Well, it was yesterday that I spent the day on both the computer listening to rock music (I always listen to The Rock FM since I moved here a decade ago so I used to listen to Brian FM) & playing playstation (I had to play my only 2 favourite games such as F1 2016 (I raced as Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams) 1st in Russia then Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) in China & Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Ferrari) in both Australia & Bahrain & I didn't know that one of Poppa's friends Matt Pine (Well I think I may be friends with him) is a self-proclaimed fan of Formula 1) & Rugby Challenge 3 (I played as the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup 2015 created competition because I thrashed Argentina 63 - 0 in the tournament opener because it was in Pool C but I played against Namibia because we put 70 points on them in the 2nd pool game of the Rugby World Cup 2015 tournament) so we had breakfast as well as an omelette for lunch & had sausage pasta for dinner & we went to Caroline's yesterday (Pops went to the bank then to recycling) so I had a gooey caramel slice with mochacchino & I told Pops about the waitress who looks like my cousin Paige Williams (Kiwi girl with Welsh surname, remember! Please acknowledge because she's the sister of my 2 little cousins, Nico & Luca Mitchell) except she has darker hair & I told Pops that I have 2 aunties, one is Aunty Tania who is my real aunty & the other is Paige's mother Cathey Middelplaats who is my biological aunty.
And so on, onto the draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup (Well I did write it down last night while I watched it online), held in Japan so here it is:
Pool A
Ireland
Scotland
Japan (Host nation)
Europe 1 (Russia)
Playoff winner (Samoa)
Pool B
New Zealand (Defending champion)
South Africa
Italy
Africa 1 (Namibia)
Repechage winner (Canada)
Pool C (AKA pool of death)
England
France
Argentina
Americas 1 (United States)
Oceania 2 (Tonga)
Pool D
Australia
Wales
Georgia
Oceania 1 (Fiji)
Americas 2 (Uruguay)
And what do I think of the draw...well, we are going to face the Springboks & Italy so the last time we met between South Africa in the Rugby World Cup was the Semifinals in 2015 in which we won by a whisker & Italy was in 2007 during the pool games in pool C so we might take on Scotland in the quarterfinals & if we win, we're going to face England (Well talk about England being in the pool of death in Pool C along with France & Argentina because the last time England clashed with France was in the quarterfinal of the Rugby World Cup in 2011 in which they lost after being outnumbered & Argentina was also in the same year way back in 2011 during the pool games in Pool B & what was England coach Eddie Jones like? Because he's like ''France & Argentina? Are you Serious? We will see about that! Game on!'') in the semifinals & if we beat the English, it's the Wallabies in the final (A possible rematch of the 2015 Rugby World Cup final)...fair call so this is our last shot at World Cup glory but if we win, the All Blacks would dominate the rugby team of the 2010's (Although I told Dad 2 years ago that winning the Rugby World Cup is hard because in 1987 it was easy but since 1991 it became increasingly insanely difficult)...bang on.
And here is the news report about the draw taken place in Kyoto according to Stuff News:
It never seemed likely to happen, but the Springboks' slide has pitted them against the All Blacks in pool play for the first time at a Rugby World Cup.
With All Blacks coach Steve Hansen looking on at the Kyoto State Guest House, his side were drawn in pool B for the 2019 tournament in Japan, alongside South Africa, Italy, Africa 1 and repechage winner. The latter two teams are yet to be decided in the final qualifying phase.
In the other groups, England, France and Argentina were drawn in a tough pool C which may well be dubbed the 'Pool of death'. The Wallabies fared reasonably well alongside Wales and Georgia in pool D, and Ireland and Scotland are the two big guns in pool A, alongside the host nation who caused the big boilover of 2015 with victory over South Africa.
Japan, coached by former Highlanders coach and All Black Jamie Joseph, were drawn out by the nation's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The two old foes who slugged out a semifinal in 2015, won 20-18 by the All Blacks, will meet again much earlier in Japan after the Springboks' woeful 2016 saw them slip to seventh in the world rankings.
"We've drawn a pool that's got some strength in it, and that's OK. We know South Africa well and know they will be tough. Italy are an improving side and we can assume the qualifiers will be good sides if they're going to make it," Hansen said.
"There are some very tough pools, and pool C is also very tough. Eventually if you're going to win the thing you've got to play all the good teams. We're happy now, we've just got to find out where the games will be played so we can get our planning started."
