Thursday, 22 September 2022

Stuck In Here/The Package: My 11th blog of the year 2022

Well, the crackdown on abortion in America has begun after the US supreme court overturned a Wade Vs Roe decision which led to widespread protests & celebrations across the country (Roe vs Wade is gone, it's history in which most US states are introducing a loophole on abortion in which ordinary Americans, were absolutely livid (Compared to the religious people in the United States who were happy about it) unlike Title IX was introduced in 1972 in which Title IX is about the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the US as part of the Education Amendments of 1972 (And the law states that there is a clamp down on sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that recieves funding from the federal government).

And in COVID-19 related news such as Beijing (Which previously hosted the winter Olympics in February this year while the next one is in Milan & Cortina D'Ampezzo in 2026 but the next sporting event is the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England late next month (First time since 2002 that England will play host to the Commonwealth Games in which Manchester was the host city way back 20 years ago) in China eased its restrictions compared to Shanghai currently under shutdown in most areas, but their bars & entertainment areas had to close with Beijing now in a worsening state of the corona virus (And there is a ruling that the internet has been taken out by the Chinese government as a result of a ban on using the hash tag for 5 years under a zero COVID-19 policy but there's news as Hong Kong marks the 25th anniversary of the Chinese takeover (Xi Jinpeng, the president of China, is attending the anniversary of the Hong Kong handover while there's a law enforcement prescence which has been stepped up on that occasion in time for the event under a zero corona virus loophole as well as the ban of some news outlets covering the event such as Reuters, as a result of a staunch but stern crackdown on foreign media providing coverage to the event due to both COVID-19 & security reasons (And one CNN reporter of Ivan Watson is not attending because of the reason that he has required to self isolate while awaiting PCR (Or polymerase chain reaction) test results under the zero corona virus framework that they already implemented) but recently that people who are vaccinated are only allowed to enter in public areas in Beijing & one of the Chinese cities of Xian are in semi shutdown as a result of the new omicron variant (And there's a mpox epidemic that has happened worldwide so they are taking extra careful (And the 1st case of mpox had been reported here in our country after a man in his 30s in Auckland had just returned home from overseas had picked up a strange case of mpox) & protective face masks have been mandated while going on a public transport in the French town of Nice due to the growing but escalating number of confirmed cases had been occurred along with Los Angeles reverting to the mask mandate requirement indoor laws due to the high amount of confirmed corona virus cases (There is a new omicron variant that has happened in China & starting to spread across Los Angeles) in which sick people who picked up a COVID-19 related illness are starting signs of getting hospitalized compared to over 100,000 confirmed cases of the corona virus has been reached here in New Zealand as of today.

And here's the story about Dwayne Johnson (An American of African, Canadian & Samoan origin) began his sporting life of being a college football player for the University of Miami as a defensive tackle, & after that, his dreams of playing in the NFL had ended meaning that he became a pro wrestler by following his late grandfather 'High Chief' Pita Maivia & his late father 'Soul Man' Rocky Johnson footsteps in which he had a career in the WWE (Mr McMahon was once the chairman until he resigned amid reports of hush-money payment, allowing his daughter Stephanie McMahon to take partial ownership as the interim CEO & chairwoman in which she acquired the role of, but recently that American youtube celebrity Logan Paul has officially signed with the WWE under a new contract) when he made his wrestling debut under the name Rocky Maivia before he became affectually known as The Rock, then successfully forging a career in the Hollywood movie industry by becoming a successful actor (He appeared in films such as Walking Tall, Doom, Welcome To The Jungle, The Scorpion King & other films that he appeared in, compared to the famous movie star of Arnold Schwarzenegger (Whom The Rock met during a televised wrestling show back in 1999) in which he began his successful career as a body builder before becoming an actor (In which he appeared movies such as The Terminator series, True Lies, End Of Days, The Sixth Day & other movies he appeared in) as well as he once became the governor of California from 2003 until 2011 in which he was known as the Governator) & now he is the owner of the XFL with his manager Dany Garcia as I mentioned in my previous blogs (And he attended the most recent Super Bowl in Los Angeles (Along with American rap music stars Snoop Dogg (He has a female cousin who is a professional wrestler, named Sasha Banks), a caucasian rapper of Eminem (Who appeared in the famous rap movie came out 20 years ago in 2002, called 8 Mile in which the rap single that also came out in the same year, Lose Yourself, was featured in) & a female American singer of Mary J Blige who performed in the Super Bowl half time show) in which he dished out an epic introduction moments before the Los Angeles Rams (Featuring the likes of great players such as quarterback Matthew Stafford, wide receiver Cooper Kupp & defensive tackle Aaron Donald) took to the field & went on to capture the Vince Lombardi Trophy & become NFL's world champions after a resounding win against the Cincinnati Bengals which featured star quarterback Joe Burrow).

