Well, it has been 9 years (I was going to do it last year to commemorate the 8 year anniversary of my 1st ever blog before the pandemic had been happened) since my 1st blog dubbed as Rules Of The Game Of Thrones (Which is a portmanteau of the words Rules Of The Game (My all time favourite book as a young kid but I used to laugh about the fouls section which I found it was hilarious) & the HBO TV series which ran from 2011 until 2019 called Game Of Thrones (There were famous characters appearing in the TV show such as Jon Snow, Daenerys Tagaryen & the Stark sisters of Arya & Sansa) that I did way back in 2012 but we have just heard reports that ex-Wellington, Hurricanes & All Black halfback TJ Perenara (Who currently plays for the NTT Docomo Hurricanes in the Japan Top League & is a distant relative of twice Rugby World Cup winning player for the AB's in 2011 & 2015 as well as being a former Toulon, Canterbury, Crusaders, Chiefs, Counties-Manukau, Blues & All Blacks rugby union player, Sonny Bill Williams (A former Bulldogs, Roosters & Kiwis rugby league player), may be considering a move to rugby league to play for the Sydney Roosters in the NRL a couple of weeks ago but the champion Crusaders side (Who'll put their Tu Kotahi Aotearoa trophy as well as a Super Rugby Aotearoa title on the line in which they face the Chiefs in the big dance which is the 1st ever Super Rugby Aotearoa final at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch tonight on the 8th of May (The day before mother's day here in our beautiful little country of New Zealand) but trust me, the Crusaders have never been defeated in a home playoff match especially a home final) have bolstered their squad by signing Argentina loose forward Pablo Matera for next year's Super Rugby season & we have just confirmed reports that the British & Irish Lions squad to tour to South Africa (I thought the tour was going to be cancelled due to the corona virus but they had been given the green light) had been announced so here is the list of players selected for the team (I also thought that they were going to name 36 players in the squad but they instead chose 37 according to head coach Warren Gatland) in it's entirety:
FORWARDS (FORWARD PACK)
HOOKERS
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, England)
Jamie George (Saracens, England)
Ken Owens (Scarlets, Wales)
PROP FORWARDS
Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors, Scotland)
Tadhg Furlong (Leinster, Ireland)
Wyn Jones (Scarlets, Wales)
Andrew Porter (Leinster, Ireland) *1
Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, England) *2
Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh Rugby, Scotland)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens, England)
SECOND ROWERS
Adam Beard (Ospreys, Wales) *3
Tadhg Beirne (Munster, Ireland)
Iain Henderson (Ulster, Ireland)
Jonny Hill (Exeter Chiefs, England)
Maro Itoje (Saracens, England)
Alun Wyn Jones (Captain, Ospreys, Wales) *1
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, England)
BACK ROWERS
Jack Conan (Leinster, Ireland)
Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, England)
Taulupe Faletau (Bath (England), Wales)
Josh Navidi (Cardiff Blues, Wales) *4
Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs, England)
Justin Tipuric (Ospreys, Wales) *1
Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby, Scotland)
BACKS (BACK LINE)
HALFBACKS (SCRUM-HALVES)
Gareth Davies (Scarlets, Wales)
Conor Murray (Munster, Ireland)
Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors, Scotland)
FIRST-FIVE EIGHTHS (FLY HALVES)
Dan Biggar (Northampton Saints (England), Wales) *1
Owen Farrell (Saracens, England)
Finn Russell (Racing 92 (France), Scotland)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins, England) *5
MIDFIELDERS
Bundee Aki (Connacht, Ireland)
Elliot Daly (Saracens, England)
Chris Harris (Gloucester (England), Scotland)
Robbie Henshaw (Leinster, Ireland)
OUTSIDE BACKS
Josh Adams (Cardiff Blues, Wales)
Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs (England), Scotland)
Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester (England), Wales)
Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby, Scotland)
Anthony Watson (Bath, England)
Liam Williams (Scarlets, Wales)
*1: Withdrawn due to injury
*2: Called up as injury replacement for Andrew Porter
*3: Called up as injury replacement for Alun Wyn-Jones
*4: Called up as injury replacement for Justin Tipuric
*5: Called up as injury replacement for Dan Biggar
And here are the list of matches being played in the 2021 British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa (Well, the Springboks (For which I label the toughest national rugby team in the universe because of their forward pack being overwhelmingly dominant) hadn't played test rugby since they conquered the last Rugby World Cup in Japan in 2019 (And so too is Japan because they haven't played international rugby since the quarterfinal defeat where the previous tournament hosts went down against the eventual world champions South Africa (And it was revenge of the miracle of Brighton in 2015 that the Japanese famously beat the South Africans in an historic upset victory for the ages of all time in the history of the Rugby World Cup (20 years after the Japanese were completely annihilated or should I say thumped in the hands of the All Blacks (Who had Marc Ellis scoring 6 tries, the most in a RWC match along with Simon Culhane who scored in a world record 45 points on test debut for the AB's (He scored a try then made 20 