Well, the Maori All Blacks have taken victory against Samoa in a thrashing at Sky Stadium in Wellington in which the match was held without spectators due to COVID-19 alert level 2 being in place in the greater Wellington area before the British & Irish Lions (They had to lose both captain Alun Wyn Jones & Justin Tipuric through injuries during the 1st half of the game as both Courtney Lawes & Taulupe Faletau replaced them) defeated Japan (Who have not played an international rugby test match since the defeat against the eventual champions South Africa (The rugby playing nation that ended the All Blacks 8 year dominance as the world champions in the sport of rugby union but they had an amazing decade in South African sport during the 2010s decade period from hosting the Football World Cup in 2010 (Which was won by Spain (Coached by Vicente del Bosque (Who was in fact not a good player but he was an awesome coach/manager) & led by the great goalkeeper Iker Casillas) who defeated the Netherlands (Coached by Bert van Marwijk & led by a great player named Giovanni van Bronckhorst) in the final at Soccer City in Soweto, Johannesburg in which Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta scored a vital goal during extra time which proved to be the game changer/turning point that put them in front & held on until the end to win their 1st Football World Cup title) to the Springboks (Coached by former player Rassie Erasmus & led by an amazing rugby player Siya Kolisi) triumphed at the last Rugby World Cup in Japan in 2019 defeating England (Coached by Japanese Australian Eddie Jones & led by Saracens player Owen Farrell) in the final at International Stadium in Yokohama in a rematch of the 2007 final) in the quarterfinals of Rugby World Cup 2019) at Murrayfield in front of a reduced crowd because of the capacity restrictions then in European rugby news, Toulouse (Who had twice Rugby World Cup winning player for the All Blacks in both 2011 & 2015, Jerome Kaino (One of the 2 ex-All Blacks playing for Toulouse along with Charlie Faumuina), playing in his final game of rugby before retiring from all forms of the game) complete the rare double as they defeated La Rochelle (Who had both former New Zealand players Tawera Kerr-Barlow & Victor Vito playing for them) in the Top 14 final at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis in a rematch of the Champions Cup final in which Toulouse won before the Harlequins deny the Exeter Chiefs chance of defending the Gallagher Premiership title with a hard fought win in the final which was a close encounter at Twickenham in London.
So that is my 426th blog of the year 2021 (MMXXI) & my 46th of this year.
P.S. And I like to give a big shout out to my best male friend Andy (Who is Carole's son by the way) & my new best friend Kelsey for staying here in Whanganui from Friday until yesterday along with John & Rhonda (Kelsey's parents).
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