And of course, there are New Zealand cities that have often compared to Australian & American cities like Auckland (Tamaki Makaurau/The City of Sails) is a bit like both Sydney & New York City (NYC/The Big Apple), New York for example & Christchurch (Otautahi/The Garden City) in the Canterbury region being like both Melbourne & Los Angeles (LA/The City of Angels), California due to the comparisons of what cities in both New Zealand, Australia & the United States of America look like.

And some shocking news in the world of F1 as the 3 time Formula 1 World Champion from Brazil of Nelson Piquet, who made racist remarks on the 7 time Formula 1 world champion from Britain of Lewis Hamilton while conducting an interview on a podcast in Portuguese which shocked the F1 world (And Piquet is demanding an apology since he uttered that racial slur on Hamilton who says he calls for action to be taken due to his reaction about it) but there are calls for Piquet to be suspended for life from attending at the F1 paddock for the British Grand Prix (And if you utter that racial slur about Lewis Hamilton, chances are that you will be handing a lifetime suspension as a result for that) & other grand prix races to be held in wake of racism directed at Hamilton in which he was outraged due to the fact that he was of being African or Caribbean origin (The British F1 star's family hails from Grenada which is part of the West Indies) because of the colour of his skin (And there are issues/problems surrounding racism in sports, especially in football where black players are getting racially abused by fans who are grumpy, which is not a very good sign with football's governing bodies of both FIFA & UEFA urging them in a bid to clamp down racism) & the F1 community especially the 2 time F1 world champion of Fernando Alonso, are rallying behind Hamilton (And one of Nelson Piquet's daughters is ironically, currently dating the Dutch F1 World Champion of Max Verstappen).

And news that just come in Britain as Boris Johnson resigns as the Prime Minister of UK in wake of several leading politicians who quit over recent scandals that they had.

And there is sad news when the entire/whole world is in mourning as former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, has been assassinated in the Japanese town of Nara during a speech when the shooting happened so that's sad, even though there are calls for better security to provide improved protection to the current & former Prime Ministers & their families of Japan in light of the assassination & also, the suspected assassin is expected to face criminal charges for murdering the former Japanese Prime Minister so rest in peace to the great Japanese leader ever served but all prayers, thoughts & condolences go to the family of Shinzo Abe that have happened (And world leaders are in sympathy & are in shock that has been happened immediately but things have gone worse in the 2020s decade such as the global corona virus pandemic that had happened since March 2020).

And some tennis news straight out of Wimbeldon as Russian born Kazakhstani tennis player of Elena Rybakina, becomes the last woman standing after her win over Tunisia's Ons Jabeur to claim her 1st ever career grand slam in the ladies singles final (I think Martin's wife Leyla was happy about the result) while from the men's perspective such as Novak Djokovic (His chances of playing at the US tennis open seemed to be unlikely due to not being properly vaccinated since the vaccine mandate requirement in the United States is in effect) continuing his dominance by securing the gentlemen's singles title over the highly controversial but colourful Australian Nick Kyrgios (Who got fined for the incident for spitting a fan during a 1st or 2nd round match but chances are that he might get suspended if he transgresses again & didn't play in the semifinal after Rafael Nadal withdrew as a result of an injury meaning that he booked a place in the final against Djokovic (The man who calls him Djoker in contrast of Rafael Nadal's nickname which is Rafa) who had beaten British tennis star, Cameron 'Cam' Norrie in the other semi).

And news just come in from America as Joe Biden becomes the 2nd US president to test positive for COVID-19 after Donald Trump who was the 1st when he had the Delta variant back in 2020 but Biden's condition had been improving according to the updates from the White House staff.

