nation that had twice previously embarrassed it in World Cup pool play - Samoa.
The greatest upset result was provided by the Irish, who knocked over the Wallabies in a riveting contest at Eden Park, 15-6. This had the effect of shunting Australia on to the same side of the draw as New Zealand, putting them on a collision course for the semifinals when many expected them to fight out the final.
The Springboks were the defending champions and, remarkably, brought 21 of the survivors from 2007 to the tournament. The team that took on Wales, and escaped oh so narrowly, 17-16, thanks to the Welsh fluffing some late kicks at goal, boasted an incredible 825 caps (An average of 55 per player).
The quarterfinals produced a series of enthralling contests. Wales, coached by Warren Gatland, outgunned Ireland 22-10, Australia edged out South Africa 11-9 (After which the South Africans said many unkind things about New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence), the All Blacks outmuscled Argentina 33-10 (Helped by 7 penalty goals from the boot of Piri Weepu, in the process losing Colin Slade with Carter's injury - a torn adductor muscle) &, in the most unlikely outcome, the French, who appeared to be down & out after losing to Tonga, defeated England 19-12.
The French are reowned for their inconsistency, but this time they appeared to be so far down the precipice there would be no way back. What made the difference? ''We talked a lot'' said France's man of the match, halfback Dimitri Yachvili ''It was obvious our performance against Tonga was unacceptable. There was a lot of soul-searching during the week.''
The 1st semifinal was virtually decided by referee Alain Rolland in the 17th minute when he red-carded Welsh captain Sam Warburton for a tip tackle on French winger Vincent Clerc.
Yes, it was a dangerous tackle and, yes it certainly deserved a yellow card (Francois Pienaar, the 1995 Rugby World Cup winning captain for the Springboks said that at best the yellow card, never a red card in the final & he also said that Warburton had been one of the cleanest players in the tournament just because Rolland killed the game so Pienaar was livid because he was absolutely livid that it's wrong, it is wrong because he may have calmed them down a bit). But in so diligently applying the law relevant to dangerous tip tackles, Rolland effectively destroyed a World Cup showpiece, an occasion for which the Welsh had spent 4 years planning.
Against 14 men for the final 63 minutes, France, even without scoring a try, held on to win 9-8. The plucky Welsh almost salvaged an amazing victory through a late try by halfback Mike Phillips, but Stephen Jones, on for the hapless James Hook, who'd had a wretched night as a goalkicker, struck the upright with his conversion.
24 hours later, the All Blacks eliminated the Wallabies, thanks to an explosive opening, which produced the game's solitary try in the 5th minute by Ma'a Nonu.
The contest was effectively over by halftime, although the Wallabies fought bravely throughout the 2nd half & deserved a greater reward than 1 penalty goal & 1 dropped goal.
Having dissected the French so ruthlessly in pool play, the All Blacks were raging hot favourites to take out the final, especially given the venue was Eden Park where they had been invincible since 1986.
However, the worst-case scenarios kept unfolding for Henry's team. Aaron Cruden limped off in the 33rd minute to be replaced by none other than Stephen Donald. Beacer, who'd been whitebaiting a fortnight before, now found himself in a World Cup final wearing Cruden's shirt, which was 2 sizes too small for him.
Weepu, who had been kicking like a machine throughout the tournament, had tweaked a muscle in a private practice session now couldn't land anything, as a consequence of which the All Blacks were only 5-0 ahead at halftime, courtesy of a classic try to Tony Woodcock, utilising the 'Teabag' lineout move that had been kept on ice for 3 years.
Beaver assured himself of immortality by landing a penalty goal 4 minutes into the 2nd half for an 8-0 advantage, which was trimmed to 1 point a few minutes later when Thierry Dusautoir scored a try that was converted.
The 8-7 scorline survived for the final 32 minutes of what surely ranks as Rugby World Cup's most gripping encounter.
While Messers Henry, Smith & Hansen died a thousand deaths in the coaches' box during that final, agonising half hour, the ultra-cool All Blacks, superbly marshalled by Richie McCaw (Ignoring a severe foot injury that shouldn't have even allowed him to start) operated with consummate skill. This time they were mentally strong, trusting in each other to get the job done.
Worst-case scenarios weren't going to deny them this time. Out of the 2007 wreckage had emerged a team with the mental strength to survive.
When South African referee Craig Joubert blew the whistle for full time, the All Blacks were still a point in front, 8-7. One point was enough, allowing McCaw to go forward & become the 1st New Zealander to accept the Webb Ellis Cup since David Kirk, at the same venue, 24 years earlier.
Quarterfinals
Wales beat Ireland 22-10, in Wellington
France beat England 19-12, in Auckland
Australia beat South Africa 11-9, in Wellington
New Zealand beat Argentina 33-10, in Auckland
Semifinals
France beat Wales 9-8, in Auckland
New Zealand beat Australia 20-6, in Auckland
Playoff for 3rd
Australia beat Wales 21-18, in Auckland
Final
New Zealand beat France 8-7, in Auckland
And finally guess what, it is only 6 days until the Rio 2016 (MMXVI) Olympic Games because there are so many Kiwi athletes competing so they can go for gold because I am still looking forward to it as well as my Malaysian friend sending me an email which is about that she will be heading to the once earthquake stricken garden city of Christchurch so here's the full message in it's entirety:
Morning Whetu,
Yes i will be heading to Christchurch next week, I am in wellington at the moment and it is very nice, people are very nice in the backpackers!
We will have a picnic when i come back
and Finally yes i am excited about the Olympics especially the Opening!
Talk to you soon!
So that's all folks for my XVIth (16th) blog of the year, MMXVI.
Saturday, 30 July 2016
Sunday, 24 July 2016
Alive & Amplified/All Along The Watchtower/Cornflake Girl/Dreams: 3 weeks that shook the rugby world in 1995 (21 years ago)
So, this is my 15th blog of the year which means I have broken the record for most blogs in 1 year, so this is the one about rugby (Well I'm rugby mad at the moment) turning professional 21 years ago in 1995 as SANZAR's (Now SANZAAR since Argentina joined) proposals were under serious threat from a Sydney-based group called the World Rugby Corporation, so here's New Zealand rugby commentator Keith Quinn with that story:
South Africa, June 1995, It was the calm before the storm, The All Blacks taking time out to relax just prior to the 3rd Rugby World Cup. But this entire All Blacks squad would soon ready itself to sell out this silver fern and prepare to walk away from the 100 year old All Black heritage. This is the story of how 2 entrepreneurs almost pulled off the sporting coup of the century, taking the All Blacks with them. And how would the 11th hour, they were stopped. It's the story of how All Black rugby went professional during 3 dramatic weeks in the middle of 1995. The issue of paying players was a ticking time bomb, as far back as 1924, All Blacks have been complaining about the hardships that they endured on tour representing that country, even though the great George Nepia had been forced to go to England to play rugby league just to feed his family back on the East Coast, all sorts of schemes had been dreamed up by success of generations of All Blacks to make money, but by 1995 the issue had come to ahead. And in that World Cup year, an organisation called the World Rugby Corporation, the WRC, was to finally force the issue of All Blacks and money out into the open. These mock-up posters, never seen before, were prepared in secret by the WRC, as it geared up to take over the running of international rugby and turn the rugby world on it's head. They're a testament to how close the 1995 All Blacks came, to walking away from the All Black institution and tradition. The World Rugby Corporation came out of Australia, it was the brainchild of South African born rugby mad Sydney lawyer and deal maker, Geoff Levy. Levy dreamed of a completely new international rugby competition better than the World Cup with rugby stars like the Jonah Lomu's of the world bringing in a truly global television audience, to spice up the game he loved and followed all his life.
This new competition with the elite players featuring would be worldwide & professional & give greater control to the players. Amidst great secrecy Geoff Levy sold his idea of a new international rugby circus to Australian media magnate, Kerry Packer. WRC, the World Rugby Corporation would give Packer another weapon in his fight with arch-rival Rupert Murdoch over rugby league, which Packer had, and Murdoch wanted. During 1995, Murdoch was trying to rest control of rugby league, by setting up a rival competition which he called, Super League. A global fight between these Australian media giants Rupert Murdoch & Kerry Packer, was about to begin. The man chosen by Geoff Levy to sell the dream of Packer's WRC rugby circus to the players was Ross Turnbull. Turnbull was a Wallaby prop in his playing days, when he went by the nickname of Mad Dog, now he was to be the main WRC strategist.
Placing greater control of the game in the hands of the players was a tantalizing prospect for the 1995 All Blacks, as it was for the former All Black turned professional talent agent, Andy Haden.
For years rugby players like Andy Haden had felt ripped off by the men who ran the game, the administrators, the players did all the work, the administrators has got the perks, something had to change, and that sentiment was to provide fertile ground for the WRC it could not have launched itself at a better time, no one knows that better than Peter Fitzsimons. Fitzsimons is an ex-Wallaby lock & columnist & writer for the Sydney Morning Herald. This year (1999) he joined me on TV ONE's rugby talk show Tight Five. He followed this story closely, Fitzsimons characterizes what happened throughout 1995 to southern hemisphere rugby, as a war.
In New Zealand, the Blazer Brigade was led by Ritchie Guy, then the chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, and a former All Black himself. In early 1995, he had a problem, how to keep All Blacks away from rugby league.
For months in the lead up to the 95 World Cup there was a phony war, WRC man Ross Turnbull has secretly begun talking to the world's top rugby players who were keen, but coincidentally the Blazer Brigade, the men from the rugby unions in New Zealand, Australia & South Africa, had also secretly begun their moves to protect their players, things began to move with surprising speed. Admist great secrecy of their own, the southern hemisphere rugby unions under the banner of SANZAR, came up with the new Tri Nations competition (Which is now the Rugby Championship when Argentina joined the competition since 2012 as well as the southern hemisphere's equivalent to the Six Nations), which they could sell to a broadcaster, and then pay real money to their star players, the All Blacks, & Wallabies, & Springboks. It was Ian Frykberg a Kiwi connection who made it happen, he introduced the unions, to the real money, Frykberg then put the southern unions together with another ex pat Kiwi, Sam Chisholm, Rupert Murdoch's right hand man. The southern hemisphere unions elected South Africa's Louis Luyt to do a deal with the volatile Chisholm, Doctor Louis Luyt is the hugely wealthy and influential businessman & rugby administrator, who also just happens to own the cathedral of South African rugby, Ellis Park, venue for much of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. At the World Cup, Jonah Lomu exploded onto the world stage. On June the 18th in a semi-final against England, the single try convinced Rupert Murdoch and his money men, their were huge obtainment dollars to be made out of rugby union, but they had to have Jonah Lomu, and everything went with him, the All Blacks, the Springboks, and the Wallabies. Sam Chisholm immediately summons Louis Luyt to London for a secret meeting, in which hundreds of millions of dollars, would be on the table.
The very next day, Louis Luyt was back in South Africa, the Rugby World Cup was still in progress, no one knew he'd even be gone. The deal Louis Luyt signed on behalf of the Springboks, the All Blacks & the Wallabies was for 555 million US dollars over 10 years, an unbelievable amount of money for a previously amateur sport, the rugby unions were delighted of course because they meant they could keep their players out of the clutches of rugby league & super league, but at this stage they were still completely unaware of the WRC bearing down on them.
So the day before the final of the 1995 World Cup, this amazing deal which would change the face of international rugby, was announced by the 3 southern hemisphere rugby unions.
Ritchie Guy was there that day, but he knew that even with the money to pay players, the unions couldn't underestimate the ongoing threats from outside.
And surely that would be the easy job, after all here was rock solid international competition announced, involving the All Blacks, the Springboks & the Wallabies, that had real money to pay & reward All Blacks stars like Jonah Lomu & Sean Fitzpatrick. While on the face of it, the WRC plan looked dead in the water in that point, people didn't bank on that determination of the Aussie battler Ross Turnbull, what should've been the end of the rugby war, was only the beginning.
The 1995 Rugby World Cup. And this would be the last time Louis Luyt and Springbok captain Francois Pienaar were to embrace. Because over the next 2 weeks, these 2 men were to become bitter enemies, at the heart of their argument was the amount of money being offered to the Springboks, the Wallabies & the All Blacks, by the World Rugby Corporation.
It profoundly offended Louis Luyt that Pienaar didn't say no, because to Dr Luyt, the Spirngbok jersey was not for sale to the World Rugby Corporation, especially now he had just negotiated the Murdoch deal, which was firmly in place.
When the cheering had died down just hours after the Springbok victory, the argument over the value of the All Blacks was to enter Sean Fitzpatrick's life. The occasion was the post match World Cup celebratory dinner in Johannesburg.
With the World Rugby Corporation promising paychecks worth many times more than their rugby administrators were offering under the Murdoch deal, it was obvious the players were going to listen.
But it wasn't necessarily that straight forward for the World Rugby Corporation. They weren't the only people trying to throw huge sums of money at the All Blacks during the middle of 1995.
July the 5th, 1995, soon after the World Cup final, the All Blacks were back in Wellington at a parliamentary reception. The All Blacks contracts have run out, they were no longer tied to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union. They were free agents.
The reason there were no signatures, well Jonah Lomu and the rest of the All Blacks immediately following the parliamentary reception, snuck away to a meeting at this Wellington hotel were they met the number 1 man from the World Rugby Corporation. Geoff Levy had just flown in from Sydney, to meet the full squad, behind closed doors.
By now a couple of weeks later, in mid-July 1995, the All Blacks were in Sydney to prepare for the Bledisloe Cup, at this point the team negotiations with WRC were complete, and it was time that the All Blacks to finally commit to the rebel organisation once and for all. Almost to a man they were ready to do so. The New Zealand Rugby Union still had no idea that their star players were about to fly the coupe, coach Laurie Mains did know, and this created huge conflict for him.
By now the New Zealand Rugby Union was aware that WRC but they didn't yet realize what a threat that posed, all they knew was they had to resign the players immediately, because without the players, the 555 million dollar Murdoch deal was a dead duck, and the Murdoch organisation was putting the heat on New Zealand Rugby Union to deliver the players as they contracted to do, so the rugby union was in crisis. So cometh the hour, cometh the man, and the man was Jock Hobbs, Hobbs was ideally placed to represent the All Black establishment, he was a lawyer, a member of the NZRFU council, & a former All Black captain. And his job was to fight a last ditch stand to save the game he loved.
Hobbs was dispatched to Sydney, where he quickly came to the realization that the All Blacks committed instead, to the World Rugby Corporation deal. In Sydney he met with Murdoch's right hand man, Sam Chisholm. Chisholm was jumping up and down, demanding that the 3 southern hemisphere rugby unions, deliver the players for the new Murdoch deal. Later, at this Sydney hotel, Hobbs had to distinctly unpleasant task of reporting back to a specially convened meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Football council.
Friday, July the 28th, 1995, the eve of the centenary Bledisloe Cup match in Sydney. The stage was set not only for a great test match, but also for a showdown between the Murdoch and Packer camps that they would change international rugby forever.
During the week leading up to the Bledisloe Cup, the All Blacks were staying at the Manly Park Royal, and it was here that WRC's top man in Sydney came to do the deal. Geoff Levy knew that the All Blacks, as well as the Wallabies & the Springboks were absolutely committed, the pressing question now was when, not if the All Blacks were going to sign.
July the 29th, 1995, Bledisloe Cup day, it was perhaps the most stressful day in Geoff Levy's life, the dream of creating a new world order of rugby was within his grasp & headed towards it's game.
The All Blacks played a blinder that day, they were back on a high after the disappointment of the World Cup final (Oh well, disaster struck as New Zealand (Which featured rugby's 1st global superstar, Jonah Lomu) failed to regain the crown (With several players fell victim to food poisoning with the exception of captain Sean Fitzpatrick and the Brooke brothers of Robin & Zinzan), losing to debutants and hosts South Africa in the final in which united the host country as well as their leader Nelson Mandela). But at full time something happened which turned the rugby world on it's head, something that told every rugby supporter on both sides of the Tasman, that the union controlled game they knew it, was dead.
Normally after a Bledisloe Cup match, the All Blacks would shower, change and head off to the after match function, here at the ground, but that night in 1995, instead they came down here, boarded a bus and took off. All Blacks spend hours on bus journeys, but the short trip from the Sydney Football Stadium (Now Allianz Stadium present day) to the upmarket inner city suburb of Vaucluse, must be the most remarkable. Here we have the entire squad of more than 20 players, the 2 coaches Laurie Mains & Earl Kirton, & manager Colin Meads being driven, not to the home of Geoff Levy, but to the plush mansion of Brian Powers, Kerry Packer's top man in Australia. The last minute change of address was to provide the final proof to the All Blacks, that Packer was committed to making the WRC, an absolute reality.
At the Powers house, the All Blacks were to finally sign contracts, that look set to kill off the All Black legend forever.
So having signed the rebel WRC contracts that the All Blacks re-boarded the bus and headed back into town.
The centenary dinner that night was to celebrate 100 years of trans-Tasman rugby, the atmosphere was electric because the former greats of both New Zealand & Australia had begun to realize that the game for which they had made such great sacrifices was about to be sold out.
So what had gone wrong, well make no mistake about it, the All Blacks were gone, international rugby had just been turned on it's head, the 1995 All Blacks had signed contracts with the World Rugby Corporation, the WRC, for the promise of even greater riches they turned their backs on the very real 555 million dollar Murdoch deal, it meant, that they were no longer All Blacks, they've left behind New Zealand rugby union and just walked away the All Black tradition, and the silver fern.
When Jock Hobbs returned to New Zealand after the 1995 Bledisloe Cup, he was the man under enormous pressure, the weight of the Rupert Murdoch empire was being brought to bear by Murdoch's top man, Sam Chisholm.
Jock Hobbs still had no idea that the WRC had beaten the New Zealand Rugby Union to the punch, by actually signing up the players, during early August, he said about travelling the length and breadth of the country, talking not just to All Blacks, but to top provincial players who would make up the backbone of New Zealand teams in Murdoch's upcoming Super 10 competition, at these presentations, the All Blacks who'd already signed with WRC never let on, they held their tongues, while Jock Hobbs put the rugby union's case. Back in Wellington, it's hard now to imagine the pressure that Hobbs and the other lawyers on both sides of the rugby war were under. At one point during these difficult days, at least 1 of them actually feared for his life.
Just how much was involved became apparent back in Sydney when the 3 southern hemisphere rugby unions were summoned to crisis talks by the Murdoch organisation. The headquarters of the Australian Rugby Football Union, and it was had a meeting here that the man who originally broken the Murdoch deal, Ian Frykberg finally convinced the 3 southern hemisphere unions that they were in deep trouble.
Those words echoed around Sydney the meeting finally showed the rugby unions how far behind the play they were, it was a huge shock, especially to Louis Luyt.
Back home in South Africa was a fearsome Louis Luyt summoned the Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, and other senior players of the Springbok team, to come & see him immediately.
The problem was of course Pienaar & the Springboks along with the All Blacks and the Wallabies, had now all signed Turnbull & Levy's WRC contracts.
