Well, just mentioning that it's been 4 years since the ball tampering saga had been unfolded when the 3 Australian players of Cameron Bancroft, Australian cricket captain at the time Steve Smith & David Warner were all caught in the act of tampering the ball during Australia's cricket tour to South Africa in 2018 in the 3rd test against South Africa at Newlands but all 3 had to be suspended as a result for playing their part in the scandal better known as sandpapergate (Both Smith & Warner received a 1 year ban while Bancroft got a 9 month suspension). And after the ball tampering incident since the sport's governing body, the ICC (International Cricket Council) had been issuing a clamp down on ball tampering, the Aussie cricket team hadn't lost touch as they successfully defended the Ashes twice in 2019 in England (They have made a documentary called The Test: A New Era for Australia's Team about the Australian cricket side attempting to rebuild their culture & cement their status as the world's best cricket playing nation in the test format prior to the events of their successful 2019 Ashes series against England, which ended in a draw but it was the Aussies who retained it by winning the 4th test at Old Trafford in Manchester, in the aftermath of a cheating scandal that had been rocked) as well as in 2021-22 on home soil & they won the T20 World Cup last year (There were changes after the events of sandpapergate as Tim Paine took over the captaincy from the suspended Steve Smith until he resigned over a scandal which was a problem to our society last year (Pat Cummins is now the skipper of Australia now in the test format (Although Smith assumed the vice captaincy role (He captained Australia while Cummins was out in the 2nd Ashes test in Adelaide after being tested positive for COVID-19) in which he enjoyed the role by taking his country to new heights as he was part of his successful Ashes campaign this year) & Justin Langer took over as the coach at the time from Darren Lehmann until he resigned too after the last Ashes series) but the latest player caught for ball tampering was Nicholas Pooran of the West Indies back in 2019 when he got suspended for 4 T20 internationals for attempting to change the condition of the cricket ball.
And I vaguely remember now in motor racing when I saw the movie Rush back in 2013 & again in 2019 that James Hunt (Of McLaren) surprisingly won the Formula 1 World Championship during the Japanese Grand Prix after his title rival & defending champion at the time of Niki Lauda having to pull out of the race (Although he had nothing wrong with his Ferrari mainly because of that there was no sign of any mechanical failure whatsoever) due to the dangerous conditions so he didn't want to take the risk just like he had a near fatal accident in which his car had been caught on fire after a serious crash that he had during a Grand Prix race in Germany at the Nurburgring Nordschleife known as the green hell (Although before the race had been given the go ahead, Lauda & some drivers were in favor of cancelling the race but the majority of the drivers including Hunt were in favor of racing meaning that the race organizers agreed that the race is on).
And in Sail GP news that the Tom Slingsby led Australia had made history as the 1st country to defend the Sail GP title (They won the inaugural title in 2019 before they completed a successful defence of the Sail GP championship for the 2020-22 season but defending the Sail GP title is like defending the America's Cup as well as Manchester City successfully defending the Premier League title in the 2021-22 season (That's the 4th time in the last 5 years that they won it) in San Francisco, California in America & on the same day as the Oscars as New Zealand born film director Jane Campion has won her 2nd Oscar but her film that she directed missed out on the best picture award because it went to the 1st movie in sign language that had won that award (Best actor went to Will Smith for his role in the tennis movie about the Williams sisters of Serena & Venus called King Richard (Although he slapped comedian Chris Rock in the face triggering an incident but he apologized for that meaning that he got emotional about it but there are calls for Will Smith to be stripped of his best actor award following the incident (And there has been an update as Smith has been handed a 10 year suspension from ever going to the Oscars for causing an incident like that) while the best actress gong went to Jessica Chastain while the best music award went to gen Z pop princess of Billie Eilish for composing the theme of the most recent 007 movie No Time To Die (The last to feature Daniel Craig (Who took over from Irishman Pierce Brosnan) as the titular role of James Bond) but there has been a Hollywood movie star named William Hurt (Along with Sidney Poitier & Betty White) who passed away most recently a few weeks ago.