And in the motor racing perspective that we used to have the late Possum Bourne (Married to his wife Peggy & a father of 3 children (Both sons of Taylor & Spencer & a daughter of Jazlin) who passed away in 2003 (Same year that the Swiss syndicate of Alinghi (Who had former Team New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts onboard their yacht along with several other Kiwis like Brad Butterworth, Murray Jones, Simon Daubney & others) won the America's Cup against Team New Zealand (Who failed to defend it but we had to wait for 14 years for our next America's Cup win) at the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland by bringing the Auld Mug to Europe for the 1st time, the Ricky Ponting led Australia winning the Cricket World Cup for their 3rd of 5 titles against India in the final at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Blues winning their most recent Super Rugby title as they won the Super 12 competition against the Crusaders in the final in front of a packed Eden Park in Auckland while Helen Clark was in charge as our Prime Minister of New Zealand as well as the Terminator star of Arnold Schwarzenegger (Who starred in the 3rd Terminator movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which came out in the same year in which was his last starring role in a Hollywood film before he became the California governor) became governor of the American state of California in which he was dubbed as 'The Governator' & the Martin Johnson led England had triumphed to win their one & only Rugby World Cup title (The 1st time that a northern hemisphere side had won the tournament) against the Wallabies of Australia in the final at Stadium Australia in Sydney, but this was the year that Bourne competed in the Rally of Sweden in a PWRC Subaru rally car in the Production World Rally Championship class therefore he just re-entered on the world stage at the time of his tragic passing & 10 years after his co-driver & good friend, Doctor Rodger 'Roj' Freeth got killed in a serious rallying related crash which almost ended Bourne's career during the Rally of Australia event way back in 1993 but after encouragement from the Freeth family, Bourne even returned to the drivers seat) in a serious car accident that killed him that I literally remember according to the news report, prior to the events of the Race to the Sky rally hillclimb in Cardrona near Queenstown, & was one of my favourite top New Zealand rally drivers (The late Colin McRae was my favourite rally driver growing up as a young kid then the late Richard Burns took over followed by Petter Solberg then both top French rally drivers of Sebastien Loeb, Sebastien Ogier & now Kalle Rovanpera) but his favourite sporting idols growing up according to his website are both the late great New Zealand America's Cup sailor, Sir Peter 'Blakey' Blake (Although Grant Dalton (The man known as Dalts who was once the CEO (Chief executive officer) of 4 time America's Cup champions, Emirates Team New Zealand) is in fact the modern day iteration of Blake) & one of New Zealand's successful cricketing greats (Long before the Black Caps successful World Test Championship glory/triumph last year against India (One of 2 countries along with China to have a population of a billion people & is the only nation in the world with a billion population not to have the one child policy (Only China has it) led by its main talisman, Virat Kohli (1st they had Kapil Dev, then Sachin Tendulkar before Kohli took over as India's premier cricketer after Tendulkar had retired in 2013) in that memorable final in front of 4,000 die-hard cricket fanatics at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton in which was one of my standout cricket moments that I saw on TV), Sir Richard 'Paddles' Hadlee (Who is a bowler (But we have the likes of our successful current day New Zealand test bowlers such as Tim Southee & Trent Boult) compared to New Zealand's most successful batters ever produced such as Glenn Turner (Who scored 171 not out against the now defunct East Africa team during a men's Cricket World Cup match in 1975 (It has since been surpassed by a fellow New Zealander of Martin Guptill in 2015 against the West Indies with an unbeaten 237 as both the highest individual score by a New Zealander (The only Black Cap ever to score a double ton) & by anyone at a men's 50 over CWC (He passed Chris Gayle's record of 215 when he scored against Zimbabwe during a Cricket World Cup match in the same year), the late Martin Crowe (Cousin of New Zealand born Australian Hollywood film actor Russell who set the world alight in the 1992 Cricket World Cup when he scored an unbeaten ton against trans-tasman rivals Australia in the opening match in the tournament at Eden Park in Auckland & during the tournament in which he got injured in our team's semifinal defeat against eventual champions Pakistan, also in Auckland), Brendon McCullum (The current England cricket team head coach in the test format before Williamson took over as the New Zealand captain after Baz had retired from all forms of cricket), current Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson (An inspirational leader who was the New Zealand sportsman of the year award winner at this years scaled down Halberg awards along with the Black Caps side achieving team of the year honours at the Halbergs) & the recently retired Ross Taylor (Who has a new book coming out, reflecting on his cricket career (Including failures in both Cricket World Cup finals in 2015 & 2019 & only one success which is the World Test Championship from last year that the Black Caps eventually triumphed) which is Ross Taylor: Black & White) as one of our country's premier rally drivers & household names of New Zealand motor racing (His honours during his illustrious rallying career include the 1991 New Zealand rally champion, a 7 time Australian Rally champion ranging from 1996 until 2002 as well as a 3 time Asia-Pacific Rally champion in 1993-94 & 2000 & won the Race to the Sky event back in 2001 (Compared to the late Colin's brother, one of Jimmy's sons & father of up & coming rally driver Max, Alister McRae winning the last ever Race to the Sky in 2015 in Cardrona which is located near Queenstown in the Otago province, ironically in Possum's old, unrestricted Subaru Impreza WRC rally car after one of the main competitors & the 8 time champion of the Race to the Sky event of Japan's Monster Tajima, in his Toyota Super 86, crashed out during the event) until Hayden Paddon (Who was the apparent heir of the late Possum Bourne (His birth name was Peter who acquired that nickname of Possum after he crashed his mother's car while trying to avoid a possum) but I like him since I prefer Bourne as by far, my favourite NZ rally hero) took over but with moderate success when he competed in the world stage such as the WRC (World Rally Championship) in which the man from Geraldine in the South Island became the PWRC champion in 2011 & now we have a twice Supercars Championship title winner & once the Bathurst 1000 winning driver of our very own Kiwi who is of Dutch origin, Shane van Gisbergen, is trying his hand at rallying once again in a new Skoda Fabia R5 rally car in preparation of Rally New Zealand (Which takes place a week before his quest of winning back the Brocky Memorial Trophy that he took victory with 2007 V8 Supercars champion & 4 time Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander of Australia in a COVID-19 affected year in 2020 at this years annual touring car endurance race at Mount Panorama which is the Bathurst 1000 sponsored by Repco), upstaged by his defence of this year's Supercars Championship season in which he competes full time (And is the current points leader going into the next race of this years Supercars Championship season at The Bend) just like in 2020 where he won the Battle of Jack's Ridge in a Mitsubishi Mirage AP4 rally car.