Because of the importance of secured the World Cup winning Springboks, Ross Turnbull remained in South Africa in the weeks since the cup, with the rugby unions now fighting back, Turnbull organised the satellite linkup to once again reinforce the commitment to the WRC of the Springboks, the All Blacks & the Wallabies.
At that time Francois Pienaar as World Cup winning captain, was the most popular rugby figure in South Africa, so why did he cave in, what did Louis Luyt say or do, to turn his head. Louis Luyt simply said: What do you want?
So with the South African staying, the tide of the rugby war swung back towards the establishment, Louis Luyt had found the weak link in the Springboks, Jock Hobbs was credited finding into the All Blacks armor, and he founded, in the heart of the Otago provincial side.
From the outset, the 1995 All Blacks had agreed that was all for one and one for all, they thought that they signing on with the WRC was in the best interests of the game. But within a few short weeks, it dawned 1 or 2 of them, just what they'd given up.
Yes what finally convinced Jeff Wilson to break ranks within rest of his World Cup teammates, was the fact under WRC, he would no longer be an All Black. The identical thought occurred to Josh Kronfeld.
On the 10th of August, Wilson & Kronfeld were heading out of Dunedin, with the Otago provincial side. Before they got on the plane, they phoned Jock Hobbs to say that during a stopover in Wellington, they would sign with the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (So this is what Jock Hobbs had to say after both New Zealand Rugby Football Union contracts were signed by both Josh 'Crusher' Kronfeld & Jeff 'Goldie' Wilson):
''I do however, have the pleasure, in announcing that I am holding, letters from lawyers acting for Jeff Wilson & Josh Kronfeld, confirming, that these 2 All Blacks will sign contracts with the New Zealand Rugby Football Union''
Unlike the provincial players who would also sign with Hobbs, Wilson & Kronfeld had now signed with both the WRC & the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, this still rankles with the WRC liason man, Andy Haden.
It wasn't long before Sean Fitzpatrick, the All Black captain, who had thrown his considerable weight behind the rebel WRC, had also changed, to sign up with the NZRFU.
The rugby war then, was over, the Springboks deserted the WRC, so too are the All Blacks, and then the Wallabies, the Packer people who'd been backing WRC, seemingly just lost interest in turned of the money, cutting their losses rather than entering in prolonged legal battle to hang on to the players, the Blazer Brigade had won.
So how has it turned out? Well the century long All Black tradition survived, Murdoch's SANZAR deal has produced the very successful Tri Nations and Super 12 (Then Super 14 when both the Cheetahs & the Western Force joined the competition and now Super Rugby (Used to be Super 15 when the Melbourne Rebels joined which is now Super 18 (The Southern Kings rejoined the competition along with 2 newcomers the Jaguares/Jaguars of Argentina & the Sunwolves from Japan) competitions, rugby is the winner, as indeed are the players now earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the 2 All Blacks who were 1st to sell out the WRC dream, Kronfeld & Wilson, have gone on to enjoy spectacular success, but it hasn't been without it's odd moments of tension with senior players.
The aftermath of Jock Hobbs was more drastic, the rugby establishment, the men who ran the game he helped save, dumped them, from the reformed New Zealand Rugby Union council.
But to me the most interesting post-script of the 1995 rugby war involved a story I heard about Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, the 1st southern hemisphere player to sell out from the WRC rugby circus.
In this match in 1996, Pienaar was to come of 2nd best, he was injured badly enough to be carried off on a stretcher. For a variety of reasons, Francois Pienaar, never played for South Africa again.
That's all folks for my record breaking 15th blog of the year.
P.S. My friend & dear cousin Paige Holly Williams (Who is a Kiwi girl who works as a faculty administrator at the open polytechnic & her surname must be Welsh as well as I didn't know that she has been graduated for her Bachelor of Commerce studies at Victoria University in Wellington) has sent me another email that I wrote on Tuesday, she wrote that she's just at work at the moment so let's see how it unfolds when she wrote to me:
Haven't been up to much just lots of house work as I am renovating at the moment. How about you?
I love Nico and Luca (It's an Italian name because it's meant to be Luke like Luke Skywalker) equally I don't have a favourite haha (LOL!)
My favourite colour would have to be green! (Well that's Irish colors because my favourite color blue is indeed French colors while light blue would be Italian colors & dark green is South African colors, what in the blue/green hell)
Me and Jarrod have been together for four years now. (And yeah yeah yeah whatever it must be 2012) We met when I was 18. (I was 21 way back then)
We are cousins and friends :) hopefully k can come and visit soon.
Take care
Paige xx (2 kisses)
Sent from my iPhone
And it's only 13 days until the Rio Olympics so I am looking forward to it & I might be at Poppa's on a traditional Thursday because I would be seeing the Danish Terminator of Hanne (Who has been living here in New Zealand for 43 years since 1973) & of course football fan Leon Benbaruk (He's a fan of Liverpool FC who has been living here in New Zealand for 36 years since 1980) as well as an old friend of mine from Malaysia, Sophia Ong (A self proclaimed Manchester United fan because I didn't know that she has been to the spirited home ground of Man United, Old Trafford but I exactly remember who her best friend was apart from me was all of one of her friends back home in Malaysia) all the way from Penang because I have never seen her for 9 long years! Because they will be having lunch at 15A Kells Avenue (It's been about 2 months since they had lunch there).
South Africa, June 1995, It was the calm before the storm, The All Blacks taking time out to relax just prior to the 3rd Rugby World Cup. But this entire All Blacks squad would soon ready itself to sell out this silver fern and prepare to walk away from the 100 year old All Black heritage. This is the story of how 2 entrepreneurs almost pulled off the sporting coup of the century, taking the All Blacks with them. And how would the 11th hour, they were stopped. It's the story of how All Black rugby went professional during 3 dramatic weeks in the middle of 1995. The issue of paying players was a ticking time bomb, as far back as 1924, All Blacks have been complaining about the hardships that they endured on tour representing that country, even though the great George Nepia had been forced to go to England to play rugby league just to feed his family back on the East Coast, all sorts of schemes had been dreamed up by success of generations of All Blacks to make money, but by 1995 the issue had come to ahead. And in that World Cup year, an organisation called the World Rugby Corporation, the WRC, was to finally force the issue of All Blacks and money out into the open. These mock-up posters, never seen before, were prepared in secret by the WRC, as it geared up to take over the running of international rugby and turn the rugby world on it's head. They're a testament to how close the 1995 All Blacks came, to walking away from the All Black institution and tradition. The World Rugby Corporation came out of Australia, it was the brainchild of South African born rugby mad Sydney lawyer and deal maker, Geoff Levy. Levy dreamed of a completely new international rugby competition better than the World Cup with rugby stars like the Jonah Lomu's of the world bringing in a truly global television audience, to spice up the game he loved and followed all his life.
This new competition with the elite players featuring would be worldwide & professional & give greater control to the players. Amidst great secrecy Geoff Levy sold his idea of a new international rugby circus to Australian media magnate, Kerry Packer. WRC, the World Rugby Corporation would give Packer another weapon in his fight with arch-rival Rupert Murdoch over rugby league, which Packer had, and Murdoch wanted. During 1995, Murdoch was trying to rest control of rugby league, by setting up a rival competition which he called, Super League. A global fight between these Australian media giants Rupert Murdoch & Kerry Packer, was about to begin. The man chosen by Geoff Levy to sell the dream of Packer's WRC rugby circus to the players was Ross Turnbull. Turnbull was a Wallaby prop in his playing days, when he went by the nickname of Mad Dog, now he was to be the main WRC strategist.
Placing greater control of the game in the hands of the players was a tantalizing prospect for the 1995 All Blacks, as it was for the former All Black turned professional talent agent, Andy Haden.
For years rugby players like Andy Haden had felt ripped off by the men who ran the game, the administrators, the players did all the work, the administrators has got the perks, something had to change, and that sentiment was to provide fertile ground for the WRC it could not have launched itself at a better time, no one knows that better than Peter Fitzsimons. Fitzsimons is an ex-Wallaby lock & columnist & writer for the Sydney Morning Herald. This year (1999) he joined me on TV ONE's rugby talk show Tight Five. He followed this story closely, Fitzsimons characterizes what happened throughout 1995 to southern hemisphere rugby, as a war.
In New Zealand, the Blazer Brigade was led by Ritchie Guy, then the chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, and a former All Black himself. In early 1995, he had a problem, how to keep All Blacks away from rugby league.
For months in the lead up to the 95 World Cup there was a phony war, WRC man Ross Turnbull has secretly begun talking to the world's top rugby players who were keen, but coincidentally the Blazer Brigade, the men from the rugby unions in New Zealand, Australia & South Africa, had also secretly begun their moves to protect their players, things began to move with surprising speed. Admist great secrecy of their own, the southern hemisphere rugby unions under the banner of SANZAR, came up with the new Tri Nations competition (Which is now the Rugby Championship when Argentina joined the competition since 2012 as well as the southern hemisphere's equivalent to the Six Nations), which they could sell to a broadcaster, and then pay real money to their star players, the All Blacks, & Wallabies, & Springboks. It was Ian Frykberg a Kiwi connection who made it happen, he introduced the unions, to the real money, Frykberg then put the southern unions together with another ex pat Kiwi, Sam Chisholm, Rupert Murdoch's right hand man. The southern hemisphere unions elected South Africa's Louis Luyt to do a deal with the volatile Chisholm, Doctor Louis Luyt is the hugely wealthy and influential businessman & rugby administrator, who also just happens to own the cathedral of South African rugby, Ellis Park, venue for much of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. At the World Cup, Jonah Lomu exploded onto the world stage. On June the 18th in a semi-final against England, the single try convinced Rupert Murdoch and his money men, their were huge obtainment dollars to be made out of rugby union, but they had to have Jonah Lomu, and everything went with him, the All Blacks, the Springboks, and the Wallabies. Sam Chisholm immediately summons Louis Luyt to London for a secret meeting, in which hundreds of millions of dollars, would be on the table.
The very next day, Louis Luyt was back in South Africa, the Rugby World Cup was still in progress, no one knew he'd even be gone. The deal Louis Luyt signed on behalf of the Springboks, the All Blacks & the Wallabies was for 555 million US dollars over 10 years, an unbelievable amount of money for a previously amateur sport, the rugby unions were delighted of course because they meant they could keep their players out of the clutches of rugby league & super league, but at this stage they were still completely unaware of the WRC bearing down on them.
So the day before the final of the 1995 World Cup, this amazing deal which would change the face of international rugby, was announced by the 3 southern hemisphere rugby unions.
Ritchie Guy was there that day, but he knew that even with the money to pay players, the unions couldn't underestimate the ongoing threats from outside.
And surely that would be the easy job, after all here was rock solid international competition announced, involving the All Blacks, the Springboks & the Wallabies, that had real money to pay & reward All Blacks stars like Jonah Lomu & Sean Fitzpatrick. While on the face of it, the WRC plan looked dead in the water in that point, people didn't bank on that determination of the Aussie battler Ross Turnbull, what should've been the end of the rugby war, was only the beginning.
The 1995 Rugby World Cup. And this would be the last time Louis Luyt and Springbok captain Francois Pienaar were to embrace. Because over the next 2 weeks, these 2 men were to become bitter enemies, at the heart of their argument was the amount of money being offered to the Springboks, the Wallabies & the All Blacks, by the World Rugby Corporation.
It profoundly offended Louis Luyt that Pienaar didn't say no, because to Dr Luyt, the Spirngbok jersey was not for sale to the World Rugby Corporation, especially now he had just negotiated the Murdoch deal, which was firmly in place.
When the cheering had died down just hours after the Springbok victory, the argument over the value of the All Blacks was to enter Sean Fitzpatrick's life. The occasion was the post match World Cup celebratory dinner in Johannesburg.
With the World Rugby Corporation promising paychecks worth many times more than their rugby administrators were offering under the Murdoch deal, it was obvious the players were going to listen.
But it wasn't necessarily that straight forward for the World Rugby Corporation. They weren't the only people trying to throw huge sums of money at the All Blacks during the middle of 1995.
July the 5th, 1995, soon after the World Cup final, the All Blacks were back in Wellington at a parliamentary reception. The All Blacks contracts have run out, they were no longer tied to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union. They were free agents.
The reason there were no signatures, well Jonah Lomu and the rest of the All Blacks immediately following the parliamentary reception, snuck away to a meeting at this Wellington hotel were they met the number 1 man from the World Rugby Corporation. Geoff Levy had just flown in from Sydney, to meet the full squad, behind closed doors.
By now a couple of weeks later, in mid-July 1995, the All Blacks were in Sydney to prepare for the Bledisloe Cup, at this point the team negotiations with WRC were complete, and it was time that the All Blacks to finally commit to the rebel organisation once and for all. Almost to a man they were ready to do so. The New Zealand Rugby Union still had no idea that their star players were about to fly the coupe, coach Laurie Mains did know, and this created huge conflict for him.
By now the New Zealand Rugby Union was aware that WRC but they didn't yet realize what a threat that posed, all they knew was they had to resign the players immediately, because without the players, the 555 million dollar Murdoch deal was a dead duck, and the Murdoch organisation was putting the heat on New Zealand Rugby Union to deliver the players as they contracted to do, so the rugby union was in crisis. So cometh the hour, cometh the man, and the man was Jock Hobbs, Hobbs was ideally placed to represent the All Black establishment, he was a lawyer, a member of the NZRFU council, & a former All Black captain. And his job was to fight a last ditch stand to save the game he loved.
Hobbs was dispatched to Sydney, where he quickly came to the realization that the All Blacks committed instead, to the World Rugby Corporation deal. In Sydney he met with Murdoch's right hand man, Sam Chisholm. Chisholm was jumping up and down, demanding that the 3 southern hemisphere rugby unions, deliver the players for the new Murdoch deal. Later, at this Sydney hotel, Hobbs had to distinctly unpleasant task of reporting back to a specially convened meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Football council.
Friday, July the 28th, 1995, the eve of the centenary Bledisloe Cup match in Sydney. The stage was set not only for a great test match, but also for a showdown between the Murdoch and Packer camps that they would change international rugby forever.
During the week leading up to the Bledisloe Cup, the All Blacks were staying at the Manly Park Royal, and it was here that WRC's top man in Sydney came to do the deal. Geoff Levy knew that the All Blacks, as well as the Wallabies & the Springboks were absolutely committed, the pressing question now was when, not if the All Blacks were going to sign.
July the 29th, 1995, Bledisloe Cup day, it was perhaps the most stressful day in Geoff Levy's life, the dream of creating a new world order of rugby was within his grasp & headed towards it's game.
The All Blacks played a blinder that day, they were back on a high after the disappointment of the World Cup final (Oh well, disaster struck as New Zealand (Which featured rugby's 1st global superstar, Jonah Lomu) failed to regain the crown (With several players fell victim to food poisoning with the exception of captain Sean Fitzpatrick and the Brooke brothers of Robin & Zinzan), losing to debutants and hosts South Africa in the final in which united the host country as well as their leader Nelson Mandela). But at full time something happened which turned the rugby world on it's head, something that told every rugby supporter on both sides of the Tasman, that the union controlled game they knew it, was dead.
Normally after a Bledisloe Cup match, the All Blacks would shower, change and head off to the after match function, here at the ground, but that night in 1995, instead they came down here, boarded a bus and took off. All Blacks spend hours on bus journeys, but the short trip from the Sydney Football Stadium (Now Allianz Stadium present day) to the upmarket inner city suburb of Vaucluse, must be the most remarkable. Here we have the entire squad of more than 20 players, the 2 coaches Laurie Mains & Earl Kirton, & manager Colin Meads being driven, not to the home of Geoff Levy, but to the plush mansion of Brian Powers, Kerry Packer's top man in Australia. The last minute change of address was to provide the final proof to the All Blacks, that Packer was committed to making the WRC, an absolute reality.
At the Powers house, the All Blacks were to finally sign contracts, that look set to kill off the All Black legend forever.
So having signed the rebel WRC contracts that the All Blacks re-boarded the bus and headed back into town.
The centenary dinner that night was to celebrate 100 years of trans-Tasman rugby, the atmosphere was electric because the former greats of both New Zealand & Australia had begun to realize that the game for which they had made such great sacrifices was about to be sold out.
So what had gone wrong, well make no mistake about it, the All Blacks were gone, international rugby had just been turned on it's head, the 1995 All Blacks had signed contracts with the World Rugby Corporation, the WRC, for the promise of even greater riches they turned their backs on the very real 555 million dollar Murdoch deal, it meant, that they were no longer All Blacks, they've left behind New Zealand rugby union and just walked away the All Black tradition, and the silver fern.
When Jock Hobbs returned to New Zealand after the 1995 Bledisloe Cup, he was the man under enormous pressure, the weight of the Rupert Murdoch empire was being brought to bear by Murdoch's top man, Sam Chisholm.
Jock Hobbs still had no idea that the WRC had beaten the New Zealand Rugby Union to the punch, by actually signing up the players, during early August, he said about travelling the length and breadth of the country, talking not just to All Blacks, but to top provincial players who would make up the backbone of New Zealand teams in Murdoch's upcoming Super 10 competition, at these presentations, the All Blacks who'd already signed with WRC never let on, they held their tongues, while Jock Hobbs put the rugby union's case. Back in Wellington, it's hard now to imagine the pressure that Hobbs and the other lawyers on both sides of the rugby war were under. At one point during these difficult days, at least 1 of them actually feared for his life.
Just how much was involved became apparent back in Sydney when the 3 southern hemisphere rugby unions were summoned to crisis talks by the Murdoch organisation. The headquarters of the Australian Rugby Football Union, and it was had a meeting here that the man who originally broken the Murdoch deal, Ian Frykberg finally convinced the 3 southern hemisphere unions that they were in deep trouble.
Those words echoed around Sydney the meeting finally showed the rugby unions how far behind the play they were, it was a huge shock, especially to Louis Luyt.
Back home in South Africa was a fearsome Louis Luyt summoned the Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, and other senior players of the Springbok team, to come & see him immediately.
The problem was of course Pienaar & the Springboks along with the All Blacks and the Wallabies, had now all signed Turnbull & Levy's WRC contracts.
Because of the importance of secured the World Cup winning Springboks, Ross Turnbull remained in South Africa in the weeks since the cup, with the rugby unions now fighting back, Turnbull organised the satellite linkup to once again reinforce the commitment to the WRC of the Springboks, the All Blacks & the Wallabies.
At that time Francois Pienaar as World Cup winning captain, was the most popular rugby figure in South Africa, so why did he cave in, what did Louis Luyt say or do, to turn his head. Louis Luyt simply said: What do you want?
So with the South African staying, the tide of the rugby war swung back towards the establishment, Louis Luyt had found the weak link in the Springboks, Jock Hobbs was credited finding into the All Blacks armor, and he founded, in the heart of the Otago provincial side.