successful conversion attempts out of 21) in a record Rugby World Cup score in which New Zealand famously won by 128 points during a pool match at Bloemfontein in South Africa in 1995) after they famously prevailed over England (The nation that ended the All Blacks hopes of an historic three peat in the semifinal after New Zealand won both Rugby World Cups in a row in 2011 & 2015 to go with our triumph in 1987) in the final (It was Springbok Number 8 Duane Vermeulen who was the standout player who performed well by getting his man of the match award when he exhibited the mastery of a veteran during the final which was a rematch of the 2007 final just like Victor Matfield did when South Africa dominated to win their 2nd Rugby World Cup title against England at the Stade de France (Which will host the opening match between the hosts France & the All Blacks as well as the final of the 2023 tournament) in the final (And it was the 1st time these two teams met in the final although both sides (Their 1st meeting at a RWC was in 1999 that South Africa defeated England in the quarterfinal with Jannie de Beer scoring a couple of drop goals then the next time they met it was in 2003 that England would turn the tables on the Springboks with a victory to top the pool (That was their title winning year for the English (The last time that they won a Rugby World Cup way back in 2003) when they defeated the defending champions & hosts at the time, Australia in the final after England (The only northern hemisphere country to win a RWC title) first five Jonny Wilkinson provided that clutch moment by scoring the match winning drop goal with his weaker right foot) in Pool C then South Africa would win the next 3 matches against England including a pool match in 2007 & both finals in the same year in 2007 & most recently in 2019 by winning both Rugby World Cup titles to add to their success in 1995) would meet again in the final at the last Rugby World Cup in Japan in 2019) which was a rematch of a pool game that the Springboks single handedly crushed the English at the same ground) at the International Stadium in Yokohama to win their 3rd RWC crown (To go with their previous titles in 1995 & 2007 but the Springboks resounding success of the 2019 tournament marked the revival of South African rugby by growing the game so much nowadays which drew interest to the sport (And when Allister Coetzee left as South Africa rugby coach in 2017, many South Africans thought that Rassie Erasmus may be the right man for the Springboks coaching job back in 2018 (And when Erasmus was being interviewed on TV in 2018 that he can actually think that South Africa would win the 2019 Rugby World Cup & he agreed when he said yes) & they did, they had a famous win against the All Blacks in Wellington in 2018 a year before completing a rare double, the Rugby Championship (Wins over Australia & Argentina as well as a draw against New Zealand) & the Rugby World Cup (They opened their campaign in defeat against the All Blacks (The defending world champions at the time) before winning all 6 games against neighbors Namibia, Italy & Canada in the pool games, previous hosts Japan in the quarterfinal (Despite Tendai Mtawarira had been shown the yellow card instead of a sending off for a tip tackle on Japanese prop forward Keita Inagaki during the game by English referee Wayne Barnes), Wales (Defending Six Nations champions at the time) in the semifinal & England (AB's conquerors in the semifinal) in the final en route to world glory (And in the famous words of Australian rugby commentator Sean Maloney (Who now works for Stan Sports) in the world feed commentary after the Spingboks triumphed to win their 3rd Rugby World Cup: ''South Africa! Are World Cup winners in 2019!'') before stepping down as coach of the South Africa national rugby team after their success at the last RWC in Japan in 2019 allowing their current coach Jacques Nienaber to take over) but they thought that they were going to play in the Rugby Championship last year before they had to pull out instead citing fears of COVID-19 meaning that the Rugby Championship had become the Tri Nations with Argentina, Australia & New Zealand participating (And the 1st minus South African involvement) but there has been an update that the British & Irish Lions will play in just 4 venues in 3 cities throughout South Africa to cut the teams travel threshold:
June 26th: B&I Lions Vs Japan at Murrayfield, Edinburgh
July 3rd: Lions Vs B&I Lions at Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg
July 7th: Sharks Vs B&I Lions at Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg
July 10th: Sharks Vs B&I Lions at Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
July 14th: South Africa A Vs B&I Lions at Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
July 17th: Stormers Vs B&I Lions at Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
July 24th: South Africa Vs B&I Lions at Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
July 31st: South Africa Vs B&I Lions at Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
August 7th: South Africa Vs B&I Lions at Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
So that is my 414th blog of the year 2021 (MMXXI) & my 34th of this year.
P.S. And there is something interesting going on as the nickname of the former Canterbury, Crusaders & All Blacks rugby union player Greg Somerville is named after the famous Star Wars character of Yoda mainly because of the facial structure.
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