The All Blacks will face the Springboks, Italy and two qualifiers in the tournament.
By coincidence the two head coaches Hansen and Allister Coetzee, who kept his job after a horror year, sat next to each other in the theatre with the likes of England's Eddie Jones and Ireland's Joe Schmidt also watching on. Both Jones and Schmidt will fancy their chances of going all the way if their teams can maintain their recent form.
Hansen arrived with the Webb Ellis Cup and was even involved in the draw, as he pulled out Italy, Argentina and Georgia in their respective pools. World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont drew the top-four nations in their groups.
New Zealand have never lost in pool play at a World Cup, and in Japan will chase their 3rd successive title. They will meet Italy, remarkably, for the 6th time at a World Cup after the two sides played the 1987 opener at Eden Park.
Safely through their pool, the All Blacks could meet either Ireland, Scotland or even Japan in the quarterfinals.
At the 2015 World Cup the All Blacks emerged from a pool containing Argentina, Georgia, Tonga and Namibia, with the Pumas providing their toughest opposition in a 26-16 scoreline.
In the quarterfinals the All Blacks smashed France 62-13, before scraping past South Africa with a 2-point victory in the semis then beating Australia 34-17 in the decider.
The 2019 draw was conducted along similar lines to past tournaments, with the top-12 sides from 2015 qualifying automatically.
They were divided into 3 'bands' based on their current world rankings, with the 1st band including New Zealand (top-ranked), England (2nd), Australia (3rd) and Ireland (4th).
Band 2 contained Scotland, France, South Africa and Wales - the teams currently ranked 5th to 8th - and band 3 was made up of Argentina, Japan, Georgia and Italy.
One team from each band was drawn randomly for each pool, with bands four and five made up of allocated spots to regions yet to stage their final qualifying events.
It will be the 5th World Cup with 20 teams divided into 4 pools of 5 teams.
And this is what the quarterfinals, semi finals & final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup will look like (I'm not sure that this prediction is accurate enough):
Quarterfinals
England Vs Wales
New Zealand Vs Scotland
Australia Vs France
Ireland Vs South Africa
Semifinals
Wales Vs New Zealand
France Vs Ireland
Final
France Vs New Zealand
And finally in this rugby news, the All Blacks will take on Samoa in a pre-British & Irish Lions tour test match hit out on the 16th of June at Eden Park in Auckland (Which will host 3 test matches this year which is against Samoa & of course the 1st & 3rd test matches against the British & Irish Lions) billed as the Special Pasifika Challenge which will feature Tonga taking on Wales (Minus it's Lions stars such as hot shot first five-eighth Dan Biggar, fired up centre Jonathan Davies, Tongan born flanker & number 8 Taulupe Faletau (Who was once known as Toby who is the son of former Tongan international Kuli), maverick fullback Leigh Halfpenny (The self-proclaimed playboy who plays for Toulon), Welsh captain Alun Wyn Jones, the dynamic flanker Ross Moriarty (Son of Paul & nephew of Richard), the instant classic winger George North, the incredible hooker Ken Owens, the incomparable & influential openside flanker Justin Tipuric, Lions skipper Sam Warburton, the red hot halfback Rhys Webb & ice cold fullback Liam Williams) 1st before the AB's-Samoa encounter because 2015 was the last time that the All Blacks clashed with Samoa because it was at Apia Park in Apia (We won the game 25 points to 16 in our last meeting & I was with the late Nan & Pops at Uncle Bryan's because the match was shown on Sky Sport) & the 1st time since 1993 that Eden Park will host the All Blacks taking on Samoa (Well, we won our 1st encounter between the 2 teams because Sean 'Fitzy' Fitzpatrick was the captain of the All Blacks & the late Peter 'Fats' Fatialofa captaining Samoa (It was Western Samoa way back until 1997) because the test match takes place the night before the Lions go toe to toe against the Maori All Blacks at Rotorua International Stadium in Rotorua just like as it was back in 2005 that the All Blacks took on Fiji at North Harbour Stadium in Albany the night before the Lions took on the Maori All Blacks at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton.
So that is my 106th blog of the year 2017 (MMXVII), see ya then.