From the outset, the 1995 All Blacks had agreed that was all for one and one for all, they thought that they signing on with the WRC was in the best interests of the game. But within a few short weeks, it dawned 1 or 2 of them, just what they'd given up.
Yes what finally convinced Jeff Wilson to break ranks within rest of his World Cup teammates, was the fact under WRC, he would no longer be an All Black. The identical thought occurred to Josh Kronfeld.
On the 10th of August, Wilson & Kronfeld were heading out of Dunedin, with the Otago provincial side. Before they got on the plane, they phoned Jock Hobbs to say that during a stopover in Wellington, they would sign with the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (So this is what Jock Hobbs had to say after both New Zealand Rugby Football Union contracts were signed by both Josh 'Crusher' Kronfeld & Jeff 'Goldie' Wilson):
''I do however, have the pleasure, in announcing that I am holding, letters from lawyers acting for Jeff Wilson & Josh Kronfeld, confirming, that these 2 All Blacks will sign contracts with the New Zealand Rugby Football Union''
Unlike the provincial players who would also sign with Hobbs, Wilson & Kronfeld had now signed with both the WRC & the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, this still rankles with the WRC liason man, Andy Haden.
It wasn't long before Sean Fitzpatrick, the All Black captain, who had thrown his considerable weight behind the rebel WRC, had also changed, to sign up with the NZRFU.
The rugby war then, was over, the Springboks deserted the WRC, so too are the All Blacks, and then the Wallabies, the Packer people who'd been backing WRC, seemingly just lost interest in turned of the money, cutting their losses rather than entering in prolonged legal battle to hang on to the players, the Blazer Brigade had won.
So how has it turned out? Well the century long All Black tradition survived, Murdoch's SANZAR deal has produced the very successful Tri Nations and Super 12 (Then Super 14 when both the Cheetahs & the Western Force joined the competition and now Super Rugby (Used to be Super 15 when the Melbourne Rebels joined which is now Super 18 (The Southern Kings rejoined the competition along with 2 newcomers the Jaguares/Jaguars of Argentina & the Sunwolves from Japan) competitions, rugby is the winner, as indeed are the players now earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the 2 All Blacks who were 1st to sell out the WRC dream, Kronfeld & Wilson, have gone on to enjoy spectacular success, but it hasn't been without it's odd moments of tension with senior players.
The aftermath of Jock Hobbs was more drastic, the rugby establishment, the men who ran the game he helped save, dumped them, from the reformed New Zealand Rugby Union council.
But to me the most interesting post-script of the 1995 rugby war involved a story I heard about Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, the 1st southern hemisphere player to sell out from the WRC rugby circus.
In this match in 1996, Pienaar was to come of 2nd best, he was injured badly enough to be carried off on a stretcher. For a variety of reasons, Francois Pienaar, never played for South Africa again.
That's all folks for my record breaking 15th blog of the year.
P.S. My friend & dear cousin Paige Holly Williams (Who is a Kiwi girl who works as a faculty administrator at the open polytechnic & her surname must be Welsh as well as I didn't know that she has been graduated for her Bachelor of Commerce studies at Victoria University in Wellington) has sent me another email that I wrote on Tuesday, she wrote that she's just at work at the moment so let's see how it unfolds when she wrote to me:
Haven't been up to much just lots of house work as I am renovating at the moment. How about you?
I love Nico and Luca (It's an Italian name because it's meant to be Luke like Luke Skywalker) equally I don't have a favourite haha (LOL!)
My favourite colour would have to be green! (Well that's Irish colors because my favourite color blue is indeed French colors while light blue would be Italian colors & dark green is South African colors, what in the blue/green hell)
Me and Jarrod have been together for four years now. (And yeah yeah yeah whatever it must be 2012) We met when I was 18. (I was 21 way back then)
We are cousins and friends :) hopefully k can come and visit soon.
Take care
Paige xx (2 kisses)
Sent from my iPhone
And it's only 13 days until the Rio Olympics so I am looking forward to it & I might be at Poppa's on a traditional Thursday because I would be seeing the Danish Terminator of Hanne (Who has been living here in New Zealand for 43 years since 1973) & of course football fan Leon Benbaruk (He's a fan of Liverpool FC who has been living here in New Zealand for 36 years since 1980) as well as an old friend of mine from Malaysia, Sophia Ong (A self proclaimed Manchester United fan because I didn't know that she has been to the spirited home ground of Man United, Old Trafford but I exactly remember who her best friend was apart from me was all of one of her friends back home in Malaysia) all the way from Penang because I have never seen her for 9 long years! Because they will be having lunch at 15A Kells Avenue (It's been about 2 months since they had lunch there).
Friday, 15 July 2016
Chinese Democracy/Get Out/Runnin' Wild/When The Lights Go Down: 2016 Rio Summer Olympics preview (+ New Zealand's history at the Summer Olympics & a bit of Asian pop culture stuff)
Well, it is only 21 days until the Rio Summer Olympics of 2016 which is held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil so here is New Zealand's history at the Summer Olympics:
In 1920, New Zealand managed to compete as an independent nation after competing with Australia in the summer Olympics at both 1908 in London and 1912 in Stockholm as Australasia with New Zealand winning their only medal of the games with Darcy Clarence Hadfield taking home the bronze in Rowing, Men's single scull in Antwerp, Belgium and in 1924, just like in Antwerp, New Zealand won their only medal in the Summer Olympics with Arthur Porritt winning the bronze in Athletics/Track and Field, 100 m over in Paris, France but in 1928, New Zealand picked up its 1st gold medal at the Olympics with Ted Morgan in Boxing, men's welterweight over at Amsterdam in Holland/the Netherlands.
In 1932 when the games was held in Los Angeles, California, United States of America, New Zealand won it's only medal at the Olympic Games with Cyril Stiles & Fred Thompson taking home Silver in Rowing, Men's coxless pair & In 1936, history was made for New Zealand in Berlin, Germany as Jack Lovelock becomes the 1st Kiwi to win an Olympic gold in Athletics, Men's 1500 metres.
In 1948 (The Olympic Games was back in full swing after World War II affected the Games in both 1940 & 1944), New Zealand didn't win any gold, silver or bronze medals at the Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom.
In 1952, 3 medals were won by New Zealand as Yvette Williams took home the gold in Track and Field, Women's Long Jump as well as John Holland winning bronze in Athletics, Men's 400m Hurdles as well as Jean Stewart who took home another bronze in Swimming, Women's 100m backstroke in Helsinki, Finland & in 1956, New Zealand won not 1 but 2 gold Medals so far as Norman Read won Athletics, Men's 50 km walk and Jack Cropp and Peter Mander in Sailing, Men's Sharpie 12m square Team Competition which is held in Melbourne, Australia.
In 1960, New Zealand won 2 gold medals with the great Peter Snell in Athletics, Men's 800m, Murray Halberg in Athletics, Men's 5000m and 1 bronze medal with Barry Magee in Athletics, Men's Marathon at Rome, Italy And in 1964 New Zealand won 3 Olympic gold medals & 2 bronzes as Peter Snell was able to defend his Olympic gold medal in Athletics, Men's 800m as well as winning the 1500m crown (One of Pops favourite Olympic moments) but Helmer Pedersen & Earle Wells were the other gold medalists in Sailing, Men Flying Dutchman Class as well as John Davies taking home the bronze in Athletics, Men's 1500 metres & Marise Chamberlin in Athletics, Women's 800 metres in Tokyo, Japan but in 1968, New Zealand won it's only gold medal at the Summer Olympics with Warren Cole, Ross Collinge, Dick Joyce & Dudley Storey in Rowing, Men's Coxed Fours as well as Mike Ryan secured Bronze in Athletics, Men's Marathon and Ian Ballinger also winning bronze in Shooting, Men's Small-bore Rifle at Mexico City in Mexico.
In 1972, New Zealand were able to win a single gold, silver & bronze medal each in Munich, West Germany with Tony Hurt, Wybo Veldman, Dick Joyce, John Hunter, Lindsay Wilson, Athol Earl, Trevor Coker, Gary Robertson & Simon Dickie in Rowing, Men's Eights for the Gold, Dick Tonks, Dudley Storey, Ross Collinge & Noel Mills in Rowing, Men's Coxless Fours (God Defend New Zealand was being played rather than Great Britain's national anthem that they used, God Save the Queen when the Kiwis won gold) for the Silver & Rod Dixon in Athletics, Men's 1500m & in 1976 (The games was held when African countries (With Cote D'Ivoire & Senegal were the exceptions) as well as Guyana & Iraq, withdrew after their boycott which the New Zealand rugby team toured South Africa earlier in the year), John Walker was Olympic champion in Athletics, Men's 1500m as well as the New Zealand men's field hockey team (Which consists of Paul Ackerley, Jeff Archibald, Arthur Borren, Alan Chesney, John Christensen, Greg Dayman, Tony Ineson, Barry Maister, Selwyn Maister, Trevor Manning, Alan McIntyre, Arthur Parkin, Mohan Patel & Ramesh Patel) while Dick Quax won silver in Athletics, Men's 5000m & Rowing, Men's Eights won bronze with Trevor Coker, Simon Dickie, Peter Dignan, Athol Earl, Tony Hurt, Alec McLean, Dave Rodger, Ivan Sutherland, and Lindsay Wilson over in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
In 1980, New Zealand did not compete in Moscow, Soviet Union as the government of that time supported the American-led boycott but however, only 4 New Zealand athletes competed as independents under the banner of the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association but in 1984 (Although the Soviet Union & Eastern Bloc countries withdrew after they also boycotted the games), New Zealand had its best Olympic Campaign in Los Angeles, California with a record 8 gold medals won along with only a single silver medal & 2 bronzes on that occasion but the gold medalists are:
Ian Ferguson in Canoeing, Men's K1 500m Kayak Singles
Alan Thompson in Canoeing, Men's K1 1,000m Kayak Singles
Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K2 500m Kayak Pairs (My Dad's favourite Olympic moment)
Ian Ferguson, Alan Thompson, Grant Bramwell and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K4 1000m Kayak Fours
Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition
Rex Sellers and Chris Timms in Sailing, Men's Tornado Team Competition
Shane O'Brien, Les O'Connell, Conrad Robertson, and Keith Trask in Rowing, Men's Coxless Fours
& Russell Coutts (Future America's Cup winner with Team New Zealand, Alinghi & Oracle Team USA) in Sailing, Men's Finn Individual Competition
And of course Kevin Barry won silver in Boxing, Men's Light Heavyweight & Bruce Kendall won bronze in Sailing, Men's Windglider Individual Competition & the Men's Coxed Fours in Rowing (Consisting of Brett Hollister, Kevin Lawton, Barrie Mabbott, Don Symon & Ross Tong) and in 1988, New Zealand only won 3 gold medals in Seoul, South Korea with Bruce Kendall in Sailing, Men's Lechner Sailboard Individual Competition, Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K2 500 m Kayak Pairs & Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition along with 2 silvers (Won by Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K2 1,000 m Kayak Pairs & Rex Sellers and Chris Timms in Sailing, Men's Tornado Team Competition) & 8 bronze medals (The Bronze Medalists Are: Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K1 500 m Kayak Singles, Andrew Bennie, Margaret Knighton, Tinks Pottinger, and Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Team Competition, Eric Verdonk in Rowing, Men's Single Sculls, Andrew Bird, Greg Johnston, George Keys, Chris White, and Ian Wright in Rowing, Men's Coxed Fours, Lynley Hannen and Nicola Payne in Rowing, Women's Coxless Pairs, Paul Kingsman in Swimming, Men's 200 m Backstroke, Anthony Mosse in Swimming, Men's 200 m Butterfly & John Cutler in Sailing, Men's Finn Individual Competition).
In 1992, New Zealand just won 1 gold medal in Barcelona, Spain with Barbara Kendall in Sailing, Women's Windglider Individual Competition but they managed to win 4 silver medals (With Danyon Loader in Swimming, Men's 200 metres butterfly, Vicki Latta, Andrew Nicholson, & Blyth Tait in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Team Competition (mixed), Leslie Egnot & Jan Shearer in Sailing, Women's 470 Team Competition & Don Cowie & Rod Davis in Sailing, Men's Star Team Competition) & 5 bronze medals (With Lorraine Moller in Athletics, Women's Marathon, David Tua in Boxing, Men's Heavyweight, Gary Anderson in Cycling, Men's 4,000m Individual Pursuit, Blyth Tait in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition (mixed) & Craig Monk in Sailing, Men's Finn Individual Competition) but in 1996 (This was 20 years ago), New Zealand were a piece of cake by taking home 3 gold medals in Atlanta, Georgia, USA with Danyon Loader in Swimming, men's 200 metres freestyle & men's 400 metres freestyle (One of my favourite Summer Olympic moments of all time) & Blyth Tait in Equestrian, three-day event individual competition (mixed), both silver Medals with Sally Clark in Equestrian, three-day event individual competition (mixed) & Barbara Kendall in Sailing, women's Mistral individual competition & a single bronze medal with Vicki Latta, Andrew Nicholson, Blyth Tait and Vaughn Jefferies in Equestrian, three-day event team competition (mixed).
In 2000, New Zealand won it's only Olympic gold medal with Rob Waddell in Rowing, Men's Single Sculls, but took home no silver medals and won 3 bronze medals with Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition, Aaron McIntosh in Sailing, Men's Sailboard (Mistral) & Barbara Kendall in Sailing, Women's Sailboard (Mistral) & then all of a sudden in 2004 over in Athens, Greece (Which hosted the 1st ever modern Summer Olympics), New Zealand won an astonishing 3 gold medals with the Evers-Swindell twins of Caroline & Georgina in Rowing, Women's double sculls, Sarah Ulmer (Who lost to eventual gold medalist Leontin Zijlaard in the semi-final before missing out on the bronze to Yvonne McGregor in Sydney 2000) in Cycling, Women's individual pursuit & Hamish Carter in Triathlon, Men's event & 2 silvers with Bevan Docherty in Triathlon, Men's event & Ben Fouhy in Canoeing, Men's K-1 1000 m but no bronze medals being won but in 2008 when the Summer Olympics was held in Beijing, People's Republic of China, New Zealand won 3 gold medals with the Evers-Swindell's once again became Olympic Champions just like in Athens in Rowing, Women's double sculls as well as Valerie Vili in Athletics, Women's shot put & Tom Ashley in Sailing, Men's sailboard as well as winning 2 silver medals with Hayden Roulston in Cycling, Men's individual pursuit & Nick Willis, Men's 1500 m & 4 bronze medals with Mahe Drysdale in Rowing, Men's single sculls, George Bridgewater & Nathan Twaddle in Rowing, Men's coxless pair, Hayden Roulston, Jesse Sergent, Marc Ryan & Sam Bewley in Cycling, Men's team pursuit & Bevan Docherty in Triathlon, Men's triathlon.
And finally in 2012, New Zealand left London with a total of 13 medals (6 gold (Nathan Cohen & Joseph Sullivan in Rowing, Men's double sculls, Hamish Bond & Eric Murray also in Rowing, Men's pair, Mahe Drysdale also in Rowing, Men's single sculls, Jo Aleh & Olivia Powrie in Sailing, Women's 470 class, Lisa Carrington in Canoeing, Women's K-1 200m & Valerie Adams in Athletics, Women's shot put (Originally won the silver medal before her opponent Nadzeya Ostapchuk got disqualified for her positive drug test), 2 silver (Peter Burling & Blair Tuke in Sailing, 49er class & Sarah Walker in Cycling, Women's BMX), and 5 bronze (Andrew Nicholson, Jonathan Paget, Caroline Powell, Jonelle Richards & Mark Todd in Equestrian, Team eventing, Juliette Haigh & Rebecca Scown in Rowing, Women's pair, Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate, Westley Gough, Marc Ryan & Jesse Sergent in Cycling, Men's team pursuit, Peter Taylor & Storm Uru in Rowing, Men's lightweight double sculls & last but not least, Simon van Velthooven in Cycling, Men's keirin), finishing 15th in the overall medal standings. This was considered 1 of the nation's most successful Olympics, winning the 2nd-largest number of gold medals behind eight at the 1984 Summer Olympics, and tying with the 1988 Summer Olympics for the largest number of medals. 5 of these medals were awarded to the team in rowing, 3 in cycling, 2 in sailing, and 1 each in athletics, canoeing, and equestrian. Among the nation's medallists were rower Mahé Drysdale, who won Gold in the men's single sculls, and track cyclists Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan, and Jesse Sergent, who managed to repeat the bronze from Beijing in men's team pursuit. New Zealand also ranked highly in medal tables adjusted for country populations, placing 4th for total medals per capita, gold medals per capita and weighted medals per capita. During the games, New Zealand achieved its 100th overall Olympic medal. The gold medal was won by kayaker Lisa Carrington in the women's K-1 200 metres. However, if the three medals won by New Zealand athletes in 1908 and in 1912 as part of Australasia are included, the 100th medal would be the silver claimed by sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke from the open skiff class.
Originally, New Zealand won five gold medals: three in rowing, one in sailing, and the last canoeing. On 13 August 2012, however, the International Olympic Committee stripped Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk of her gold medal after testing positive for anabolic steroid metenolone. On 19 September 2012, silver medallist Valerie Adams was subsequently awarded and received her gold medal at a public ceremony in Auckland.
And onto this year where 2 new sports will make their debut, Golf (Which will be represented by Lydia Ko in the women's section as well as Danny Lee & son of All Black & current All Black selector Grant Fox, Ryan Fox in the men's part) & the return of Rugby under the sevens form (Although World Rugby Sevens Series Champions Fiji are favourites for the gold medal but they've got some good players such as captain Osea Kolinisau, Savaneca Rawaca, Josua Tuisova, Pio Tuwai & Samisoni Viriviri but no former NRL & NFL star Jarryd Hayne as he is missed out on selection due to his poor performances in the final World Rugby Sevens Series event at Twickenham in London) as well as Jamaican sprinter & world's fastest man Usain Bolt's (Although he has an endorsement with Pepsi owned Gatorade with world's best footballer/soccer player from Argentina, the recently retired international Lionel Messi & the world's best rugby team the All Blacks but the Coca-Cola owned Powerade is the official Olympic partner of sports drinks) last hurrah at the games since he made his successful Olympic debut in 2008 (He managed to break the world record in the 100 metres by running his shoelaces, untied!).
