Well, yesterday before we had brunch that Carole said to me that rugby is now a dangerous sport (Well, a few people have taken up the sport in terms of the dangerous nature of the game but I remember a comment made from Pops about the English rugby player of Italian descent Lawrence Dallaglio who he thought that he was going to play soccer according to his Italian father when he was small but ended up playing rugby union as a result because he was getting big (Unlike former All Black Kieran Read (A twice Rugby World Cup winning player for the AB's in 2011 & 2015 who plays for a Japanese club in the Japan Top League & is playing alongside the likes of former Wallaby captain Michael Hooper (A Super Rugby champion for the Waratahs in 2014) & Rugby World Cup winner for the Springboks in 2019 (And former Cheetahs & Sharks player), Willie le Roux) who originally played cricket but when he got big, he took up rugby union just like Dallaglio) because of the rugby players ended up getting concussed just like former England Rugby World Cup winning hooker in 2003, Steve Thompson had to be diagnosed with early stage dementia after having concussions over the years.
And here is the honors list of the late All Black Jonah Lomu (Born in May 1975 but passed away 40 years & 6 months later in November 2015 due to complications of a kidney disease that he had throughout his life):
Won a Super 12 title with the Blues in 1996 (Featuring the likes of his good friend Joeli Vidiri (Who had to stop playing rugby due to a kidney disease similar to Lomu that Vidiri got), captain Sean Fitzpatrick, Craig Dowd, Olo Brown (Uncle of Black Ferns sevens player Theresa Fitzpatrick), Robin Brooke, Charles Riechelmann, Michael Jones (Niko's father), Robin's brother Zinzan, Ofisa Junior Tonu'u, Carlos Spencer (Has a son who is an up & coming cricketer (Just like Riley McCullum & Hunter Doull (Sons of New Zealand cricket legends Brendon 'B-Mac/Baz' McCullum & Simon 'Doully' Doull respectively) & now 1st XV rugby player named Payton), Lee Stensness, Eroni Clarke (Father of current Auckland, Blues & All Blacks player Caleb), Waisake Sotutu (Dad of current Auckland, Blues & All Blacks player Hoskins) & Adrian Cashmore)
Won an NPC title with Wellington in 2000 (Didn't play in the 1996 NPC Division 1 final against Auckland for Counties Manukau because of a suspension for a lifting tackle on Canterbury halfback Aaron Flynn during the NPC Division 1 semifinal a year before he played in the 1997 NPC division 1 final against the Todd Blackadder led Canterbury but was on the losing side)
Won a Tri Nations title for New Zealand in 1996, 1999 & 2002
Was part of the All Blacks success of winning the Bledisloe Cup in 1995 & retaining it in 1996.
Played 63 tests & scored 37 tries (Including that infamous 1995 Rugby World Cup semifinal game against England in which he famously scored that try by running over the top of English player Mike Catt which made him a instant hero as well as becoming a global icon from that perspective & also scoring the winning try after Taine Randell set it up against the world champions at the time, Australia (The Wallabies) in a Bledisloe Cup test at Stadium Australia (Now ANZ Stadium) in Sydney in 2000 in front of a world record crowd of 109, 874 in a test match dubbed as the game of the century) for the AB's (Made his All Black test debut at 19 in 1994 against France in Christchurch) from 1994 to 2002 & was the youngest rugby player to appear in a Rugby World Cup final in 1995 at 20 (That honor goes to South African Francois Steyn (Now a dual Rugby World Cup winner for South Africa along with prop forward Os du Randt (Who played in the 1995 & 2007 tournaments that he was involved with the winning side) in 2007 & 2019) who is the youngest Rugby World Cup winning player at 20 in 2007).
And won a gold medal for New Zealand in rugby sevens at the 1998 Commonwealth Games as well as being part of the New Zealand sevens team which won the Rugby Sevens World Cup in Argentina 20 years ago when he was called up to replace another one of his good friends, sevens rugby legend Eric Rush (Who got injured during the tournament).
And finally I told Pops yesterday about a Samoan rugby player named To'o Vaega (Another good friend of the late Jonah Lomu) who named his son Cardiff after the famous Welsh city that Samoa (Known as Western Samoa at the time) beat Wales in 1991 in one of the Rugby World Cup's 1st major upsets (Unlike my second cousin Ben (Who is into martial arts especially Ju-jitsu while his partner Robina (Now Sanne) is into Muay Thai) was named after the famous Star Wars character of Obi-Wan (Known as Ben during his final years before being killed in a laser sword (Light saber) duel in the hands of the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader aboard the Death Star (During Star Wars that I saw the movie before) while Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca (Chewie), C-3P0 (See Threepio) & R2-D2 (Artoo Detoo) made a successful attempt to rescue the Princess of Alderaan, Leia Organa) Kenobi) because they were no major upsets in the 1st ever Rugby World Cup tournament in 1987.
So that is my 394th blog of the year 2021 (MMXXI) & my 14th of this year (And there is 6 remaining until I hit the big 400).
P.S. Well, I support 2 countries in the sport of cricket from my perspective. New Zealand, & whoever was playing against Australia (Always our old enemy despite we once worked together (We were known as the ANZAC's way back then (ANZAC means Australian & New Zealand army corps) when the invasion of the Turkish town of Gallipoli took place during the 1st world war on the 25th of April, 1915).
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