P.S. We are going to Caroline's again (There's a waitress that looks like my cousin Paige Williams except that she has got darker hair but how did Paige manage to dye her hair darker? Funnily enough) because this time we are having lunch (I had rare steak with salad, chips & blue cheese sauce while dessert was a repeat of yesterday's afternoon tea) so we'll be heading over to Nan's grave 1st but my favourite programme is on tonight at half past 7 which is MacGyver because there's only 5 episodes left (The last episode of the 1st season of the 2016 reboot is due to air on the 8th of June because there is going to be season 2 but I have only seen 16 episodes so far compared to my Dad who only watched a single episode of MacGyver during our trip to the South Island because we were in Christchurch) but what am I going to watch once MacGyver ends? Is it going to be Toyota Grassroots Rugby after all.
And my 2nd cousin Gemma (Daughter of Kathryn, Sister of both Huia & Ben, mother of Rosalie (Happy mother's day this Sunday) & cousin of both Aunty Tania & my Dad) listens to Mai FM (It's a hip hop, R&B & rap music radio station because I label hip hop & rap music as black music (AKA the dark side or should I say the Xander side) compared to rock music which is white music (Known as the light side or the heavy metal side) not Mai Shiranui FM because Mai Shiranui is a character from The King Of Fighters because I mistakenly label Mai FM as Mai Shiranui FM because Mai Shiranui could be a radio disc jockey just like DJ Atomica from Crash FM in the Burnout Paradise game.
And I chatted to my beloved Aunty Tania on the phone about Rejean Gatineau's son Eric graduated his way to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police over in Regina at Saskatchewan where the graduation ceremony was held as well as going to Alaska on a trip & she has heard the progressive rock band way back in 1982 called The Alan Parsons Project during her high school years because I had rock music in the background during our phone call as well as going to Caroline's for lunch & finally the 2019 Rugby World Cup draw that we were discussing such as England being in another pool of death & the All Blacks taking on South Africa for the 1st time in a pool game after taking on in the final in 1995, the 3rd/4th place playoff in 1999, the quarterfinal in 2003 & the Semifinal in 2015 & facing Italy for the 1st time at a Rugby World Cup in 12 years after 5 meetings (We 1st played against the Italians in 1987 then in 1991, 1999, 2003 & 2007).
And finally it will be defending European club champions Real Madrid (Coached by French football/soccer legend Zinedine Zidane & captained by Sergio Ramos & featuring the likes of the best footballer/soccer player in the world: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), James Rodriguez (Colombia), Gareth Bale (Wales), Karim Benzema (France), Pepe (Portugal), Keylor Navas (Costa Rica), Marcelo (Brazil), Toni Kroos (Germany), Alvaro Morata (Spain), Luka Modric (Croatia), Casemiro (Brazil), Raphael Varane (France), Lucas Vazquez (Spain), Mateo Kovacic (Croatia), Dani Carvajal (Spain) & Fabio Coentrao (Portugal) taking on Italian champions Juventus in the UEFA Champions League final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff after Real Madrid succumbed to a defeat against city rivals Atletico Madrid (Featuring star player for France, Antoine Griezmann) who won 2 goals to 1 but still advance through to the final 4 - 2 on aggregate by surviving Atletico Madrid's comeback attempt to take on Juventus (Which features the likes of Gonzalo Higuain (Argentina), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Dani Alves (Brazil), Juan Cuadrado (Colombia), Mario Mandzukic (Croatia), Leonardo Bonucci (Italy), Sami Khedira (Germany), Claudio Marchisio (Italy), Giorgio Chellini (Italy), Andrea Barzagli (Italy) & Stephan Lichtsteiner (Switzerland) who defeated French league leaders Monaco in a comfortable aggregate victory because Juventus will try to avenge their demons 2 years ago because they took on Spanish champions FC Barcelona (My favourite football club) & lost because since 2014, only 2 Spanish clubs have won the last 3 UEFA Champions League tournaments such as FC Barcelona in 2015 who went on to complete a treble (Winning the La Liga, Copa Del Rey & the Champions League) & Real Madrid in both 2014 & last year in 2016 because 2013 was the last time that a non Spanish club had won a UEFA Champions League title which happens to be Bayern Munich from Germany because the final will take place next month because it is a rematch of the final in 1998 (It was FIFA World Cup year that the hosts France dominated the tournament & won).
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