Well, the #Olympics are back after 4 long years so yesterday I have just watched the opening ceremony and I did enjoy it but today I have just witnessed gold medals being won by Australia twice, Belgium, Hungary & Japan & I also saw 2 world records being broken. But last night the Super Rugby final was held between the Hurricanes of Wellington, New Zealand & the Lions of Johannesburg, South Africa, so let's see how it unfolds between the 2 sides with a full news report:
Wellington’s Hurricanes beat the Lions 20-3 at Westpac Stadium to become the 2016 Super Rugby Champions.
The Hurricanes also hosted the Super Rugby final last year but they were beaten 14-21 by the Highlanders.
The Hurricanes were the only New Zealand team who had not won a Super Rugby title but now all five New Zealand teams have won a title.
The victory makes New Zealand the first nation to have all of it’s teams win a title as only the Bulls have won a title for South Africa while the Brumbies, Waratahs and Reds have won Super Rugby titles for Australia.
The Hurricanes outscored the Lions by two tries to none which means that Hurricanes did not concede a try throughout the play offs and went through almost 300 minutes without conceding a try.
The last player to score a try against the Hurricanes was Ryan Crotty of the Crusaders in the first half of their final regular season round match.
Earlier this season the Lions hosted the Hurricanes in Johannesburg and that match was won 17-50 by the Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes championship win, coming a year after they ended runners-up at the same venue, added another glorious chapter to New Zealand’s vice-like grip hold on the South Hemisphere competition.
The Hurricanes finally added their name on the trophy after 21 years of trying alongside New Zealand’s four other franchises.
The stage was set for the Hurricanes rather than the Lions as the ‘Cake Tin’ presented similar conditions to that prevailed a fortnight ago when they played the quarterfinal against the Sharks.
After an initial period in which the Lions showed their prowess on attack and defence, the Hurricanes flyhalf Beauden Barrett showed that he and his fellow players had a better understanding of the nuances of playing in rain, wind and soggy underfoot conditions.
Early on, Barrett snatched the initiative with a deft touch finder to transfer play deep into the Lions’ half.
The Hurricanes subsequently stole the Lions’ line-out ball and then moments later Barrett unleashed a cross-kick which left the opposition stranded. Rightwing Cory Jane latched on to the high ball and ran in to score but the TMO Ben Skeen spotted an infringement in the build-up movement and the try was disallowed in the sixth minute.
However, Barrett’s intervention at that stage was to prove telling in the next 15 minutes as his five-point contribution allowed the Hurricanes ran up a 10-0 lead. First, he slotted a penalty and then he banged over a touchline conversion after Jane was not be denied in his second attempt to cross the whitewash.
Jane’s try was the result of an absolute howler after the Lions tried to run the ball from their own tryline with disastrous consequences. Two passes later Lions centre Lionel Mapoe chipped ahead but the ball ended up in Jane’s waiting hands and he was given an unchallenged passage to the tryline.
This passage of play decided the Lions’ first-half fortunes as they never again managed to strike up the necessary cohesion to overcome this 10-point setback.
Lions flyhalf Elton Jantjies was on target with a 25th-minute penalty to reduce the deficit but overall he was a pale shadow of the player that was in the forefront of his side’s magnificent performances of late.
Equally, up to this stage, his halfback partner Faf de Klerk was equally off colour and unable to provide the spark as he tried to work with mostly slowed-down ball.
Heading off towards the halftime break, the Lions on occasions enjoyed front-foot ball but the Hurricanes coped well defensively and even better when they started to dominate at scrum time.
When the teams returned for second-half play, the Hurricanes pinned the Lions down in their own half for the opening 10 minutes until De Klerk initiated a promising counter-attack to transfer the pressure. However, once the Hurricanes saw off that threat Barrett landed a 51st-minute penalty to open up a 10-point lead with a 13-3 scoreline.
In the ensuing play, De Klerk showed a few fine touches with some brave plays but his efforts were undone by errors and poor option-taking from his teammates. The Lions, however, were still rock solid on defence and they might have earned some reward at this stage but Jantjies fluffed a penalty around the hour mark.
Barrett again imposed himself on the match in the 68th minute when the Lions made an absolute hash of line-out defence and he pounced for a converted try which was the cue for 35 000 wildly cheering spectators that the 2016 championship had finally been decided as the celebratory chant Olé, Olé, Olé rang out at the stadium.
Beauden Barrett was named Man of the match while Victor Vito celebrated his 100th and final Super Rugby cap with a winners medal.
And then onto the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympics so here's the full rundown of the opening ceremony according to Wikipedia:
The opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on the evening of Friday 5 August 2016 in the Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, starting at 20:00 BRT (23:00 UTC). As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the formal ceremonial opening of this international sporting event (including welcoming speeches, hoisting of the flags and the parade of athletes, as well as a new feature—the presentation of the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Laurel distinction) with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation's culture and history.
Directed by Fernando Meirelles, Daniela Thomas and Andrucha Waddington, the ceremony featured presentations of the history and culture of Brazil, including its landscape and forests, the history of the Portuguese people, music and samba, and the favelas among other aspects. Portions of the ceremony were also dedicated to the topics of environmental conservation and climate change. The Games were officially opened by Acting President of Brazil Michel Temer.
Despite having a significantly lower budget than those of other recent Olympics, the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics was praised by the international media for its vivid, diverse performances, emphasis on multiculturalism, and its appeal to the issue of climate change.