And the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this year, is under way with the opening ceremony in full swing (One of the best in any form of either the Commonwealth Games or Olympics that I have seen in many years but my favourite part of the opening ceremony was 80's music band Duran Duran (They have been performing since 1978) performing at the business end of the opening ceremony & Sir Lenny Henry (I did not know that he got knighted for his services to his charitable arm) from the 90's British sitcom series Chef! doing the hosting duties) but we have now won 16 golds (Lewis Clareburt in swimming in both the men's 200m butterfly & men's 400m individual medley, Andrew Jeffcoat also in swimming in the men's 50m backstroke, Dame Sophie Pascoe also in swimming in the women's 100m freestyle S9 class, Joshua Willmer also in swimming in the men's 100m breaststroke SB8 class, Hamish Kerr in Athletics/Track & field in the men's high jump, Sam Gaze in Cycling in the men's cross-country, Ellesse Andrews 3 times in cycling in the women's Keirin, women's sprint & women's team sprint, Bryony Botha also in cycling in the women's 3000m individual pursuit, Aaron Gate 3 times in cycling in the men's 4000m individual pursuit, men's 40km points race & men's 4000m team pursuit along with Jordan Kerby, Tom Sexton & Campbell Stewart, both Olivia King & Rebecca Petch in cycling in the women's team sprint, Corbin Strong in cycling in the men's 15km scratch race & Paul Coll in Squash in the men's singles), 10 silvers & 10 bronze medals in history (Our most successful for New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games on foreign soil, only 1 shy of the all time record set in Auckland in 1990 (The year before I was born but the 1st time I remembered watching the Commonwealth Games was in 1998 & I have covered it since 2002) with 17 golds, 14 silvers & 27 bronze medals) but there has been an update as heavy favourite in the men's shot put of Tom Walsh secures his 2nd gold at the Commonwealth games where he finished ahead of fellow countryman Jacko Gill (Just like both Tom Sexton (Who finished behind Aaron Gate along with Campbell Stewart who finished behind Gate in the men's points race) & Ben Oliver (Who claimed the silver while his fellow countryman Sam Gaze got the gold (And Anton Cooper had to pull out of the event due to a positive corona virus test in which he missed the race) did) in Athletics in the men's Shot Put but recently that Aaron Gate in the cycling, men's time trial (He becomes the most successful Commonwealth games individual in a single Games for our country of New Zealand with 4, surpassing track cyclist Ellesse Andrews with 3) & the mixed squash pair of Kieran Coll (Who won gold earlier in the men's singles squash) & Joelle King (The most successful Commonwealth Games athlete with 5 golds along with the late Val Young who got another gold with Amanda Landers-Murphy (Who originally retired in 2020 before she made a successful comeback to the sport) in the women's doubles squash, pushing New Zealand to a record extending 20th gold medal as well as our 49th medal (The most number of medals won at an away games) at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games before that ultra-successful campaign had ended with the closing ceremony (My favourite part of the closing ceremony was Birmingham local Ozzy Osbourne (The lead singer of the famous British heavy metal band Black Sabbath (Dubbed as the heavy metal equivalent of the famous UK pop rock band The Beatles) performing their iconic rock hit Paranoid (Remember that they played a teaser of Iron Man) with his band to close out in style (And the organisers of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games suggest that they wanted Ozzy Osbourne & his band to perform at the closing ceremony in order for some real rock & roll to close it out in style but watching Ozzy Osbourne & his band performing live was one of the best rock acts I have ever seen on TV for a long time) with the next Commonwealth Games is expected to be held in the state of Victoria in Australia so see you in 2026 (The last time the Commonwealth Games was held down under was in the Gold Coast in Australia in 2018), but the next major sporting event this year is the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar (Where the current Football World Cup holders of France will have a chance to defend the title that they won in 2018 (And the 1st in 60 years that a defending champion has retained their Football World Cup crown) while the 5 time world champions as well as the tournament favourites & world number 1 ranked Brazil (Who as my mentioned in my previous blogs as the only football playing nation to appear in every Football World Cup since 1930 (Except that the 1942 & 1946 tournaments were cancelled as a result of World War II breaking out), will also have a chance of ending a 20 year hoodoo by claiming their record extending 6th Football World Cup title) in 3 months time) have struck gold in Birmingham, pushing New Zealand's gold medal count to 19 (And we have broken/smashed the all-time record number of gold medals won by New Zealand in the history of the Commonwealth Games set in Auckland 1990 with 17 gold medals in total & the most during modern times, or should I say in the modern era).