And finally, my Malaysian friend Sophia 'Sophie' Ong AKA The Heartbreak Kid (One of my 3 Asian friends along with her fellow countrymen Lim Chin Keong, John Coburn's partner for several years & one of Murray Gray's partners from the Philippines named Viluz) has sent me an email that she is here and she will meet me when I'm ready and free so that they can have a picnic & She already told me a couple of years ago that she has a sister named Amelia (The Nature Girl) & a younger brother named Jason (The Malaysian Architect) while I exactly knew Sophie's parents are Evelyn (Her mum because I simply cannot remember what company she works for) & Alex (Her dad who works in a shipping company who is a Star Wars fanatic) & I remember several famous Malaysian people such as badminton player Lee Chong Wei, ex Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong & Actress who is married to FIA president Jean Todt, Michelle Yeoh (Who appeared in films such as the 1997 James Bond 007 film, Tomorrow Never Dies (Starring Irishman Pierce Brosnan from the critically acclaimed TV series Remington Steele as Bond, James Bond & featuring Teri Hatcher from Desperate Housewives), the 2000 flick Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Appearing in the movie are Chow-Yun fat (Who appeared in movies such as Hard Boiled, the Replacement Killers (With Mira Sorvino), Anna & the King (With Jodie Foster, Bai Ling & Mr Draco Malfoy himself, Tom Felton) & Bulletproof Monk (With Sean William Scott, Jamie King, Karel Roden, Victoria Smurfit & the late Mako Iwamatsu) & Zhang Ziyi (Who also appeared in movies such as Rush Hour 2 (With Jackie Chan & Chris Tucker), Memoirs of a Geisha (With Yeoh, Gong Li, Ken Watanabe, Koji Yakusho, the late Mako & of course, Mr Shang Tsung/Heihachi Mishima himself, Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa) & House of Flying Daggers (With Takeshi Kaneshiro & Andy Lau), the 2007 movie Sunshine (With Cillian Murphy (From the 2005 movie Red Eye), Mr Captain America himself Chris Evans, Rose Byrne (From the movie Bad Neighbours with Pineapple Express's Seth Rogen & High School Musical's Zac Efron & Spy with Identity Thief's Melissa McCarthy & The Transporter/The Expendables's Jason Statham), Mr Uncle Bully himself Cliff Curtis & Hiroyuki Sanada (Who appeared in Rush Hour 3 with Chan, Tucker, Zhang Jingchu, Max von Sydow (From the 2015 movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Appearing in that film is Daisy Ridley as Rey, Adam Driver as the evil Kylo Ren, John Boyega as Finn/FN-2187, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron as well as Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa, Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Kenny Baker as R2-D2 & of course Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker) & Tzi Ma) as well as Mark Strong from Grimsby with Sacha Baron Cohen & Rebel Wilson), the 2008 movie The Children Of Huang Shi with Chow-Yun-fat, Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Radha Mitchell & of course, Babylon A.D. with Mr Dominic 'Dom' Toretto & Xander Cage himself, Vin Diesel.
So that's it, see you next time.
In 1920, New Zealand managed to compete as an independent nation after competing with Australia in the summer Olympics at both 1908 in London and 1912 in Stockholm as Australasia with New Zealand winning their only medal of the games with Darcy Clarence Hadfield taking home the bronze in Rowing, Men's single scull in Antwerp, Belgium and in 1924, just like in Antwerp, New Zealand won their only medal in the Summer Olympics with Arthur Porritt winning the bronze in Athletics/Track and Field, 100 m over in Paris, France but in 1928, New Zealand picked up its 1st gold medal at the Olympics with Ted Morgan in Boxing, men's welterweight over at Amsterdam in Holland/the Netherlands.
In 1932 when the games was held in Los Angeles, California, United States of America, New Zealand won it's only medal at the Olympic Games with Cyril Stiles & Fred Thompson taking home Silver in Rowing, Men's coxless pair & In 1936, history was made for New Zealand in Berlin, Germany as Jack Lovelock becomes the 1st Kiwi to win an Olympic gold in Athletics, Men's 1500 metres.
In 1948 (The Olympic Games was back in full swing after World War II affected the Games in both 1940 & 1944), New Zealand didn't win any gold, silver or bronze medals at the Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom.
In 1952, 3 medals were won by New Zealand as Yvette Williams took home the gold in Track and Field, Women's Long Jump as well as John Holland winning bronze in Athletics, Men's 400m Hurdles as well as Jean Stewart who took home another bronze in Swimming, Women's 100m backstroke in Helsinki, Finland & in 1956, New Zealand won not 1 but 2 gold Medals so far as Norman Read won Athletics, Men's 50 km walk and Jack Cropp and Peter Mander in Sailing, Men's Sharpie 12m square Team Competition which is held in Melbourne, Australia.
In 1960, New Zealand won 2 gold medals with the great Peter Snell in Athletics, Men's 800m, Murray Halberg in Athletics, Men's 5000m and 1 bronze medal with Barry Magee in Athletics, Men's Marathon at Rome, Italy And in 1964 New Zealand won 3 Olympic gold medals & 2 bronzes as Peter Snell was able to defend his Olympic gold medal in Athletics, Men's 800m as well as winning the 1500m crown (One of Pops favourite Olympic moments) but Helmer Pedersen & Earle Wells were the other gold medalists in Sailing, Men Flying Dutchman Class as well as John Davies taking home the bronze in Athletics, Men's 1500 metres & Marise Chamberlin in Athletics, Women's 800 metres in Tokyo, Japan but in 1968, New Zealand won it's only gold medal at the Summer Olympics with Warren Cole, Ross Collinge, Dick Joyce & Dudley Storey in Rowing, Men's Coxed Fours as well as Mike Ryan secured Bronze in Athletics, Men's Marathon and Ian Ballinger also winning bronze in Shooting, Men's Small-bore Rifle at Mexico City in Mexico.
In 1972, New Zealand were able to win a single gold, silver & bronze medal each in Munich, West Germany with Tony Hurt, Wybo Veldman, Dick Joyce, John Hunter, Lindsay Wilson, Athol Earl, Trevor Coker, Gary Robertson & Simon Dickie in Rowing, Men's Eights for the Gold, Dick Tonks, Dudley Storey, Ross Collinge & Noel Mills in Rowing, Men's Coxless Fours (God Defend New Zealand was being played rather than Great Britain's national anthem that they used, God Save the Queen when the Kiwis won gold) for the Silver & Rod Dixon in Athletics, Men's 1500m & in 1976 (The games was held when African countries (With Cote D'Ivoire & Senegal were the exceptions) as well as Guyana & Iraq, withdrew after their boycott which the New Zealand rugby team toured South Africa earlier in the year), John Walker was Olympic champion in Athletics, Men's 1500m as well as the New Zealand men's field hockey team (Which consists of Paul Ackerley, Jeff Archibald, Arthur Borren, Alan Chesney, John Christensen, Greg Dayman, Tony Ineson, Barry Maister, Selwyn Maister, Trevor Manning, Alan McIntyre, Arthur Parkin, Mohan Patel & Ramesh Patel) while Dick Quax won silver in Athletics, Men's 5000m & Rowing, Men's Eights won bronze with Trevor Coker, Simon Dickie, Peter Dignan, Athol Earl, Tony Hurt, Alec McLean, Dave Rodger, Ivan Sutherland, and Lindsay Wilson over in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
In 1980, New Zealand did not compete in Moscow, Soviet Union as the government of that time supported the American-led boycott but however, only 4 New Zealand athletes competed as independents under the banner of the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association but in 1984 (Although the Soviet Union & Eastern Bloc countries withdrew after they also boycotted the games), New Zealand had its best Olympic Campaign in Los Angeles, California with a record 8 gold medals won along with only a single silver medal & 2 bronzes on that occasion but the gold medalists are:
Ian Ferguson in Canoeing, Men's K1 500m Kayak Singles
Alan Thompson in Canoeing, Men's K1 1,000m Kayak Singles
Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K2 500m Kayak Pairs (My Dad's favourite Olympic moment)
Ian Ferguson, Alan Thompson, Grant Bramwell and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K4 1000m Kayak Fours
Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition
Rex Sellers and Chris Timms in Sailing, Men's Tornado Team Competition
Shane O'Brien, Les O'Connell, Conrad Robertson, and Keith Trask in Rowing, Men's Coxless Fours
& Russell Coutts (Future America's Cup winner with Team New Zealand, Alinghi & Oracle Team USA) in Sailing, Men's Finn Individual Competition
And of course Kevin Barry won silver in Boxing, Men's Light Heavyweight & Bruce Kendall won bronze in Sailing, Men's Windglider Individual Competition & the Men's Coxed Fours in Rowing (Consisting of Brett Hollister, Kevin Lawton, Barrie Mabbott, Don Symon & Ross Tong) and in 1988, New Zealand only won 3 gold medals in Seoul, South Korea with Bruce Kendall in Sailing, Men's Lechner Sailboard Individual Competition, Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K2 500 m Kayak Pairs & Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition along with 2 silvers (Won by Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K2 1,000 m Kayak Pairs & Rex Sellers and Chris Timms in Sailing, Men's Tornado Team Competition) & 8 bronze medals (The Bronze Medalists Are: Paul MacDonald in Canoeing, Men's K1 500 m Kayak Singles, Andrew Bennie, Margaret Knighton, Tinks Pottinger, and Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Team Competition, Eric Verdonk in Rowing, Men's Single Sculls, Andrew Bird, Greg Johnston, George Keys, Chris White, and Ian Wright in Rowing, Men's Coxed Fours, Lynley Hannen and Nicola Payne in Rowing, Women's Coxless Pairs, Paul Kingsman in Swimming, Men's 200 m Backstroke, Anthony Mosse in Swimming, Men's 200 m Butterfly & John Cutler in Sailing, Men's Finn Individual Competition).
In 1992, New Zealand just won 1 gold medal in Barcelona, Spain with Barbara Kendall in Sailing, Women's Windglider Individual Competition but they managed to win 4 silver medals (With Danyon Loader in Swimming, Men's 200 metres butterfly, Vicki Latta, Andrew Nicholson, & Blyth Tait in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Team Competition (mixed), Leslie Egnot & Jan Shearer in Sailing, Women's 470 Team Competition & Don Cowie & Rod Davis in Sailing, Men's Star Team Competition) & 5 bronze medals (With Lorraine Moller in Athletics, Women's Marathon, David Tua in Boxing, Men's Heavyweight, Gary Anderson in Cycling, Men's 4,000m Individual Pursuit, Blyth Tait in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition (mixed) & Craig Monk in Sailing, Men's Finn Individual Competition) but in 1996 (This was 20 years ago), New Zealand were a piece of cake by taking home 3 gold medals in Atlanta, Georgia, USA with Danyon Loader in Swimming, men's 200 metres freestyle & men's 400 metres freestyle (One of my favourite Summer Olympic moments of all time) & Blyth Tait in Equestrian, three-day event individual competition (mixed), both silver Medals with Sally Clark in Equestrian, three-day event individual competition (mixed) & Barbara Kendall in Sailing, women's Mistral individual competition & a single bronze medal with Vicki Latta, Andrew Nicholson, Blyth Tait and Vaughn Jefferies in Equestrian, three-day event team competition (mixed).
In 2000, New Zealand won it's only Olympic gold medal with Rob Waddell in Rowing, Men's Single Sculls, but took home no silver medals and won 3 bronze medals with Mark Todd in Equestrian, Three-Day Event Individual Competition, Aaron McIntosh in Sailing, Men's Sailboard (Mistral) & Barbara Kendall in Sailing, Women's Sailboard (Mistral) & then all of a sudden in 2004 over in Athens, Greece (Which hosted the 1st ever modern Summer Olympics), New Zealand won an astonishing 3 gold medals with the Evers-Swindell twins of Caroline & Georgina in Rowing, Women's double sculls, Sarah Ulmer (Who lost to eventual gold medalist Leontin Zijlaard in the semi-final before missing out on the bronze to Yvonne McGregor in Sydney 2000) in Cycling, Women's individual pursuit & Hamish Carter in Triathlon, Men's event & 2 silvers with Bevan Docherty in Triathlon, Men's event & Ben Fouhy in Canoeing, Men's K-1 1000 m but no bronze medals being won but in 2008 when the Summer Olympics was held in Beijing, People's Republic of China, New Zealand won 3 gold medals with the Evers-Swindell's once again became Olympic Champions just like in Athens in Rowing, Women's double sculls as well as Valerie Vili in Athletics, Women's shot put & Tom Ashley in Sailing, Men's sailboard as well as winning 2 silver medals with Hayden Roulston in Cycling, Men's individual pursuit & Nick Willis, Men's 1500 m & 4 bronze medals with Mahe Drysdale in Rowing, Men's single sculls, George Bridgewater & Nathan Twaddle in Rowing, Men's coxless pair, Hayden Roulston, Jesse Sergent, Marc Ryan & Sam Bewley in Cycling, Men's team pursuit & Bevan Docherty in Triathlon, Men's triathlon.
And finally in 2012, New Zealand left London with a total of 13 medals (6 gold (Nathan Cohen & Joseph Sullivan in Rowing, Men's double sculls, Hamish Bond & Eric Murray also in Rowing, Men's pair, Mahe Drysdale also in Rowing, Men's single sculls, Jo Aleh & Olivia Powrie in Sailing, Women's 470 class, Lisa Carrington in Canoeing, Women's K-1 200m & Valerie Adams in Athletics, Women's shot put (Originally won the silver medal before her opponent Nadzeya Ostapchuk got disqualified for her positive drug test), 2 silver (Peter Burling & Blair Tuke in Sailing, 49er class & Sarah Walker in Cycling, Women's BMX), and 5 bronze (Andrew Nicholson, Jonathan Paget, Caroline Powell, Jonelle Richards & Mark Todd in Equestrian, Team eventing, Juliette Haigh & Rebecca Scown in Rowing, Women's pair, Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate, Westley Gough, Marc Ryan & Jesse Sergent in Cycling, Men's team pursuit, Peter Taylor & Storm Uru in Rowing, Men's lightweight double sculls & last but not least, Simon van Velthooven in Cycling, Men's keirin), finishing 15th in the overall medal standings. This was considered 1 of the nation's most successful Olympics, winning the 2nd-largest number of gold medals behind eight at the 1984 Summer Olympics, and tying with the 1988 Summer Olympics for the largest number of medals. 5 of these medals were awarded to the team in rowing, 3 in cycling, 2 in sailing, and 1 each in athletics, canoeing, and equestrian. Among the nation's medallists were rower Mahé Drysdale, who won Gold in the men's single sculls, and track cyclists Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan, and Jesse Sergent, who managed to repeat the bronze from Beijing in men's team pursuit. New Zealand also ranked highly in medal tables adjusted for country populations, placing 4th for total medals per capita, gold medals per capita and weighted medals per capita. During the games, New Zealand achieved its 100th overall Olympic medal. The gold medal was won by kayaker Lisa Carrington in the women's K-1 200 metres. However, if the three medals won by New Zealand athletes in 1908 and in 1912 as part of Australasia are included, the 100th medal would be the silver claimed by sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke from the open skiff class.
Originally, New Zealand won five gold medals: three in rowing, one in sailing, and the last canoeing. On 13 August 2012, however, the International Olympic Committee stripped Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk of her gold medal after testing positive for anabolic steroid metenolone. On 19 September 2012, silver medallist Valerie Adams was subsequently awarded and received her gold medal at a public ceremony in Auckland.
And onto this year where 2 new sports will make their debut, Golf (Which will be represented by Lydia Ko in the women's section as well as Danny Lee & son of All Black & current All Black selector Grant Fox, Ryan Fox in the men's part) & the return of Rugby under the sevens form (Although World Rugby Sevens Series Champions Fiji are favourites for the gold medal but they've got some good players such as captain Osea Kolinisau, Savaneca Rawaca, Josua Tuisova, Pio Tuwai & Samisoni Viriviri but no former NRL & NFL star Jarryd Hayne as he is missed out on selection due to his poor performances in the final World Rugby Sevens Series event at Twickenham in London) as well as Jamaican sprinter & world's fastest man Usain Bolt's (Although he has an endorsement with Pepsi owned Gatorade with world's best footballer/soccer player from Argentina, the recently retired international Lionel Messi & the world's best rugby team the All Blacks but the Coca-Cola owned Powerade is the official Olympic partner of sports drinks) last hurrah at the games since he made his successful Olympic debut in 2008 (He managed to break the world record in the 100 metres by running his shoelaces, untied!).
And finally, my Malaysian friend Sophia 'Sophie' Ong AKA The Heartbreak Kid (One of my 3 Asian friends along with her fellow countrymen Lim Chin Keong, John Coburn's partner for several years & one of Murray Gray's partners from the Philippines named Viluz) has sent me an email that she is here and she will meet me when I'm ready and free so that they can have a picnic & She already told me a couple of years ago that she has a sister named Amelia (The Nature Girl) & a younger brother named Jason (The Malaysian Architect) while I exactly knew Sophie's parents are Evelyn (Her mum because I simply cannot remember what company she works for) & Alex (Her dad who works in a shipping company who is a Star Wars fanatic) & I remember several famous Malaysian people such as badminton player Lee Chong Wei, ex Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong & Actress who is married to FIA president Jean Todt, Michelle Yeoh (Who appeared in films such as the 1997 James Bond 007 film, Tomorrow Never Dies (Starring Irishman Pierce Brosnan from the critically acclaimed TV series Remington Steele as Bond, James Bond & featuring Teri Hatcher from Desperate Housewives), the 2000 flick Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Appearing in the movie are Chow-Yun fat (Who appeared in movies such as Hard Boiled, the Replacement Killers (With Mira Sorvino), Anna & the King (With Jodie Foster, Bai Ling & Mr Draco Malfoy himself, Tom Felton) & Bulletproof Monk (With Sean William Scott, Jamie King, Karel Roden, Victoria Smurfit & the late Mako Iwamatsu) & Zhang Ziyi (Who also appeared in movies such as Rush Hour 2 (With Jackie Chan & Chris Tucker), Memoirs of a Geisha (With Yeoh, Gong Li, Ken Watanabe, Koji Yakusho, the late Mako & of course, Mr Shang Tsung/Heihachi Mishima himself, Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa) & House of Flying Daggers (With Takeshi Kaneshiro & Andy Lau), the 2007 movie Sunshine (With Cillian Murphy (From the 2005 movie Red Eye), Mr Captain America himself Chris Evans, Rose Byrne (From the movie Bad Neighbours with Pineapple Express's Seth Rogen & High School Musical's Zac Efron & Spy with Identity Thief's Melissa McCarthy & The Transporter/The Expendables's Jason Statham), Mr Uncle Bully himself Cliff Curtis & Hiroyuki Sanada (Who appeared in Rush Hour 3 with Chan, Tucker, Zhang Jingchu, Max von Sydow (From the 2015 movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Appearing in that film is Daisy Ridley as Rey, Adam Driver as the evil Kylo Ren, John Boyega as Finn/FN-2187, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron as well as Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa, Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Kenny Baker as R2-D2 & of course Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker) & Tzi Ma) as well as Mark Strong from Grimsby with Sacha Baron Cohen & Rebel Wilson), the 2008 movie The Children Of Huang Shi with Chow-Yun-fat, Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Radha Mitchell & of course, Babylon A.D. with Mr Dominic 'Dom' Toretto & Xander Cage himself, Vin Diesel.
So that's it, see you next time.