And it has been 20 years since the 2nd movie in the Star Wars prequel trilogy which is Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones came out in cinemas from all over the world (I have first seen that movie way back in 2007 during our family trip to Waiheke Island at Kathryn's old place when it was shown on TV) way back in 2002 (The same year that the Cafu led Brazil last tasted Football World Cup glory in Japan against Germany in the final then the American city of Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics as well as Manchester in England, UK hosted the Commonwealth Games with New Zealand winning 11 gold medals at that games & the 2nd movie of the Lord of the Rings which is The Two Towers, also came out in movie theatres worldwide) so I have been watching it in honor of the 20th anniversary of the film's release on Blu ray from the beginning of the duel between Anakin Skywalker (Played by famous Canadian actor Hayden Christensen who took over from former American child actor Jake Lloyd as Anakin in his late teens) & Obi-Wan Kenobi (With famous British/Scottish actor Ewan McGregor portraying the role of a young Obi-Wan) against Count Dooku (The late British/English actor Christopher Lee (Who played characters such as Dracula & Saruman from the 1st 2 Lord of the Rings movies) reprised that role of a former Jedi Master turned Sith Lord), right until the end of the movie (And I saw the 1st Star Wars movie to commemorate May the 4th which is Star Wars day as well).
And there has been at least 2 meetings in Rugby World Cup final history between both sides because there are 3 of them, such as France & New Zealand in 1987 & 2011 (The All Blacks had won on both occasions when both the 1987 & 2011 finals was held at Eden Park in Auckland), Australia & England in both 1991 & 2003 (Australia won that one at Twickenham in London in 1991 before the tide was turned when England got revenge over the Aussies at Stadium Australia in Sydney in 2003) & of course, England & South Africa also in both 2007 & at the most recent one in 2019 (Both won by the South Africans when the 2007 final was played at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France against the defending champions at the time, England & the 2019 final was held at the International Stadium in Yokohama, Japan). But there's also 3 rugby playing nations that have appeared in 4 Rugby World Cup finals such as Australia (1991, 1999, 2003 & 2015 but were successful in both 1991 & 1999), England (1991, 2003, 2007 & 2019 but they were successful once in 2003) & New Zealand (1987, 1995, 2011 & 2015 but there were also successful in 1987, 2011 & 2015) compared to both which are France (Lost all 3 when they appeared in 1987, 1999 & 2011) & South Africa (Won all 3 when they appeared in 1995, 2007 & 2019 & was the only team to achieve the feat to have never been beaten in a Rugby World Cup final) who have gone on to appear in 3 Rugby World Cup final appearances.
And also that the last 3 50 over men's Cricket World Cups has been won by the host nation (It was India in 2011 in the final when they defeated the tournament co-hosts along with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka at the Mumbai Stadium in Mumbai then Australia in 2015 in the final which they walloped the tournament co-hosts New Zealand (Who famously beaten South Africa at Eden Park in Auckland in the semifinal with South African born Black Cap Grant Elliott hitting the match winning six with both deliveries to spare) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne (Including Mitchell Starc knocking over Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum which caused us to easily lose the final in which we continued to lose wickets after McCullum had gone) & of course England (Who had all-rounder Ben Stokes as their standout performer in which he scored 84 not out) in 2019 in which they won in a dramatic first ever super over against New Zealand who had to appear in another final again & are expected to go one better at Lord's in London but they yet again missed out this time as a result of the boundary count back rule).
And there are many WWE wrestlers that use the Superkick as their signature or finisher such as Ariya Daivari, Tyler Breeze, Carmella, Tamina, the Usos of Jey & Jimmy, Dolph Ziggler & Shawn Michaels (In which he calls it, the Sweet Chin Music) but there's also many wrestlers in WWE who use the Spear as their signature or finishing maneuver such as Bobby Lashley, Charlotte Flair, Goldberg, Batista, Edge & last but not least, Roman Reigns (And there's special but honorable mentions that a few wrestlers use the sharpshooter as their signature or finisher such as Bret 'The Hitman' Hart, Cesaro, Natalya & The Rock but there's also a few wrestlers in WWE who use the spinebuster as their signature maneuver such as Batista, The Rock & last but not least, Triple H).