The opening ceremony began with aerial images of the city of Rio de Janeiro in a music video with the song "Aquele Abraço", sung by Luiz Melodia. There was a brief instrumental version of Marcos Valle's "Samba de Verão" (or "Summer Samba") during the portion with performers in silver suits with giant silver sheets. After the projection of the first images, the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach was introduced. Singer Paulinho da Viola sang the Brazilian National Anthem on a stage inspired by the architectural forms of Oscar Niemeyer. The singer was accompanied by a string orchestra. Brazil's flag was raised and 60 flags were carried by Olympic Brazilian athletes Virna Dias, Robson da Silva, Maurren Maggi and Flávio Canto, and children.
The artistic performances were set into motion with an homage paid to the spirit of gambiarra, defined by the organisers as "the Brazilian talent for making the most out of nothing". In this part of the opening ceremony, Brazilian design was honoured with references to Athos Bulcão, indigenous geometry, African prints and Portuguese tiles. Peace and sustainability were featured with the transformation of the peace symbol projection into a tree. This part of the opening is also an homage to the Amazon rainforest, whose biggest part covers the country. This was followed by the representation of the birth of the immense forests that covered Brazil and the arrival of the Portuguese people. From the beginning of life, the ceremony illustrated the formation of the indigenous peoples, whose entrance was represented by 72 dancers of the two major associations of the Parintins Festival. The arrival of Europeans in caravels, the forced arrival of enslaved Africans and the immigration of Arab and Japanese people was represented by descendants of these ethnic groups.
One parkour group crossed the stage and jumped on projections of building roofs in the ceremony that highlighted the urbanisation of contemporary Brazil, concentrated in large cities. To the sound of the classic song "Construção", by Chico Buarque, acrobats scaled the façades of buildings and set up a wall, behind which a reproduction of the 14-bis plane, flown in real life 110 years earlier in the suburbs of Paris arrived with an actor playing the Brazilian inventor Santos-Dumont. Gisele Bündchen interpreted "The Girl from Ipanema" and walked through Maracanã Stadium, while Daniel Jobim, grandson of composer Antônio Carlos Jobim, played the classic song. The walk of Gisele followed the curves that characterised Niemeyer's works, such as the Pampulha Church and the Cathedral of Brasília. It was later revealed that a pre-planned segment was in place for Bündchen after her catwalk, but it had to be cut because she walked too slow during the catwalk.
After Ipanema, the favelas were represented to the sound of samba and funk carioca, with singers Elza Soares, who played the "Canto de Ossanha", and Ludmilla, who sang the "Rap da Felicidade". Rapper Marcelo D2 and singer Zeca Pagodinho simulated a duel of rhythms. Rappers Karol Conká and MC Sofia followed. Cultural performances that simulated conflicts as maracatu and the bumba-meu-boi shared the stage of the stadium. Actress Regina Casé appeared in the stage and mediated the conflict, before she and the singer Jorge Ben Jor singed the hit song "País Tropical".
After that, the delegations representing 207 nations then marched into the stadium during the Parade of Nations. The crowd gave large applause for other Latin American nations as well as notably Spain, the USA, Canada, Portugal, and Russia. However, the biggest applause (aside from the host nation) came when the team of Refugee Athletes marched into the stadium just ahead of the Brazilian team. They received a standing ovation from the crowd. The Brazilian team was led into the stadium by model Lea T, the first transgender person to participate in an Olympic opening ceremony.
After the parade of nations, there was a massed parade of the 12 samba schools of the Rio Carnival's Special Group, and singers Anitta, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil performed the song "Sandália de Prata", by Ary Barroso. The segment was a tribute to Rio's most famous signature event; the Rio Carnival, which happens on the last four days before Ash Wednesday.
A short video on anthropogenic climate change – one of the themes of the event – was also brought to fore during the ceremony. The video, narrated by Brazilian Academy Award-nominee actress Fernanda Montenegro and British Academy Award-winning actress Judi Dench, also reading from Carlos Drummond de Andrade's poem "The Flower and the Nausea", featured Ed Hawkins' visual spiral indicating rising global temperatures, together with an animated projection of rising sea levels on places that included Amsterdam (host of the 1928 Games); Dubai; Lagos; Shanghai; Florida; and the city of Rio de Janeiro itself.
Kenyan runner and two-time Olympic champion Kipchoge Keino ran up to the stage to receive the first Olympic Laurel award, accompanied by children flying 200 white kites shaped like doves. Earlier, children in Kenya inscribed messages of peace on the kites.
After the speeches by Rio 2016 Organizing Committee President Carlos Arthur Nuzman and by IOC President Thomas Bach, Brazil's Acting President Michel Temer recited the games' opening declaration from the stands. Contrary to usual practice, he was not introduced at the beginning of the ceremony, nor was he introduced at the end of President Bach's speech.
After a burst of fireworks, the Olympic Flag then entered the stadium, and was raised while the Olympic Anthem was sung.
The Olympic oath on behalf of the athletes was then recited by Brazilian sailor Robert Scheidt. The corresponding oaths on behalf of the judges and coaches were taken by Martinho Nobre and Adriana Santos respectively. Furher artistic performances followed.
Ending the Olympic torch relay at the end of the Opening Ceremony, Gustavo Kuerten brought the Olympic torch into the stadium, relayed the Olympic flame to Hortência Marcari, who relayed to Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima, who then lit the Olympic cauldron.
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