Thursday, 14 July 2016
The Diary of Jane: The #Euro2016Final review (+ The long list of famous Canadians because this is what is all oot & aboot)
It was on Sunday, the 10th of July (The day before the final of the Euros) as I went to McDonald's with Poppa for breakfast but before that, we went into Countdown to get the shampoo because I have run out of shampoo then we finally heading over to McDonald's by having a breakfast hunger buster there (Well I had the bacon and egg McMuffin as well as the massive McMuffin & of course the hash brown) as well as having hot cakes and both drinks like the orange juice and hot chocolate but I really enjoyed that experience so Pops told me to have the massive McMuffin & hash brown for lunch because he did not eat all of it so I went back home because the Super Rugby game between the Jaguares and the Highlanders (The Highlanders won that match) was on so I ate all of the massive McMuffin as well as another hash brown that Pops didn't have.
And well, it's all over till another 4 years, the #Euro2016 final ended in fashion as the Cristiano Ronaldo (Well, he got injured in the process during the opening minutes because he was sad about it & he looks a bit like world famous All Black rugby star player, Dan Carter as Dad told me about it) led Portugal (Coached by former Greece manager Fernando Santos (Who took over from former player Paulo Bento after the 2014 FIFA World Cup) who is still undefeated in competitive level & featuring the likes of Ronaldo himself of course, goalkeeper Rui Patricio, Bruno Alves, Pepe, Ricardo Carvalho (The veteran & ex-Chelsea player), Joao Moutinho, Eder, Joao Mario, William Carvalho, Andre Gomes, the young Renato Sanches (Who is heading off to play for German club Bayern Munich after the tournament), former Manchester United player Nani & Ricardo Quaresma) win the UEFA European Championship for the 1st time (And the 10th different nation after the Soviet Union/Russia (1960 only), Spain (3 times in 1964, 2008 & 2012), Italy (1968 only), West Germany/Germany (3 Times in 1972, 80 & 96), Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic (Once in 1976), France (Twice in 1984 & 2000), the Netherlands (Once in 1988), Denmark (Once in 1992) & Greece (Once in 2004) and of course, finally achieved immortality after their failure in 2004 against Greece in which they hosted that tournament) beating the hosts France (Who won't be celebrating Bastille Day today because they lost just like the Battle of Waterloo 201 years ago) featuring Paul Pogba (Who still plays for Juventus) 1-0 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis with that match winner scored by Portuguese substitute Eder at extra time (And that was the 1st time that he had scored a goal in a competitive match) but Pepe (Cristiano Ronaldo's teammate at Real Madrid) has been awarded man of the match after missing the semi-final victory against Gareth Bale's Wales (One of both Ronaldo & Pepe's teammates at Real Madrid) due to injury.
And so here is the full report of the Euro 2016 final held in Saint-Denis, France:
Portugal are UEFA EURO 2016 champions. The team that drew all three of their group games, that won only once inside 90 minutes all tournament, beat hosts France after extra time at Saint-Denis to get their hands on their first major trophy.
They did it without the talismanic Cristiano Ronaldo too, their captain forced off early in the 1st half through injury. Fernando Santos's side clung on at times but, with Ronaldo orchestrating things from the technical area as much as their coach by the end, they eventually provided the one moment of magic required. Éder's fizzing 20-metre strike in the second half of extra time was just too good.
uch a scenario looked impossible after eight minutes, Ronaldo initially continuing after a heavy collision with Dimitri Payet before eventually being replaced. There were tears and a standing ovation from all corners as he was taken off. All the talk, all the analysis, all the predictions – out the window. Off went 61 international goals.
One man chasing only his second was Moussa Sissoko. The France midfielder was rampant and threatened to break the deadlock soon after Ronaldo's departure yet his shot was saved.
Rui PatrÃcio had earlier thwarted Antoine Griezmann, athletically tipping away the in-form forward's looping header. Portugal offered little in those opening exchanges, three passes straight out of play encouraging the hosts.
Kingsley Coman came on for Payet inside the hour and soon teed up Griezmann for surely the chance of the game – Les Bleus' No7 was unmarked but headed over. Though Olivier Giroud briefly got in on the act with a low effort, Rui PatrÃcio was again up to the task. He had to be sharper still to keep out Sissoko's thumping strike later in the half.
Only once, well into added time, was the Portugal keeper beaten. Substitute André-Pierre Gignac turned in the box and scuffed a shot into the ground which bobbled towards the net only to bounce agonisingly back off a post.
Hugo Lloris had been far less employed in regulation time, only really called into action to claw away Nani's miscued cross and then hold Ricardo Quaresma's acrobatic attempt from the rebound. Though he subsequently dealt with Éder's header, the French captain was rescued by the crossbar when Raphael Guerreiro fired in a free-kick and, with 109 minutes on the clock, could do nothing to keep out the sensational winner.
Pepe missed the semi-final with a thigh injury but returned in style, keeping adidas Golden Boot winner Griezmann as quiet as could have been hoped. "We've written a brilliant page in the story of Portuguese football," said the centre-back.
The man Portugal's hopes apparently rested on was out of action after less than ten minutes. To watch him battle on for a quarter of an hour was both desperately sad and hugely admirable. It was indicative of his relentless drive to have an impact – a desire that is heightened on the big occasion. For him then to cajole his players before extra time and gesticulate desperately throughout the additional 30 minutes was testimony to his team spirit. He was, if only briefly, a coach as well as a star player.
This was not exactly thrill-a-minute stuff. Clear-cut opportunities were at a premium and some of the biggest names on the field were either not at their best or not on the pitch at all. However, it quickly became evident that one moment would decide this. That knowledge that someone was only a split-second from becoming a hero made for a gloriously nervy night. The tension was palpable throughout the stadium.
And what do I think of the final, well I did enjoy that game except Portugal won of course with Cristiano Ronaldo got injured (He played on but he came off the field on a stretcher in the process following a heavy collision with France's Dimitri Payet so Ricardo Quaresma came on as his replacement in the 25th minute but the Portuguese put the hosts France beyond doubt so that they can score a goal during extra time and they did, thanks to that match winning goal scored by Eder during the 109th minute of the 2nd period of extra-time (Both Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann & Andre-Pierre Gignac (Who plays for a Mexican club) almost scored to put France into the lead).
And so, FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi was a failure for his country (Although he was successful only in club level because he is now retired from the international fold), Argentina in the Copa America Centenario final against Chile (Who had won on penalties) but no wonder that Cristiano Ronaldo had succeeded by winning both his club (For Real Madrid in the Champions League) & country (And finally he did get some redemption following his failure in 2004 (Although former Chelsea, Real Madrid & newly appointed Manchester United coach/manager Jose Mourinho would be very proud following his efforts of his country of birth) in the same year, so that's what you call a double, imagine that but a little fancy, as Portugal say Obrigado (Thanks in Portuguese) & Adeus (Goodbye) to France as they return home from their triumph because the Henri Delaunay Cup is heading west across the border (In the Iberian peninsula) from Spain to of course, Portugal now.
And finally, here we are today on Bastille Day (Which is France's national day) of 2016 (3 Days post Euro 2016) that me and Poppa went to the splash centre (We did go in the hydro therapy pool as well as the spa pool before doing laps in the walk and run lane) then we went to the pool clinic then New World to get the meal deal as well as the fruit, cold meat & Clausthaler's before we headed to 15A Kells Avenue to make lunch which is an Asian stir-fry that we had then I had to go to Nan's memorial garden as well as doing some jobs for the driveway then we went back inside and played Last Card because Pops (Well I told Poppa that I saw a photo of Aunty Tania dressed up as a Makutu) won 1 game while I won all 5 games then we had to build the shoe rack then I asked my grand uncle Bryan to come over and have a cup of tea but he agreed so I had a dessert and mochacchino before we had a chat there (Well I did chat to him but I made a speech for the 1st time about the curse of the All Blacks World Cup campaigns in 1999 & 2003 are ruined by a 1997 movie Anaconda being shown on Sky which is kinda funny as well as talking about the next major sporting event which is the Summer Olympics in Rio (My favourite Olympic moment was Danyon Loader winning gold medals in the 200 & 400 metre freestyle swimming over in Atlanta 20 years ago while Dad's favourite Olympic moment was Ian Ferguson & Paul McDonald winning the K2 canoeing gold in Los Angeles, California 1984 (Although the Soviet Union & the Eastern Bloc countries didn't compete because they were boycotting in response to Moscow hosting the 1980 summer Olympics because the US & the Western Bloc countries boycotted due to the war between the Soviets and Afghanistan in 1979) while Pops favourite Olympic moment was Peter Snell winning gold in both the 800 and 1500 metres athletics/track and field respectively in Tokyo just 52 years ago) which is only 23 days away as well as Super Rugby material (The Chiefs are seeking utu (Which is Maori for revenge) against the Highlanders in Dunedin while the Crusaders are hosting the Hurricanes over in Christchurch in the last round of Super Rugby before the playoffs begin) & Silver Fern netballer Maria Tutaia meeting up by having a relationship with Wallaby Israel Folau (Although they are not having an affair just like Avril Lavigne (Who is a famous Canadian along with Nickelback (Avril's husband & lead singer Chad Kroeger, Chad's brother & bassist Mike Kroeger, guitarist Ryan Peake & drummer Daniel Adair), Justin Bieber, Alanis Morrisette (Although she's American now), Celine Dion, Nelly Furtado, Bryan Adams, Michael Buble, Nikki Yanofsky, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Mark Messier, Steve Nash, current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his father Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Ministers Stephen Harper, Paul Martin & Jean Chretien, 3 Days Grace, Finger Eleven, Billy Talent, Steppenwolf, Arcade Fire, Sum 41, Our Lady Peace, Simple Plan, Default, Donovan Bailey, Penny Oleksiak, the late Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques Villeneuve (Son of Gilles & Formula 1 world champion in 1997), Paul Tracy, the late Greg Moore, Patrick Carpentier, Alex Tagliani, James Hinchcliffe, Bruno Spengler, Robert Wickens, the young Lance Stroll, Lance's billionaire father Lawrence Stroll, Edge, Christian, Maryse, Natalya, Bret 'The Hitman' Hart, Trish Stratus, Tyler Ardron, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Bianca Andreescu, Denis Shapovalov, Nicholas Latifi, Nathan Fillion (Who appears in the TV series Castle along with another famous Canadian actress Stana Katic, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly & the movie Serenity), Michael Cera (The guy who appeared in the movie Scott Pilgrim Vs The World along with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jason Schwartzman, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans (AKA Captain America), Brie Larson & Brandon Routh (Who played The Man Of Steel, Superman in the movie released 10 years ago, Superman Returns), William Shatner (The guy who appeared in Star Trek as Captain Kirk along with his late friend Leonard Nimroy & George Takei & Boston Legal with James Spader, Candice Bergen & Julie Bowen from the 1996 film Happy Gilmore with Adam Sandler & TV comedy series Modern Family), Drake, Donald Sutherland, Donald's son Keifer Sutherland (Who appeared in the TV series 24 as Jack Bauer along with Elisha Cuthbert as Jack's daughter & in the 2006 movie The Sentinel along with Michael Douglas (Star of the movie Traffic along with his wife from Wales, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mexican Benicio del Toro, Don Cheadle & Dennis Quaid as well as Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps with Shia Lebeouf, Oliver Stone, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin (Who appeared in the 2012 movie Men In Black along with Will Smith (Who appeared in the 1995 movie & it's sequel in 2003 along with Martin Lawrence, Bad Boys (Also appearing in the 1995 movie is Tea Leoni & it's 2003 sequel is Gabrielle Union, director Michael Bay & Joe Pantoliano) as well as the 1999 flick The Wild Wild West with Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek & Bai Ling & last years movie, Concussion with Alec Baldwin, Albert Brooks & Luke Wilson (Owen Wilson's brother) from the TV show Groupies) as Agent J, New Zealander formerly from Flight Of The Concords Jermaine Clement as the evil Boris The Animal, Emma Thompson (Who appeared with Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny DeVito in the 1994 movie Junior), Nicole Scherzinger formerly from the Pussycat Dolls, Alice Eve (Who appeared in the movie Star Trek Into Darkness as Carol Marcus along with Chris Pine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg (Who appeared in the movie Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz & The World's End with Nick Frost), New Zealander Karl Urban (As Eomer from The Lord Of The Rings & John 'Reaper' Grimm from the 2005 film Doom along with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson & Rosamund Pike), John Cho (Who appears in the movie Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle with Kal Penn), the late Anton Yelchin (As Kyle Reese from Terminator Salvation along with Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Helena Bonham Carter, rapper Common & Terry Crews) & Peter Weller) & Bill Hader), Frank Langella & Susan Sarandon & Basic Instinct with Sharon Stone (Who appeared in the movie Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger) & Jeanne Tripplehorn), Eva Longoria (Basketballer Tony Parker's ex wife who appeared in Desperate Housewives) & Kim Basinger), Cobie Smulders (As Maria Hill from The Avengers (Appearing in that movie are Robert Downey Jr (Tony 'Iron Man' Stark), Chris Evans (Captain America Steve Rogers), Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Norse god of Thunder), Mark Ruffalo (Dr Buce 'Hulk' Banner), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow Natasha Romanoff), Jeremy Renner (Agent Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton), Tom Hiddelston (The evil Loki), Paul Bettany (JARVIS), Samuel L Jackson (Nick Fury), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson) & Stellan Skarsgard (Professor Erik Selvig) & Canadian TV news anchor Robin Scherbatsky from How I Met Your Mother with Alyson Hannigan as Willow from Buffy The Vampire Slayer as well as American Pie & Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson), Hayden Christensen (As Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars Episodes II: Attack Of The Clones & III: Revenge Of The Sith), Mike Myers (From Wayne's World as well as Austin Powers & The Love Guru with Jessica Alba & Justin Timberlake), Pamela Anderson (As CJ from Baywatch featuring Knight Rider star David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff), Sandrine Holt (Born in England who appeared in Terminator: Genisys (With Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke from Game Of Thrones, Jason Clarke (Not related to Emilia Clarke), Jai Courtney from A Good Day To Die Hard & Lee Byung-hun from Red 2) as well as the MacGyver reboot (With Lucas Till from X-Men First Class, George Eads from CSI, Tristin Mays from Supergirl & Justin Hires from Rush Hour), Jim Carrey (One of the guys who appeared in films such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask (With Cameron Diaz), Dumb and Dumber (With Gary Daniels), Batman Forever (He plays the Riddler in the movie and appearing in the movie with Val Kilmer (As the ''Dark Knight/Caped Crusader'' Batman), Nicole Kidman (Doctor Meridian Chase), Tommy-Lee Jones (Harvey Dent/Two Face) & Chris O'Donnell (Robin), The Cable Guy (With Ben Stiller (Who appeared in the movie Tropic Thunder with Jack Black, Iron Man's Robert Downey Jr, Brandon T Jackson, another famous Canadian Jay Baruchel, Steve Coogan (Who appeared in the movie Around The World In 80 Days with Rumble In The Bronx, Rush Hour, Mr Nice Guy, Who Am I, Shanghai Noon & Shanghai Knights star Jackie Chan), Matthew McConaughey (Who also appeared in the movie The Wedding Planner with Jennifer Lopez (From the 1997 movie Anaconda) & tennis player Pete Sampras's wife, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras (Who played Sonya Blade in the 1995 movie, Mortal Kombat) as Rick Pecker & Tom Cruise (Who appears in movies such as A Few Good Men (With Jack Nicholson & Demi Moore), Mission Impossible, Jerry Maguire (With Renee Zellweger & Cuba Gooding Jr), Vanilla Sky (With Penelope Cruz & Cameron Diaz), Minority Report, The Last Samurai, Knight & Day (With Diaz) & Jack Reacher) as Les Grossman), Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann, Jack Black (Tenacious D front man who also appeared in Tropic Thunder), Owen Wilson (Luke Wilson's brother who appeared in both Shanghai Noon & Shanghai Knights with Jackie Chan) & Janeane Garofolo), Liar Liar, Me, Myself & Irene (With Zellweger & Anthony Anderson), Bruce Almighty (With Morgan Freeman (Who appeared in such movies as Invictus (As the great leader of South Africa, the late Nelson Mandela), The Shawshank Redemption (With Tim Robbins), Million Dollar Baby (With Clint Eastwood & Hillary Swank), The Bucket List (With Jack Nicholson from the 1989 movie Batman as The Joker), Lucy (With Scarlett Johansson from the Avengers as Black Widow), Olympus Has Fallen (With Gerard Butler from 300 as King Leonidas & Aaron Eckhart from The Dark Knight as Harvey Dent/Two Face) & The Dark Knight trilogy as Lucius Fox) as God, Jennifer Anniston & Steve Carell as Evan Baxter), Fun With Dick & Jane (With Tea Leoni who appears in the TV series Madam Secretary) & of course Yes Man (With Zooey Deschanel (Emily Deschanel's sister who also appears in the TV series, New Girl), Bradley Cooper (Who appears in the Hangover Trilogy with Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham (Who played Felicity Shagwell in Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me), 'Iron' Mike Tyson, Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow & Ian Anthony Dale (Who appeared in the Tekken movie as the evil Kazuya Mishima) & New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby) & last but not least, Keanu Reeves (And the one who also appeared in films such as Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Point Break (He plays American Football/Gridiron player turned FBI Agent Johnny Utah & appearing with the late Patrick Swayze (Bodhi) & Gary Busey (Angelo Pappas), Speed (With Sandra Bullock), The Matrix (He also plays the role of Neo Anderson and also appearing with Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus), Carrie-Ann Moss (Another famous Canadian actress (Along with Rachel McAdams who appeared in the move Mean Girls along with Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried & Lacey Chabert) who plays Trinity) & Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith/Elrond from Lord of the Rings), Constantine (With Rachel Weisz (James Bond actor Daniel Craig's wife), Tilda Swinton, Shia LaBeouf (Who appears in the movie Transformers & one of Sophia Ong's favourite actors because my favourite actor at the moment is Arnold Schwarzenegger (Who famously appeared in movies such as Conan The Barbarian, The Terminator, Commando, Raw Deal, Predator, The Running Man, Red Heat, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, Last Action Hero, True Lies, Jingle All The Way, End Of Days & Collateral Damage) but my cousin Paige Williams has got lots of favourite actors as well as my Aunty Cathey Middelplaats wrote that I really don't who her favourite actor was but she likes both James Corden & Graham Norton), Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale & Djimon Hounsou), Street Kings (With Chris Evans (The guy who played Captain America), Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie (As doctor Gregory House from the TV show House who appeared in the 2004 movie Flight Of The Phoenix with Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Australian Miranda Otto (Who played Eowyn in The Lord Of The Rings movies) & Tyrese Gibson (As Brian O'Connor's childhood friend Roman Pierce in The Fast & Furious movies), Terry Crews (From The Expendables movies), Naomie Harris (Who appears in both Skyfall & Spectre with Daniel Craig as Bond, James Bond), Cedric The Entertainer, Jay Mohr (Appeared in the 1999 film Go with Sarah Polley from the 2004 horror flick Dawn Of The Dead & Tom Cruise's ex-wife Katie Holmes as well as Timothy Olyphant), John Corbett (Who appeared in the movie My Big Greek Fat Wedding & its sequel with Nia Vardalos) & rappers The Game & Common), John Wick & 47 Ronin) is married to Nickelback front man Chad Kroeger as well as No Doubt front woman Gwen Stefani getting married to Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale) because the netball game was held several metres away from a rugby match in Sydney) but Pops took me home with all of my stuff including the fruits, meal deal, the cold meat & the Clausthaler's (Although we went to Nan's grave before that) to end an incredible day it was.