And round 1 of the newly formed Super Rugby Pacific got underway with the Blues had to postpone their match against MP in Dunedin with half of the Moana Pasifika squad are in quarantine after being tested positive for the omicron strain but that didn't stop the Chiefs as they got a bit of a working over to dispatch the Highlanders (Who had Shannon Frizell whose school that he went to in Tonga had been destroyed by the cyclone & volcano that they had most recently) in Queenstown (Including Chiefs second rower Brodie Retallick's spectacular ball handling skills to provide the try assist to Emoni Narawa who scored with a no look pass during the game) & of course the 10 time Super Rugby champions & twice the champions of Super Rugby Aotearoa of the Crusaders got off to a flyer as they tore the Hurricanes apart by 10 points in Dunedin with Crusaders winger Leicester Fainga'anuku being the stand out player as he got a hat-trick but there were 3 yellow cards in the match such as both Crusaders players of Oli Jager for an intentional offside in the 1st half & Fergus Burke for deliberately playing the ball on the ground in the 2nd half & just the one Hurricanes player of Brayden Iose for cynically pulling down a maul therefore stopping a try scoring opportunity which resulted in a penalty try & the Hurricanes could've won that game as they had both tries been disallowed by the TMO (1 by Asafo Aumua for 2 movements during the 1st half & the other by Ardie Savea for his teammate & the oldest player in Super Rugby history of Ben May who lost the ball forward).
And here are the results from the other games in the 1st round of the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific season:
Waratahs 40 - 10 Fijian Drua
Reds 23 - 5 Rebels
& Brumbies 29 - 23 Force
And that there has been an update in round 2 of Super Rugby Pacific as the Crusaders were way too good in the great Southern derby against the Highlanders at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin then in all of a sudden a day later, this happened as the Hurricanes slay the defending Super Rugby Trans-Tasman champions the Blues (Who played their 1st Super Rugby game after their match with Moana Pasifika had been postponed (Although the Chiefs game against Moana Pasifika had to be postponed as well with half of the MP squad are still in quarantine) & had former league star & Dally M award medal winner Roger 'RTS' Tuivasa-Sheck (Compared to Hurricane & brother of Ardie, Julian 'Jules the Bus' Savea who is a Rugby World Cup winning player for the AB's in 2015) making his debut in Super Rugby) by the barest of margins with Hurricanes captain Ardie 'Ards' Savea (He is a bit of a Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson (A former pro wrestler turned Hollywood action movie star & now the owner of the XFL) lookalike due to his facial structure) scoring the try (It was Zarn Sullivan's elder brother Bailyn who set it up but it was Salesi Rayasi being the top performer of the match with his hat-trick heroics moments before Ardie Savea's try was the game changer or should I say, the turning point of the match) underneath the posts after breaking a couple of Blues defenders with a kick to come with Ruben Love providing the match winning conversion to win the game in one of the standout games of the round as well as the greatest, classic Super Rugby matches of all time & the most electrifying game in all of Super Rugby (And just to clarify that the rugby community is in mourning as we lost 2 All Black players who passed away such as Va'aiga 'Inga the winger' Tuigamala & Joeli Vidiri due to their kidney diseases (Pops has found out that Tuigamala is a diabetic so he passed away due to complications of diabetes while Vidiri had stop playing rugby due to a kidney disease similar to his good mate, the late great All Black winger of Jonah Lomu (Who passed away in 2015 a few weeks after the All Blacks had won the 2015 Rugby World Cup against the Wallabies in the final at Twickenham in London, England, UK) that they suffered so rest easy to both of you with all thoughts, prayers & condolences go to the families of the Tuigamala & Vidiri families) but it is a shame that there is no crowd involved due to the coronavirus & its omicron variant thing which sickens me (And the numbers have been increased meaning that we are now between 3,500 to 4,000) + My thoughts after the Blues-Hurricanes game: Take that Blues! Up the Hurricanes!
And finally here are the results from the other games in the 2nd round of the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific season:
Waratahs 16 - 20 Reds
Brumbies 42 - 3 Fijian Drua
& Rebels 3 - 28 Force
So that is my 457th blog of the year 2022 (MMXXII) & my 5th of this year, stay safe & one love, viva Ukraine.
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