Well, round 2 of the Super Rugby Trans Tasman competition got underway as the Hurricanes piled on the pressure as they secure a terrific bonus point win over the Melbourne Rebels at Sky Stadium in Wellington before the Highlanders took victory against the Western Force at HBF Park in Perth but miss out on a attacking bonus point (As well as the match will always be remembered when the ex-Aramoho School & Fielding High School student now playing for the Highlanders, Jona Nareki made not one but both huge legitimate tackles, one on Irishman Rob Kearney & the other of one Kearney's Western Force team-mates, Englishman Jordan Olowofela which Stan Sport (Now the official broadcaster of rugby union in Australia taking over from Fox Sports since this year) commentator Andrew Swain describes the crunching tackle that Nareki made on Olowofela as a heat seeking missile but Braydon Ennor's enormous hit on Hunter Paisami is better because it appeared on number 1 on the Crowd Goes Wild's Smashed 'Em Bro segment every Friday night) then a day later the Blues had another win when they defeated the Waratahs big time with a hat-trick of tries scored by live wire Blues winger Bryce Heem before the Chiefs wasted no time as they had a good victory against the brave Brumbies side at FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton, despite a late consolation try by Brumbies Number 8 Rob Valentini (Who scored a late try against the Crusaders before coming oh so close with Brumbies first five Noah Lolesio missing a conversion attempt because if the kick had gone over, that would've been a draw) then the champions of Super Rugby Aotearoa, the Crusaders (Who had star Crusaders first five & premier 10 of New Zealand rugby, Richie Mo'unga, scoring a hat-trick just like Bryce Heem did against the Waratahs but if you love the Crusaders, you pick & stick) thump the Super Rugby AU champions the Reds (Who continue a trend of scoring a consolation try by France bound Reds hooker Brendon 'BPA' Paenga-Amosa just like Suliasi Vunivalu did against the Highlanders in round 1) in a match billed as the clash of champions at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
And here is the list of round 3 matches being played in Super Rugby Trans-Tasman of 2021 (And it's 10 & 0 between New Zealand sides against our Aussie opposition after another clean sweep in round 2 just like in round 1 (And what is their strategy for the Australian teams to topple the Kiwi franchises? Well, they need to regroup after 10 horrifying defeats & they want to be consistent because consistency is always the key to success) but me & Pops have been watching heaps of action packed rugby since the conclusion of America's Cup 36 after Emirates Team New Zealand (Described by once America's Cup champion with Oracle Team USA in 2013, Sir Ben Ainslie as the All Blacks on sea) continued our dominance by retaining the Auld Mug 7 - 3 (And we were able to follow up our success in Bermuda in 2017 to add to our previous triumphs in San Diego 1995 & Auckland 2000) in the best of 13 first to 7 series against the Italian syndicate & champions of the Prada Cup, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (And it was just after 5:00pm on Wednesday March 17, the new voice of yachting Scotty Stevenson told it like was to a world-wide television audience: ''The Auld Mug is Aotearoa's again.'') on Course A (Which was also used out of the 5 available race courses which set the tone or should I say the backdrop) at the Hauraki Gulf (Where it overlapped the course used 21 years previously when we witnessed Team New Zealand's 1st successful defence of the America's Cup way back in 2000 (The 1st time that a foreign syndicate had been successfully defended the Auld Mug outside of the United States) in the city of sails of Auckland (Tamaki Makaurau is the te reo Maori word for Auckland) on St Patrick's Day in March this year):
Hurricanes Vs Force: McLean Park, Napier
Waratahs Vs Crusaders: WIN Stadium, Wollongong
Blues Vs Brumbies: Eden Park, Auckland
Reds Vs Chiefs: Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Townsville
& Highlanders Vs Rebels: Leichhardt Oval, Sydney (Originally John Davies Oval, Queenstown because the venue had to change due to the strict 7 day legislative corona virus (It has been ongoing since the global outbreak started 14 months ago & 18 months since the very 1st confirmed case of COVID-19 began at a Huanan seafood market (Which literally became ground zero to start with) in Wuhan, China) state of emergency being declared in the Australian state of Victoria (Well, to start with, a passenger must have possibly arrived from India by picking up the Indian variant of the virus but the Rebels had to go back home to play in Sydney meaning that the Highlanders would have to go back to Australia to play the Rebels for what would potentially needing some maximum points of making the final of the inaugural Super Rugby Trans Tasman competition) which happened on Thursday)
And finally there has been reports that 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cup winning All Black (And former Canterbury & Counties Manukau player as well as 4 time Super Rugby winner with the Crusaders) Kieran 'Reado' Read (And I mean what a legend he is because he was the new Zinzan Brooke when Read was one of the greatest number eights ever produced & there has been rumors that the son of former Wallaby loose forward Michael Brial is being labelled as the next Kieran Read) will hang up his boots after announcing his retirement from all forms of rugby.
So that is my 419th blog of the year 2021 (MMXXI) & my 39th of this year.
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