P.S. And guess what that my cousin Paige finally sent me an email because she wrote about that she apologized for the late response as well as being extremely busy over the last couple of weeks but she also wrote that she hasn't been watching Super Rugby because her boyfriend Jarrod must be filling the void in most of it and she also wrote that she loves Japanese food because it's yummy and she will have to go to that restaurant if she was ever here in Whanganui and she finally wrote that I was hoping for an totally awesome week by taking care, Paige xx (Both kisses).
And well, it's all over till another 4 years, the #Euro2016 final ended in fashion as the Cristiano Ronaldo (Well, he got injured in the process during the opening minutes because he was sad about it & he looks a bit like world famous All Black rugby star player, Dan Carter as Dad told me about it) led Portugal (Coached by former Greece manager Fernando Santos (Who took over from former player Paulo Bento after the 2014 FIFA World Cup) who is still undefeated in competitive level & featuring the likes of Ronaldo himself of course, goalkeeper Rui Patricio, Bruno Alves, Pepe, Ricardo Carvalho (The veteran & ex-Chelsea player), Joao Moutinho, Eder, Joao Mario, William Carvalho, Andre Gomes, the young Renato Sanches (Who is heading off to play for German club Bayern Munich after the tournament), former Manchester United player Nani & Ricardo Quaresma) win the UEFA European Championship for the 1st time (And the 10th different nation after the Soviet Union/Russia (1960 only), Spain (3 times in 1964, 2008 & 2012), Italy (1968 only), West Germany/Germany (3 Times in 1972, 80 & 96), Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic (Once in 1976), France (Twice in 1984 & 2000), the Netherlands (Once in 1988), Denmark (Once in 1992) & Greece (Once in 2004) and of course, finally achieved immortality after their failure in 2004 against Greece in which they hosted that tournament) beating the hosts France (Who won't be celebrating Bastille Day today because they lost just like the Battle of Waterloo 201 years ago) featuring Paul Pogba (Who still plays for Juventus) 1-0 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis with that match winner scored by Portuguese substitute Eder at extra time (And that was the 1st time that he had scored a goal in a competitive match) but Pepe (Cristiano Ronaldo's teammate at Real Madrid) has been awarded man of the match after missing the semi-final victory against Gareth Bale's Wales (One of both Ronaldo & Pepe's teammates at Real Madrid) due to injury.
And so here is the full report of the Euro 2016 final held in Saint-Denis, France:
Portugal are UEFA EURO 2016 champions. The team that drew all three of their group games, that won only once inside 90 minutes all tournament, beat hosts France after extra time at Saint-Denis to get their hands on their first major trophy.
They did it without the talismanic Cristiano Ronaldo too, their captain forced off early in the 1st half through injury. Fernando Santos's side clung on at times but, with Ronaldo orchestrating things from the technical area as much as their coach by the end, they eventually provided the one moment of magic required. Éder's fizzing 20-metre strike in the second half of extra time was just too good.
uch a scenario looked impossible after eight minutes, Ronaldo initially continuing after a heavy collision with Dimitri Payet before eventually being replaced. There were tears and a standing ovation from all corners as he was taken off. All the talk, all the analysis, all the predictions – out the window. Off went 61 international goals.
One man chasing only his second was Moussa Sissoko. The France midfielder was rampant and threatened to break the deadlock soon after Ronaldo's departure yet his shot was saved.
Rui PatrÃcio had earlier thwarted Antoine Griezmann, athletically tipping away the in-form forward's looping header. Portugal offered little in those opening exchanges, three passes straight out of play encouraging the hosts.
Kingsley Coman came on for Payet inside the hour and soon teed up Griezmann for surely the chance of the game – Les Bleus' No7 was unmarked but headed over. Though Olivier Giroud briefly got in on the act with a low effort, Rui PatrÃcio was again up to the task. He had to be sharper still to keep out Sissoko's thumping strike later in the half.
Only once, well into added time, was the Portugal keeper beaten. Substitute André-Pierre Gignac turned in the box and scuffed a shot into the ground which bobbled towards the net only to bounce agonisingly back off a post.
Hugo Lloris had been far less employed in regulation time, only really called into action to claw away Nani's miscued cross and then hold Ricardo Quaresma's acrobatic attempt from the rebound. Though he subsequently dealt with Éder's header, the French captain was rescued by the crossbar when Raphael Guerreiro fired in a free-kick and, with 109 minutes on the clock, could do nothing to keep out the sensational winner.
Pepe missed the semi-final with a thigh injury but returned in style, keeping adidas Golden Boot winner Griezmann as quiet as could have been hoped. "We've written a brilliant page in the story of Portuguese football," said the centre-back.
The man Portugal's hopes apparently rested on was out of action after less than ten minutes. To watch him battle on for a quarter of an hour was both desperately sad and hugely admirable. It was indicative of his relentless drive to have an impact – a desire that is heightened on the big occasion. For him then to cajole his players before extra time and gesticulate desperately throughout the additional 30 minutes was testimony to his team spirit. He was, if only briefly, a coach as well as a star player.
This was not exactly thrill-a-minute stuff. Clear-cut opportunities were at a premium and some of the biggest names on the field were either not at their best or not on the pitch at all. However, it quickly became evident that one moment would decide this. That knowledge that someone was only a split-second from becoming a hero made for a gloriously nervy night. The tension was palpable throughout the stadium.
And what do I think of the final, well I did enjoy that game except Portugal won of course with Cristiano Ronaldo got injured (He played on but he came off the field on a stretcher in the process following a heavy collision with France's Dimitri Payet so Ricardo Quaresma came on as his replacement in the 25th minute but the Portuguese put the hosts France beyond doubt so that they can score a goal during extra time and they did, thanks to that match winning goal scored by Eder during the 109th minute of the 2nd period of extra-time (Both Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann & Andre-Pierre Gignac (Who plays for a Mexican club) almost scored to put France into the lead).
And so, FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi was a failure for his country (Although he was successful only in club level because he is now retired from the international fold), Argentina in the Copa America Centenario final against Chile (Who had won on penalties) but no wonder that Cristiano Ronaldo had succeeded by winning both his club (For Real Madrid in the Champions League) & country (And finally he did get some redemption following his failure in 2004 (Although former Chelsea, Real Madrid & newly appointed Manchester United coach/manager Jose Mourinho would be very proud following his efforts of his country of birth) in the same year, so that's what you call a double, imagine that but a little fancy, as Portugal say Obrigado (Thanks in Portuguese) & Adeus (Goodbye) to France as they return home from their triumph because the Henri Delaunay Cup is heading west across the border (In the Iberian peninsula) from Spain to of course, Portugal now.
And finally, here we are today on Bastille Day (Which is France's national day) of 2016 (3 Days post Euro 2016) that me and Poppa went to the splash centre (We did go in the hydro therapy pool as well as the spa pool before doing laps in the walk and run lane) then we went to the pool clinic then New World to get the meal deal as well as the fruit, cold meat & Clausthaler's before we headed to 15A Kells Avenue to make lunch which is an Asian stir-fry that we had then I had to go to Nan's memorial garden as well as doing some jobs for the driveway then we went back inside and played Last Card because Pops (Well I told Poppa that I saw a photo of Aunty Tania dressed up as a Makutu) won 1 game while I won all 5 games then we had to build the shoe rack then I asked my grand uncle Bryan to come over and have a cup of tea but he agreed so I had a dessert and mochacchino before we had a chat there (Well I did chat to him but I made a speech for the 1st time about the curse of the All Blacks World Cup campaigns in 1999 & 2003 are ruined by a 1997 movie Anaconda being shown on Sky which is kinda funny as well as talking about the next major sporting event which is the Summer Olympics in Rio (My favourite Olympic moment was Danyon Loader winning gold medals in the 200 & 400 metre freestyle swimming over in Atlanta 20 years ago while Dad's favourite Olympic moment was Ian Ferguson & Paul McDonald winning the K2 canoeing gold in Los Angeles, California 1984 (Although the Soviet Union & the Eastern Bloc countries didn't compete because they were boycotting in response to Moscow hosting the 1980 summer Olympics because the US & the Western Bloc countries boycotted due to the war between the Soviets and Afghanistan in 1979) while Pops favourite Olympic moment was Peter Snell winning gold in both the 800 and 1500 metres athletics/track and field respectively in Tokyo just 52 years ago) which is only 23 days away as well as Super Rugby material (The Chiefs are seeking utu (Which is Maori for revenge) against the Highlanders in Dunedin while the Crusaders are hosting the Hurricanes over in Christchurch in the last round of Super Rugby before the playoffs begin) & Silver Fern netballer Maria Tutaia meeting up by having a relationship with Wallaby Israel Folau (Although they are not having an affair just like Avril Lavigne (Who is a famous Canadian along with Nickelback (Avril's husband & lead singer Chad Kroeger, Chad's brother & bassist Mike Kroeger, guitarist Ryan Peake & drummer Daniel Adair), Justin Bieber, Alanis Morrisette (Although she's American now), Celine Dion, Nelly Furtado, Bryan Adams, Michael Buble, Nikki Yanofsky, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Mark Messier, Steve Nash, current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his father Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Ministers Stephen Harper, Paul Martin & Jean Chretien, 3 Days Grace, Finger Eleven, Billy Talent, Steppenwolf, Arcade Fire, Sum 41, Our Lady Peace, Simple Plan, Default, Donovan Bailey, Penny Oleksiak, the late Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques Villeneuve (Son of Gilles & Formula 1 world champion in 1997), Paul Tracy, the late Greg Moore, Patrick Carpentier, Alex Tagliani, James Hinchcliffe, Bruno Spengler, Robert Wickens, the young Lance Stroll, Lance's billionaire father Lawrence Stroll, Edge, Christian, Maryse, Natalya, Bret 'The Hitman' Hart, Trish Stratus, Tyler Ardron, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Bianca Andreescu, Denis Shapovalov, Nicholas Latifi, Nathan Fillion (Who appears in the TV series Castle along with another famous Canadian actress Stana Katic, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly & the movie Serenity), Michael Cera (The guy who appeared in the movie Scott Pilgrim Vs The World along with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jason Schwartzman, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans (AKA Captain America), Brie Larson & Brandon Routh (Who played The Man Of Steel, Superman in the movie released 10 years ago, Superman Returns), William Shatner (The guy who appeared in Star Trek as Captain Kirk along with his late friend Leonard Nimroy & George Takei & Boston Legal with James Spader, Candice Bergen & Julie Bowen from the 1996 film Happy Gilmore with Adam Sandler & TV comedy series Modern Family), Drake, Donald Sutherland, Donald's son Keifer Sutherland (Who appeared in the TV series 24 as Jack Bauer along with Elisha Cuthbert as Jack's daughter & in the 2006 movie The Sentinel along with Michael Douglas (Star of the movie Traffic along with his wife from Wales, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mexican Benicio del Toro, Don Cheadle & Dennis Quaid as well as Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps with Shia Lebeouf, Oliver Stone, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin (Who appeared in the 2012 movie Men In Black along with Will Smith (Who appeared in the 1995 movie & it's sequel in 2003 along with Martin Lawrence, Bad Boys (Also appearing in the 1995 movie is Tea Leoni & it's 2003 sequel is Gabrielle Union, director Michael Bay & Joe Pantoliano) as well as the 1999 flick The Wild Wild West with Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek & Bai Ling & last years movie, Concussion with Alec Baldwin, Albert Brooks & Luke Wilson (Owen Wilson's brother) from the TV show Groupies) as Agent J, New Zealander formerly from Flight Of The Concords Jermaine Clement as the evil Boris The Animal, Emma Thompson (Who appeared with Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny DeVito in the 1994 movie Junior), Nicole Scherzinger formerly from the Pussycat Dolls, Alice Eve (Who appeared in the movie Star Trek Into Darkness as Carol Marcus along with Chris Pine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg (Who appeared in the movie Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz & The World's End with Nick Frost), New Zealander Karl Urban (As Eomer from The Lord Of The Rings & John 'Reaper' Grimm from the 2005 film Doom along with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson & Rosamund Pike), John Cho (Who appears in the movie Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle with Kal Penn), the late Anton Yelchin (As Kyle Reese from Terminator Salvation along with Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Helena Bonham Carter, rapper Common & Terry Crews) & Peter Weller) & Bill Hader), Frank Langella & Susan Sarandon & Basic Instinct with Sharon Stone (Who appeared in the movie Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger) & Jeanne Tripplehorn), Eva Longoria (Basketballer Tony Parker's ex wife who appeared in Desperate Housewives) & Kim Basinger), Cobie Smulders (As Maria Hill from The Avengers (Appearing in that movie are Robert Downey Jr (Tony 'Iron Man' Stark), Chris Evans (Captain America Steve Rogers), Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Norse god of Thunder), Mark Ruffalo (Dr Buce 'Hulk' Banner), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow Natasha Romanoff), Jeremy Renner (Agent Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton), Tom Hiddelston (The evil Loki), Paul Bettany (JARVIS), Samuel L Jackson (Nick Fury), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson) & Stellan Skarsgard (Professor Erik Selvig) & Canadian TV news anchor Robin Scherbatsky from How I Met Your Mother with Alyson Hannigan as Willow from Buffy The Vampire Slayer as well as American Pie & Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson), Hayden Christensen (As Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars Episodes II: Attack Of The Clones & III: Revenge Of The Sith), Mike Myers (From Wayne's World as well as Austin Powers & The Love Guru with Jessica Alba & Justin Timberlake), Pamela Anderson (As CJ from Baywatch featuring Knight Rider star David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff), Sandrine Holt (Born in England who appeared in Terminator: Genisys (With Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke from Game Of Thrones, Jason Clarke (Not related to Emilia Clarke), Jai Courtney from A Good Day To Die Hard & Lee Byung-hun from Red 2) as well as the MacGyver reboot (With Lucas Till from X-Men First Class, George Eads from CSI, Tristin Mays from Supergirl & Justin Hires from Rush Hour), Jim Carrey (One of the guys who appeared in films such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask (With Cameron Diaz), Dumb and Dumber (With Gary Daniels), Batman Forever (He plays the Riddler in the movie and appearing in the movie with Val Kilmer (As the ''Dark Knight/Caped Crusader'' Batman), Nicole Kidman (Doctor Meridian Chase), Tommy-Lee Jones (Harvey Dent/Two Face) & Chris O'Donnell (Robin), The Cable Guy (With Ben Stiller (Who appeared in the movie Tropic Thunder with Jack Black, Iron Man's Robert Downey Jr, Brandon T Jackson, another famous Canadian Jay Baruchel, Steve Coogan (Who appeared in the movie Around The World In 80 Days with Rumble In The Bronx, Rush Hour, Mr Nice Guy, Who Am I, Shanghai Noon & Shanghai Knights star Jackie Chan), Matthew McConaughey (Who also appeared in the movie The Wedding Planner with Jennifer Lopez (From the 1997 movie Anaconda) & tennis player Pete Sampras's wife, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras (Who played Sonya Blade in the 1995 movie, Mortal Kombat) as Rick Pecker & Tom Cruise (Who appears in movies such as A Few Good Men (With Jack Nicholson & Demi Moore), Mission Impossible, Jerry Maguire (With Renee Zellweger & Cuba Gooding Jr), Vanilla Sky (With Penelope Cruz & Cameron Diaz), Minority Report, The Last Samurai, Knight & Day (With Diaz) & Jack Reacher) as Les Grossman), Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann, Jack Black (Tenacious D front man who also appeared in Tropic Thunder), Owen Wilson (Luke Wilson's brother who appeared in both Shanghai Noon & Shanghai Knights with Jackie Chan) & Janeane Garofolo), Liar Liar, Me, Myself & Irene (With Zellweger & Anthony Anderson), Bruce Almighty (With Morgan Freeman (Who appeared in such movies as Invictus (As the great leader of South Africa, the late Nelson Mandela), The Shawshank Redemption (With Tim Robbins), Million Dollar Baby (With Clint Eastwood & Hillary Swank), The Bucket List (With Jack Nicholson from the 1989 movie Batman as The Joker), Lucy (With Scarlett Johansson from the Avengers as Black Widow), Olympus Has Fallen (With Gerard Butler from 300 as King Leonidas & Aaron Eckhart from The Dark Knight as Harvey Dent/Two Face) & The Dark Knight trilogy as Lucius Fox) as God, Jennifer Anniston & Steve Carell as Evan Baxter), Fun With Dick & Jane (With Tea Leoni who appears in the TV series Madam Secretary) & of course Yes Man (With Zooey Deschanel (Emily Deschanel's sister who also appears in the TV series, New Girl), Bradley Cooper (Who appears in the Hangover Trilogy with Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham (Who played Felicity Shagwell in Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me), 'Iron' Mike Tyson, Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow & Ian Anthony Dale (Who appeared in the Tekken movie as the evil Kazuya Mishima) & New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby) & last but not least, Keanu Reeves (And the one who also appeared in films such as Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Point Break (He plays American Football/Gridiron player turned FBI Agent Johnny Utah & appearing with the late Patrick Swayze (Bodhi) & Gary Busey (Angelo Pappas), Speed (With Sandra Bullock), The Matrix (He also plays the role of Neo Anderson and also appearing with Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus), Carrie-Ann Moss (Another famous Canadian actress (Along with Rachel McAdams who appeared in the move Mean Girls along with Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried & Lacey Chabert) who plays Trinity) & Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith/Elrond from Lord of the Rings), Constantine (With Rachel Weisz (James Bond actor Daniel Craig's wife), Tilda Swinton, Shia LaBeouf (Who appears in the movie Transformers & one of Sophia Ong's favourite actors because my favourite actor at the moment is Arnold Schwarzenegger (Who famously appeared in movies such as Conan The Barbarian, The Terminator, Commando, Raw Deal, Predator, The Running Man, Red Heat, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, Last Action Hero, True Lies, Jingle All The Way, End Of Days & Collateral Damage) but my cousin Paige Williams has got lots of favourite actors as well as my Aunty Cathey Middelplaats wrote that I really don't who her favourite actor was but she likes both James Corden & Graham Norton), Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale & Djimon Hounsou), Street Kings (With Chris Evans (The guy who played Captain America), Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie (As doctor Gregory House from the TV show House who appeared in the 2004 movie Flight Of The Phoenix with Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Australian Miranda Otto (Who played Eowyn in The Lord Of The Rings movies) & Tyrese Gibson (As Brian O'Connor's childhood friend Roman Pierce in The Fast & Furious movies), Terry Crews (From The Expendables movies), Naomie Harris (Who appears in both Skyfall & Spectre with Daniel Craig as Bond, James Bond), Cedric The Entertainer, Jay Mohr (Appeared in the 1999 film Go with Sarah Polley from the 2004 horror flick Dawn Of The Dead & Tom Cruise's ex-wife Katie Holmes as well as Timothy Olyphant), John Corbett (Who appeared in the movie My Big Greek Fat Wedding & its sequel with Nia Vardalos) & rappers The Game & Common), John Wick & 47 Ronin) is married to Nickelback front man Chad Kroeger as well as No Doubt front woman Gwen Stefani getting married to Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale) because the netball game was held several metres away from a rugby match in Sydney) but Pops took me home with all of my stuff including the fruits, meal deal, the cold meat & the Clausthaler's (Although we went to Nan's grave before that) to end an incredible day it was.
P.S. And guess what that my cousin Paige finally sent me an email because she wrote about that she apologized for the late response as well as being extremely busy over the last couple of weeks but she also wrote that she hasn't been watching Super Rugby because her boyfriend Jarrod must be filling the void in most of it and she also wrote that she loves Japanese food because it's yummy and she will have to go to that restaurant if she was ever here in Whanganui and she finally wrote that I was hoping for an totally awesome week by taking care, Paige xx (Both kisses).
Friday, 8 July 2016
So Cold: the Euros Final preview (+ The All Blacks RWC woes in 1999 & 2003/Anaconda movie crossover)
Well, it all comes down to this as 2 teams battle it out for glory in the UEFA Euro 2016 final between Portugal (Led by Cristiano Ronaldo of European champions Real Madrid and co) and hosts France (Featuring Paul Pogba of Italian champions Juventus who beat Germany (Also featuring Thomas Muller of German champions Bayern Munich) 2 - 0 in the semifinal).
It was in 2000 (Well I have been covering the Euros since then) that the last time that France (Who had won the FIFA World Cup 2 years earlier and featuring the likes of current Real Madrid coach/manager Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Marcel Desailly, Lilian Thuram, Laurent Blanc, David Trezeguet & current France manager Didier Deschamps) had last won the title as well as appearing in the final because it was against Italy (Which also featured the likes of Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti & former Italy & now Chelsea manager Antonio Conte) as France became the first team to win the UEFA European Championship as Champion Du Monde as David Trezeguet came off the bench to score a golden goal because it left Italy crestfallen having been seconds from winning the contest in normal time, leading through Marco Delvecchio's second-half strike before Sylvain Wiltord's last-gasp effort forced extra time. Trezeguet did the rest as well as the final had got off to a similarly frenetic start. France almost took the lead when Thierry Henry's hooked shot came back off the post and Youri Djorkaeff had headed just wide from a corner before Italy came to life, Demetrio Albertini curling a free-kick narrowly over the bar. The game was still only 15 minutes old as Both sides settled and les Bleus came desperately close to breaking through six minutes before the interval. The livewire Henry weaved into the penalty area and drove the ball goalwards, Djorkaeff seized possession and turned to fire in a low shot but Toldo made a fine point-blank stop within seconds of Alessandro Del Piero's second-half introduction Italy came close themselves, as Laurent Blanc was forced to head desperately behind from a dangerous Paolo Maldini cross and finally, on 55 minutes, the deadlock was broken. Francesco Totti's back-heel released Gianluca Pessotto down the right and his cross eluded Marcel Desailly, allowing Delvecchio to volley in from point-blank range. Italy should have doubled that advantage six minutes later when Totti sent Del Piero clear, but the Juventus forward pulled his shot across goal and at the other end France were struggling to find a way past the brilliant Toldo, who denied Wiltord and Henry as Zidane began to weave his creative magic. Yet despite the introduction of a third striker РTrezeguet РRoger Lemerre's side seemed destined for defeat, until Wiltord broke free on the left of the penalty area in injury time to send a low drive squirming past Toldo but France, buoyed by their late reprieve, began extra time on the offensive, Zidane having a shot deflected wide from a Robert Pir̬s cross. And the Arsenal FC-bound winger was the source for the winner, tricking his way down the left before pulling the ball back for Trezeguet to crash a first-time shot into the roof of the net. With the French fans exultant, Didier Deschamps lifted the Henri Delaunay Cup.
And onto 2004 that Portugal (Which featured the likes of young Ronaldo way back then as well as the great Luis Figo, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho, Pauleta, Rui Costa, Maniche, Brazilian born Deco & Nuno Gomes) were hosting the tournament, had last been to a final by taking on the underdogs Greece (Which also featured the likes of Angelos Basinas, Theodoros Zagorakis, Angelos Charisteas, Giorgios Karagounis (Who didn't play due to suspension) & Kostas Katsouranis) who beat them in the opening match of the tournament as Greece, who began the tournament as 80-1 outsiders, pulled off arguably the biggest shock at a major football tournament as Angelos Charisteas' goal earned a 1-0 victory over Portugal in the final of UEFA Euro 2004 while Portugal thus became the first host nation to lose a UEFA European Championship showpiece and they will have to wait at least another two years to claim their first senior title. For the likes of LuÃs Figo and Rui Costa it was an agonising end to glittering international careers, but they can look back with pride on the past three weeks as Luiz Felipe Scolari's side in Lisbon were unchanged from the team that beat the Netherlands in the semi-finals, with goal-scorer Pauleta preferred to the in-form Nuno Gomes in attack. Greece made just one change, Stelios Giannakopoulos replacing the suspended Georgios Karagounis in midfield but perhaps contrary to some expectations, the game was an attractive spectacle from the start, with both sides playing fluently. Portugal playmaker Deco was involved twice early on, combining with Pauleta and then Cristiano Ronaldo, but first Greece captain Theo Zagorakis and then Traianos Dellas – man of the match in the semi-final win against the Czech Republic – made timely interceptions but Pauleta was just beaten to a long through ball by Greek goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis before Greece showed their class with a sweeping move down the right involving Konstantinos Katsouranis and Zagorakis that was only halted with a crude foul by Costinha on Giourkas Seitaridis, for which the Portuguese midfield anchorman was booked as Portugal hit back and Miguel, on his home ground, sent a powerful low drive fizzing across the face of goal; Nikopolidis had to tip the ball away in spectacular fashion. At the other end Ricardo was forced to race from the Portuguese line to deny Charisteas, who had been played in by Katsouranis but a speculative Pauleta effort was saved comfortably enough by Nikopolidis but only a fine tackle from Dellas prevented Ronaldo causing havoc with his dancing feet. The hosts were getting on top and Maniche shot wide from a corner as the crowd held its breath, hoping for a repeat of his stunning goal against the Dutch as Mihalis Kapsis, doubtful for the game owing to a knee injury, then broke up another promising Deco-Ronaldo attack on the edge of the area. At this point the Greece fans, heavily outnumbered, took the initiative on behalf of their team and created a deafening wall of sound at the end Portugal were attacking: an invisible barrier the hosts could find no way past for the remainder of the 1st half but the 2nd half opened with a Pauleta effort that was blocked when he might have done better, a microcosm of his frustrating tournament, and then the unthinkable happened – Greece took the lead. A surging right-wing run from Seitaridis won them a corner which Angelos Basinas swung over and there was Charisteas climbing above Costinha to head in from close range but Costinha was immediately withdrawn in favour of Rui Costa and the veteran midfielder nearly made an instant impact, tricking his way into the area before delivering a wayward final pass. Seitaridis was then cautioned and Figo shot straight at Nikopolidis as nerves on and off the pitch began to fray as Ricardo Carvalho had to be alert to prevent Zisis Vryzas doubling the lead just past the hour mark, and the home fans now did their best to rally their team. For a time Greece had their backs to the wall as Rui Costa, Deco and Figo probed for an opening, but the defensive discipline that has stood Rehhagel's team in such good stead throughout the tournament once again came to their rescue as Portuguese attacks broke down time after time while Scolari swapped Pauleta for Nuno Gomes with 17 minutes of normal time remaining and soon after that Ronaldo almost latched on to a long pass by Rui Costa but, off-balance, his shot was high and wide. Rui Costa himself went closer but his deflected shot was palmed away by Nikopolidis, while Figo also saw an effort rebound behind as Greece held on for a famous win.
And then to 2008 that Spain (Who had never won since 1964 and featured the likes of Carles Puyol (Who missed Spain's 2012 triumph due to injury), Andres Iniesta, David Villa (Who also missed Spain's 2012 triumph due to injury along with Puyol), Xavi, Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas, Santi Cazorla, Xabi Alonso & Sergio Ramos) took on Germany (Who was trying to add their successes of 1972, 80 & 96 European Championship titles and also featuring the likes of Michael Ballack (Who would be his last major football/soccer tournament before in 2010 when Thomas Muller took over the reins after Ballack got injured by Jerome Boateng's brother from Ghana, Kevin-Prince Boateng in the FA Cup final between Chelsea & Portsmouth), Per Mertesacker, Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose & Mario Gomez) as Spain became European champions for the second time after Fernando Torres's first-half goal in Vienna proved enough to defeat Germany in the final of UEFA EURO 2008 but Spain had won their only previous piece of silverware in this competition in 1964 and had not been beyond the quarter-finals of any tournament in 24 years, yet Luis Aragonés's men chose to use that history as an inspiration rather than a burden. After a strong start from Germany, seeking a fourth title themselves, Spain were the more dangerous side throughout an entertaining final at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion although it took just one goal – in the 33rd minute, courtesy of Torres's pace, perseverance and unerring finish – to end their long wait while Germany received a significant boost before kick-off with captain Michael Ballack included despite a much-publicised calf problem, and, perhaps buoyed by that news, Joachim Löw's team settled quickly. Much had been made of the contrast in style between the sides yet in the opening exchanges it was Germany whose passing looked crisper, Miroslav Klose and Thomas Hitzlsperger failing to make the most of glimpses of goal. Meanwhile Spain, shorn of four-goal leading scorer David Villa due to a thigh injury, struggled to find their feet in a new 4-5-1 formation in which Cesc Fà bregas was rewarded for a fine semi-final display with a starting place as an indicator of the pattern of the match, however, Germany's bright beginning proved misleading. Spain soon worked their way into the contest, with Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann – becoming, at 38, the oldest player to appear in a UEFA European Championship final – forced into action for the first time in the 14th minute. Although his instinctive save came when his own defender, Christoph Metzelder, inadvertently deflected Andrés Iniesta's cross towards his own goal, Xavi Hernández's fine through pass had unpicked the Germany defence and showed the Spanish were finding their feet as right-back Sergio Ramos was then allowed to cut inside and deliver a deep cross, Torres peeling away from Per Mertesacker to create space for the header only for the right-hand post to come to Lehmann's rescue. The warning signs were there for Germany, yet they failed to heed them and duly fell behind three minutes past the half-hour. Again Xavi was the architect, playing a pass in behind the Germany back line towards Torres, who outmuscled a hesitant Philipp Lahm and clipped the ball over the diving Lehmann and just inside the far post. David Silva then volleyed over Iniesta's cross when given time and space inside the area as Spain threatened to increase their lead but Spain had more openings in the early stages of the second half, Lehmann getting the merest of touches to Xavi's low shot before Ramos nearly guided in Silva's drive from the resulting corner. Yet a hint of the threat Germany still posed arrived on the hour, substitute Marcell Jansen and Bastian Schweinsteiger combining for Ballack to shoot centimetres wide. Klose then deflected a Schweinsteiger effort past the post and, in response to Germany's renewed menace, Spain coach Aragonés promptly introduced Xabi Alonso and Santi Cazorla in place of Fà bregas and Silva. The switches reinvigorated Spain instantly, Lehmann making smart stops from Ramos and Iniesta while Torsten Frings blocked another Iniesta effort on the line as the final moved into the last 20 minutes, Spain had had seven shots on goal to Germany's one, but with the Mannschaft having turned virtually one in two of their attempts on target into goals en route to the final, that would have been scant consolation to Aragonés and his side. In the event, however, it was Spain who continued to carve out chances as the match reached its conclusion, Marcos Senna narrowly failing to apply the finishing touch to an unselfish header from substitute Daniel Güiza – but the celebrations would not be delayed much longer.
And finally in 2012 that the World Champions Spain (The returning players from the Euro 2008 squad are captain Iker Casillas, Raul Albiol, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas, Xabi Alonso, Sergio Ramos, Alvaro Arbeloa, Santi Cazorla, David Silva & Pepe Reina) are attempting to successfully defend the European Championship crown by taking on Italy (Which featured the likes of Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chellini, Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio, Riccardo Montolivo, Daniele de Rossi, the emerging Mario Balotelli, Antonio Cassano, Antonio Di Natale and of course Thiago Motta) in the final after drawing against them in the opening match of the tournament as Spain saved their best until last at UEFA Euro 2012, a final-record 4-0 victory in Kyiv completing an unprecedented hat-trick of major tournament wins and against a flagging Italy side whose thrilling knockout campaign looked to have caught up with them, Spain were in control from the moment David Silva broke the deadlock with a rare header on 14 minutes. A barnstorming second with half-time approaching from the indefatigable Jordi Alba, his first international goal, left the Azzurri with a mountain to climb. The sight of Thiago Motta, their third substitute, being carried off on a stretcher ended all hope, causing Italy to play out the last 28 minutes with ten men – and Spain replacements Fernando Torres and Juan Mata fully capitalised but this was billed as a meeting of great creative minds, of conductors in their prime, of Xavi Hernández against Andrea Pirlo; but for much of the opening phase it was a one-man show. Spain's No8 picked up the baton from the off, in harmony with Andrés Iniesta, dictating La Roja's now familiar staccato movement as Italy were forced deeper and deeper. The olés had already begun among the sizeable Spanish contingent in the 63,170 crowd when, just before the quarter-hour, the pair combined to devastating effect as Xavi, who had fired narrowly over moments earlier, fed Iniesta and his finely weighted pass allowed Cesc Fà bregas to easily outstrip Giorgio Chiellini on the inside-right channel. There was still plenty to do but how simple Spain made it look as Fà bregas pulled a sharp ball back for Silva, all 170cm of him, to glance his header in. It proved a disappointed Chiellini's last real action as he soon succumbed to the thigh problem that has hampered him throughout his time in Poland and Ukraine but a heavy-legged Italy could ill afford the double blow, but impressively they fought their way back into the contest. Pirlo, inevitably, was their driving force, the beating drum that pulled the strings at the back and sounded the horn to attack. Not that there was much of that. In fact, Pirlo's most telling contribution of the first half was a superb last-ditch block on Iniesta. Yet try as he might – and he did try – the 33-year-old could not be everywhere but Spain's second was a little too easy, though. Standing on the touchline near halfway, Fà bregas nodded Iker Casillas's clearance to Alba who turned the ball into Xavi before haring forward. The Azzurri back line did not seem to notice but the erudite Xavi did, advancing forward before slotting his new FC Barcelona club-mate in. The composed left-footed finish that followed would have pleased even the injured David Villa, watching in the stands with Carles Puyol & if it appeared that nothing could now deny Spain a first competitive victory against the Azzurri in 92 years – at least over 90 minutes – but Italy were not done yet. Antonio Di Natale, scorer in the 1-1 group stage draw between these sides three weeks ago, came on for Antonio Cassano and within six minutes he might have scored twice. His first chance, a header, was far from straightforward, but the striker could have done better when Riccardo Montolivo's pass found him in space. He snatched at the opportunity and the advancing Casillas blocked & of course yet Italy's slender hopes of mounting a comeback disappeared when Motta departed forlornly down the tunnel. It was left to Xavi to resume his conducting, slowing things down until, with six minutes remaining, he upped the tempo for a rousing crescendo. First he robbed Pirlo in midfield and set up Torres for a goal to add to his strike in the UEFA EURO 2008 final – a 'double' no one had managed before – then he combined with Torres to release Mata, just on, to seal an emphatic win. It has been an emphatic four years.
And who's gonna win that final of UEFA Euro 2016, Portugal or France, but all will be revealed after the final (Well my money is on France at the moment because I have the French flag right here, allons y (Let's go) and if the French win, it's Vive La France (Long live France) baby (They could be celebrating Bastille Day on the 14th of July (4 days after the final) in style) because it is the Postmodern Jukebox of the French Revolution because they don't want to lose against Portugal just like Napoleon Bonaparte lost the battle during the battle of Waterloo way back 201 years ago on the 18th of June, 1815).
P.S. And don't forget the curse behind the All Blacks Rugby World Cup campaigns way back in both 1999 & 2003 are ruined by a 1997 movie Anaconda (A movie which is about a film crew (Which includes a Latina and a Black man who are protagonists of the film) is taken hostage by an totally insane hunter (Known as the Demon all the way from Hell), who takes them along on his quest to capture the world's largest & deadliest snake (Which is a deadly animal, mercy me) starring artist/musician Jennifer 'JLo' Lopez (Filmmaker Terri Flores, a Latina like no other who shares the same role with Alice from Alice in Wonderland), rapper O'Shea 'Ice Cube' Jackson (Cameraman Danny Rich, a Black man with no intentions who also shares a similar role with Wolfenstein protagonist BJ Blazkowicz) as well as Angelina Jolie's father John Voight (Totally insane hunter Paul Sarone, who acts like a Demon from Hell by sharing a role with the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day) being shown on Sky Movies at the same time (Or should I say, the wrong place at the wrong time) as the All Blacks were pounced by the French in 1999 (Even though the All Blacks were torn sky blast apart by the French who enjoyed an insane amount of rugby during the 2nd half) and again when the All Blacks got dismantled by the Wallabies in 2003 (Well something went wrong for the All Blacks during the semifinals as Stirling Mortlock's intercept try for the Wallabies ended New Zealand's hopes of reaching the World Cup final) when the movie was shown this time on TV3 at the same time (And again at the wrong place at the wrong time because they were getting isolated about it) so let's see how it unfolds but here is Jeremy Wells from Eating Media Lunch said about it:
Some blame Keith Quinn, others say it's Foxy's (Grant Fox) inverted sideburns or Helen Clark's (Was the Prime Minister of New Zealand before John Key took over 8 years ago) childlessness, whatever the cause, there's no doubt that a makutu (Which is Maori for sorcery or witchcraft) is keeping us from winning the World Cup, But we can now reveal a startling new theory as to why we weren't there, in 1999, while New Zealand were being beaten by the French, Sky TV was showing the movie Anaconda, 4 years on, and the curse of the snake struck again, this time the movie was on TV3, at exactly the same time as the All Blacks were being squeezed by the Wallabies...And I quote, I didn't watch the movie but I did watch the game because it was really difficult situation to watch either the movie or the game because I was in Raetihi (My birthplace & my old hometown for 16 years before I moved here to Wanganui so I have been living here for like 9 years) way back in 2003 (BY CRIKEY! STREWTH!) and in 1999 (OH SACRE BLEU!), Aunty Tania said to either the late Nan or Pops on the phone that she was shocked that her beloved All Blacks team lost so the French rugby fans went crazy because she was living in Clermont-Ferrand way back then (She had lived there for 4 years before moving to Canada in 2004 and after Australia where she lived for also 4 years) and well, watching the Anaconda movie is a bit like taking on 2 Barons of Hell at Phobos Anomaly (Episode 1 (Knee-Deep in the Dead) Mission 8) in the 1993 video game Doom (And remember, use your rocket launcher to destroy both Barons of Hell but be careful about this weapon as it may cause splash damage from it) but this is more like BJ Blazkowicz trying to take on Hans Grosse in the 1992 game Wolfenstein 3D.
And did you know that it's 28 days until the Rio Olympics? Repeat after me...just 28 days remaining because I will be doing a blog about the history of New Zealand at the Olympics from Antwerp 1920 to London 2012 once the Euros are complete but 1st I will have to do a blog about the review of the UEFA Euro 2016 final which takes place on Monday morning New Zealand time (Actually the final is held on a Sunday).
It was in 2000 (Well I have been covering the Euros since then) that the last time that France (Who had won the FIFA World Cup 2 years earlier and featuring the likes of current Real Madrid coach/manager Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Marcel Desailly, Lilian Thuram, Laurent Blanc, David Trezeguet & current France manager Didier Deschamps) had last won the title as well as appearing in the final because it was against Italy (Which also featured the likes of Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti & former Italy & now Chelsea manager Antonio Conte) as France became the first team to win the UEFA European Championship as Champion Du Monde as David Trezeguet came off the bench to score a golden goal because it left Italy crestfallen having been seconds from winning the contest in normal time, leading through Marco Delvecchio's second-half strike before Sylvain Wiltord's last-gasp effort forced extra time. Trezeguet did the rest as well as the final had got off to a similarly frenetic start. France almost took the lead when Thierry Henry's hooked shot came back off the post and Youri Djorkaeff had headed just wide from a corner before Italy came to life, Demetrio Albertini curling a free-kick narrowly over the bar. The game was still only 15 minutes old as Both sides settled and les Bleus came desperately close to breaking through six minutes before the interval. The livewire Henry weaved into the penalty area and drove the ball goalwards, Djorkaeff seized possession and turned to fire in a low shot but Toldo made a fine point-blank stop within seconds of Alessandro Del Piero's second-half introduction Italy came close themselves, as Laurent Blanc was forced to head desperately behind from a dangerous Paolo Maldini cross and finally, on 55 minutes, the deadlock was broken. Francesco Totti's back-heel released Gianluca Pessotto down the right and his cross eluded Marcel Desailly, allowing Delvecchio to volley in from point-blank range. Italy should have doubled that advantage six minutes later when Totti sent Del Piero clear, but the Juventus forward pulled his shot across goal and at the other end France were struggling to find a way past the brilliant Toldo, who denied Wiltord and Henry as Zidane began to weave his creative magic. Yet despite the introduction of a third striker РTrezeguet РRoger Lemerre's side seemed destined for defeat, until Wiltord broke free on the left of the penalty area in injury time to send a low drive squirming past Toldo but France, buoyed by their late reprieve, began extra time on the offensive, Zidane having a shot deflected wide from a Robert Pir̬s cross. And the Arsenal FC-bound winger was the source for the winner, tricking his way down the left before pulling the ball back for Trezeguet to crash a first-time shot into the roof of the net. With the French fans exultant, Didier Deschamps lifted the Henri Delaunay Cup.
And onto 2004 that Portugal (Which featured the likes of young Ronaldo way back then as well as the great Luis Figo, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho, Pauleta, Rui Costa, Maniche, Brazilian born Deco & Nuno Gomes) were hosting the tournament, had last been to a final by taking on the underdogs Greece (Which also featured the likes of Angelos Basinas, Theodoros Zagorakis, Angelos Charisteas, Giorgios Karagounis (Who didn't play due to suspension) & Kostas Katsouranis) who beat them in the opening match of the tournament as Greece, who began the tournament as 80-1 outsiders, pulled off arguably the biggest shock at a major football tournament as Angelos Charisteas' goal earned a 1-0 victory over Portugal in the final of UEFA Euro 2004 while Portugal thus became the first host nation to lose a UEFA European Championship showpiece and they will have to wait at least another two years to claim their first senior title. For the likes of LuÃs Figo and Rui Costa it was an agonising end to glittering international careers, but they can look back with pride on the past three weeks as Luiz Felipe Scolari's side in Lisbon were unchanged from the team that beat the Netherlands in the semi-finals, with goal-scorer Pauleta preferred to the in-form Nuno Gomes in attack. Greece made just one change, Stelios Giannakopoulos replacing the suspended Georgios Karagounis in midfield but perhaps contrary to some expectations, the game was an attractive spectacle from the start, with both sides playing fluently. Portugal playmaker Deco was involved twice early on, combining with Pauleta and then Cristiano Ronaldo, but first Greece captain Theo Zagorakis and then Traianos Dellas – man of the match in the semi-final win against the Czech Republic – made timely interceptions but Pauleta was just beaten to a long through ball by Greek goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis before Greece showed their class with a sweeping move down the right involving Konstantinos Katsouranis and Zagorakis that was only halted with a crude foul by Costinha on Giourkas Seitaridis, for which the Portuguese midfield anchorman was booked as Portugal hit back and Miguel, on his home ground, sent a powerful low drive fizzing across the face of goal; Nikopolidis had to tip the ball away in spectacular fashion. At the other end Ricardo was forced to race from the Portuguese line to deny Charisteas, who had been played in by Katsouranis but a speculative Pauleta effort was saved comfortably enough by Nikopolidis but only a fine tackle from Dellas prevented Ronaldo causing havoc with his dancing feet. The hosts were getting on top and Maniche shot wide from a corner as the crowd held its breath, hoping for a repeat of his stunning goal against the Dutch as Mihalis Kapsis, doubtful for the game owing to a knee injury, then broke up another promising Deco-Ronaldo attack on the edge of the area. At this point the Greece fans, heavily outnumbered, took the initiative on behalf of their team and created a deafening wall of sound at the end Portugal were attacking: an invisible barrier the hosts could find no way past for the remainder of the 1st half but the 2nd half opened with a Pauleta effort that was blocked when he might have done better, a microcosm of his frustrating tournament, and then the unthinkable happened – Greece took the lead. A surging right-wing run from Seitaridis won them a corner which Angelos Basinas swung over and there was Charisteas climbing above Costinha to head in from close range but Costinha was immediately withdrawn in favour of Rui Costa and the veteran midfielder nearly made an instant impact, tricking his way into the area before delivering a wayward final pass. Seitaridis was then cautioned and Figo shot straight at Nikopolidis as nerves on and off the pitch began to fray as Ricardo Carvalho had to be alert to prevent Zisis Vryzas doubling the lead just past the hour mark, and the home fans now did their best to rally their team. For a time Greece had their backs to the wall as Rui Costa, Deco and Figo probed for an opening, but the defensive discipline that has stood Rehhagel's team in such good stead throughout the tournament once again came to their rescue as Portuguese attacks broke down time after time while Scolari swapped Pauleta for Nuno Gomes with 17 minutes of normal time remaining and soon after that Ronaldo almost latched on to a long pass by Rui Costa but, off-balance, his shot was high and wide. Rui Costa himself went closer but his deflected shot was palmed away by Nikopolidis, while Figo also saw an effort rebound behind as Greece held on for a famous win.
And then to 2008 that Spain (Who had never won since 1964 and featured the likes of Carles Puyol (Who missed Spain's 2012 triumph due to injury), Andres Iniesta, David Villa (Who also missed Spain's 2012 triumph due to injury along with Puyol), Xavi, Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas, Santi Cazorla, Xabi Alonso & Sergio Ramos) took on Germany (Who was trying to add their successes of 1972, 80 & 96 European Championship titles and also featuring the likes of Michael Ballack (Who would be his last major football/soccer tournament before in 2010 when Thomas Muller took over the reins after Ballack got injured by Jerome Boateng's brother from Ghana, Kevin-Prince Boateng in the FA Cup final between Chelsea & Portsmouth), Per Mertesacker, Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose & Mario Gomez) as Spain became European champions for the second time after Fernando Torres's first-half goal in Vienna proved enough to defeat Germany in the final of UEFA EURO 2008 but Spain had won their only previous piece of silverware in this competition in 1964 and had not been beyond the quarter-finals of any tournament in 24 years, yet Luis Aragonés's men chose to use that history as an inspiration rather than a burden. After a strong start from Germany, seeking a fourth title themselves, Spain were the more dangerous side throughout an entertaining final at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion although it took just one goal – in the 33rd minute, courtesy of Torres's pace, perseverance and unerring finish – to end their long wait while Germany received a significant boost before kick-off with captain Michael Ballack included despite a much-publicised calf problem, and, perhaps buoyed by that news, Joachim Löw's team settled quickly. Much had been made of the contrast in style between the sides yet in the opening exchanges it was Germany whose passing looked crisper, Miroslav Klose and Thomas Hitzlsperger failing to make the most of glimpses of goal. Meanwhile Spain, shorn of four-goal leading scorer David Villa due to a thigh injury, struggled to find their feet in a new 4-5-1 formation in which Cesc Fà bregas was rewarded for a fine semi-final display with a starting place as an indicator of the pattern of the match, however, Germany's bright beginning proved misleading. Spain soon worked their way into the contest, with Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann – becoming, at 38, the oldest player to appear in a UEFA European Championship final – forced into action for the first time in the 14th minute. Although his instinctive save came when his own defender, Christoph Metzelder, inadvertently deflected Andrés Iniesta's cross towards his own goal, Xavi Hernández's fine through pass had unpicked the Germany defence and showed the Spanish were finding their feet as right-back Sergio Ramos was then allowed to cut inside and deliver a deep cross, Torres peeling away from Per Mertesacker to create space for the header only for the right-hand post to come to Lehmann's rescue. The warning signs were there for Germany, yet they failed to heed them and duly fell behind three minutes past the half-hour. Again Xavi was the architect, playing a pass in behind the Germany back line towards Torres, who outmuscled a hesitant Philipp Lahm and clipped the ball over the diving Lehmann and just inside the far post. David Silva then volleyed over Iniesta's cross when given time and space inside the area as Spain threatened to increase their lead but Spain had more openings in the early stages of the second half, Lehmann getting the merest of touches to Xavi's low shot before Ramos nearly guided in Silva's drive from the resulting corner. Yet a hint of the threat Germany still posed arrived on the hour, substitute Marcell Jansen and Bastian Schweinsteiger combining for Ballack to shoot centimetres wide. Klose then deflected a Schweinsteiger effort past the post and, in response to Germany's renewed menace, Spain coach Aragonés promptly introduced Xabi Alonso and Santi Cazorla in place of Fà bregas and Silva. The switches reinvigorated Spain instantly, Lehmann making smart stops from Ramos and Iniesta while Torsten Frings blocked another Iniesta effort on the line as the final moved into the last 20 minutes, Spain had had seven shots on goal to Germany's one, but with the Mannschaft having turned virtually one in two of their attempts on target into goals en route to the final, that would have been scant consolation to Aragonés and his side. In the event, however, it was Spain who continued to carve out chances as the match reached its conclusion, Marcos Senna narrowly failing to apply the finishing touch to an unselfish header from substitute Daniel Güiza – but the celebrations would not be delayed much longer.
And finally in 2012 that the World Champions Spain (The returning players from the Euro 2008 squad are captain Iker Casillas, Raul Albiol, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas, Xabi Alonso, Sergio Ramos, Alvaro Arbeloa, Santi Cazorla, David Silva & Pepe Reina) are attempting to successfully defend the European Championship crown by taking on Italy (Which featured the likes of Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chellini, Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio, Riccardo Montolivo, Daniele de Rossi, the emerging Mario Balotelli, Antonio Cassano, Antonio Di Natale and of course Thiago Motta) in the final after drawing against them in the opening match of the tournament as Spain saved their best until last at UEFA Euro 2012, a final-record 4-0 victory in Kyiv completing an unprecedented hat-trick of major tournament wins and against a flagging Italy side whose thrilling knockout campaign looked to have caught up with them, Spain were in control from the moment David Silva broke the deadlock with a rare header on 14 minutes. A barnstorming second with half-time approaching from the indefatigable Jordi Alba, his first international goal, left the Azzurri with a mountain to climb. The sight of Thiago Motta, their third substitute, being carried off on a stretcher ended all hope, causing Italy to play out the last 28 minutes with ten men – and Spain replacements Fernando Torres and Juan Mata fully capitalised but this was billed as a meeting of great creative minds, of conductors in their prime, of Xavi Hernández against Andrea Pirlo; but for much of the opening phase it was a one-man show. Spain's No8 picked up the baton from the off, in harmony with Andrés Iniesta, dictating La Roja's now familiar staccato movement as Italy were forced deeper and deeper. The olés had already begun among the sizeable Spanish contingent in the 63,170 crowd when, just before the quarter-hour, the pair combined to devastating effect as Xavi, who had fired narrowly over moments earlier, fed Iniesta and his finely weighted pass allowed Cesc Fà bregas to easily outstrip Giorgio Chiellini on the inside-right channel. There was still plenty to do but how simple Spain made it look as Fà bregas pulled a sharp ball back for Silva, all 170cm of him, to glance his header in. It proved a disappointed Chiellini's last real action as he soon succumbed to the thigh problem that has hampered him throughout his time in Poland and Ukraine but a heavy-legged Italy could ill afford the double blow, but impressively they fought their way back into the contest. Pirlo, inevitably, was their driving force, the beating drum that pulled the strings at the back and sounded the horn to attack. Not that there was much of that. In fact, Pirlo's most telling contribution of the first half was a superb last-ditch block on Iniesta. Yet try as he might – and he did try – the 33-year-old could not be everywhere but Spain's second was a little too easy, though. Standing on the touchline near halfway, Fà bregas nodded Iker Casillas's clearance to Alba who turned the ball into Xavi before haring forward. The Azzurri back line did not seem to notice but the erudite Xavi did, advancing forward before slotting his new FC Barcelona club-mate in. The composed left-footed finish that followed would have pleased even the injured David Villa, watching in the stands with Carles Puyol & if it appeared that nothing could now deny Spain a first competitive victory against the Azzurri in 92 years – at least over 90 minutes – but Italy were not done yet. Antonio Di Natale, scorer in the 1-1 group stage draw between these sides three weeks ago, came on for Antonio Cassano and within six minutes he might have scored twice. His first chance, a header, was far from straightforward, but the striker could have done better when Riccardo Montolivo's pass found him in space. He snatched at the opportunity and the advancing Casillas blocked & of course yet Italy's slender hopes of mounting a comeback disappeared when Motta departed forlornly down the tunnel. It was left to Xavi to resume his conducting, slowing things down until, with six minutes remaining, he upped the tempo for a rousing crescendo. First he robbed Pirlo in midfield and set up Torres for a goal to add to his strike in the UEFA EURO 2008 final – a 'double' no one had managed before – then he combined with Torres to release Mata, just on, to seal an emphatic win. It has been an emphatic four years.
And who's gonna win that final of UEFA Euro 2016, Portugal or France, but all will be revealed after the final (Well my money is on France at the moment because I have the French flag right here, allons y (Let's go) and if the French win, it's Vive La France (Long live France) baby (They could be celebrating Bastille Day on the 14th of July (4 days after the final) in style) because it is the Postmodern Jukebox of the French Revolution because they don't want to lose against Portugal just like Napoleon Bonaparte lost the battle during the battle of Waterloo way back 201 years ago on the 18th of June, 1815).
P.S. And don't forget the curse behind the All Blacks Rugby World Cup campaigns way back in both 1999 & 2003 are ruined by a 1997 movie Anaconda (A movie which is about a film crew (Which includes a Latina and a Black man who are protagonists of the film) is taken hostage by an totally insane hunter (Known as the Demon all the way from Hell), who takes them along on his quest to capture the world's largest & deadliest snake (Which is a deadly animal, mercy me) starring artist/musician Jennifer 'JLo' Lopez (Filmmaker Terri Flores, a Latina like no other who shares the same role with Alice from Alice in Wonderland), rapper O'Shea 'Ice Cube' Jackson (Cameraman Danny Rich, a Black man with no intentions who also shares a similar role with Wolfenstein protagonist BJ Blazkowicz) as well as Angelina Jolie's father John Voight (Totally insane hunter Paul Sarone, who acts like a Demon from Hell by sharing a role with the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day) being shown on Sky Movies at the same time (Or should I say, the wrong place at the wrong time) as the All Blacks were pounced by the French in 1999 (Even though the All Blacks were torn sky blast apart by the French who enjoyed an insane amount of rugby during the 2nd half) and again when the All Blacks got dismantled by the Wallabies in 2003 (Well something went wrong for the All Blacks during the semifinals as Stirling Mortlock's intercept try for the Wallabies ended New Zealand's hopes of reaching the World Cup final) when the movie was shown this time on TV3 at the same time (And again at the wrong place at the wrong time because they were getting isolated about it) so let's see how it unfolds but here is Jeremy Wells from Eating Media Lunch said about it:
Some blame Keith Quinn, others say it's Foxy's (Grant Fox) inverted sideburns or Helen Clark's (Was the Prime Minister of New Zealand before John Key took over 8 years ago) childlessness, whatever the cause, there's no doubt that a makutu (Which is Maori for sorcery or witchcraft) is keeping us from winning the World Cup, But we can now reveal a startling new theory as to why we weren't there, in 1999, while New Zealand were being beaten by the French, Sky TV was showing the movie Anaconda, 4 years on, and the curse of the snake struck again, this time the movie was on TV3, at exactly the same time as the All Blacks were being squeezed by the Wallabies...And I quote, I didn't watch the movie but I did watch the game because it was really difficult situation to watch either the movie or the game because I was in Raetihi (My birthplace & my old hometown for 16 years before I moved here to Wanganui so I have been living here for like 9 years) way back in 2003 (BY CRIKEY! STREWTH!) and in 1999 (OH SACRE BLEU!), Aunty Tania said to either the late Nan or Pops on the phone that she was shocked that her beloved All Blacks team lost so the French rugby fans went crazy because she was living in Clermont-Ferrand way back then (She had lived there for 4 years before moving to Canada in 2004 and after Australia where she lived for also 4 years) and well, watching the Anaconda movie is a bit like taking on 2 Barons of Hell at Phobos Anomaly (Episode 1 (Knee-Deep in the Dead) Mission 8) in the 1993 video game Doom (And remember, use your rocket launcher to destroy both Barons of Hell but be careful about this weapon as it may cause splash damage from it) but this is more like BJ Blazkowicz trying to take on Hans Grosse in the 1992 game Wolfenstein 3D.
And did you know that it's 28 days until the Rio Olympics? Repeat after me...just 28 days remaining because I will be doing a blog about the history of New Zealand at the Olympics from Antwerp 1920 to London 2012 once the Euros are complete but 1st I will have to do a blog about the review of the UEFA Euro 2016 final which takes place on Monday morning New Zealand time (Actually the final is held on a Sunday).
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