And in Rugby Championship news such as the All Blacks (The All Black of New Zealand) opening game of the tournament against the current Rugby World Cup holders, the dark green, gold & white of the Springboks (Who go into the rematch in international rugby union's most storied rivalry (And the AB's - Springboks rivalry is similar to a heavyweight contest where a boxer would land punches against an opponent who would later do a counter punch) against the All Blacks (Our next home test is against Argentina at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch in which the city has never hosted a test match since 2016 against the Springboks) at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg again as favourites mainly because of the home field advantage), was an utter disappointment as we lost 3 tests in a row (1st time it has been happening since 1998 during the Harty (John Hart) era as well as the 1st time the Springboks (Who became the 2nd side to defeat the AB's this year after Ireland did it twice) have won a test against the AB's on home soil since 2014 & the 1st time that the All Blacks had lost an opening match in the Rugby Championship (They hadn't done that since 2005 during the Tri Nations era) were New Zealand got it all wrong at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit but the kicking game (Compared to Ireland's different style of play that secured them a test series win over the AB's in July (And the Irish became the 1st side to defeat the All Blacks in a test series in New Zealand since France in 1994) from the South Africans that they adapted from when they won the most recent Rugby World Cup in Japan in 2019, must've won them the test (And full credit to the greatest South African team ever (I think that the 2019 era Springboks were better than both 1995 & 2007, compared to the 2015 All Blacks team were better than both the 1987 & 2011 eras), that they deserved to win that test but what went wrong for the AB's to lose our 3rd consecutive rugby test? Our discipline wasn't even spot on but we've got to get it right for the next test to win (Our last win was against Ireland in the 1st of the 3 match test series at Eden Park in Auckland in July) but I didn't watch the test due to the emotions that were running high but I label the All Blacks dismal performance on the field as lame due to their woes which affected our game but there are still calls from the All Blacks bandwagon that they want Ian Foster out (That is our rallying cry towards our rugby loving fans & followers here in New Zealand) while Australia won the other Rugby Championship match in which they edged the Argentinians out of nowhere in Argentina.

And there has been an update in round 2 of the Rugby Championship such as the All Blacks snap a 3 game losing run as they topple South Africa (Who are known for their reputation of being cheese eaters (Compared to the French who are both chocolate & croissant eaters) descended from the Dutch, especially for their bulk size due to their huge forward pack which was by far, to play against but one of the Springbok players of Lukhanyo Am is in fact one of the best centres in world rugby since he took over from Conrad Smith no doubt about it!) at Ellis Park in Johannesburg in front of a cauldron of fans attending the game (And what a turn around for New Zealand to finally win a test match since against Ireland in the 1st of 3 tests at Eden Park in Auckland) but I'm sick of the penalties that New Zealand always conceded due to our poor discipline (Or more like the penalties given away by New Zealand is absolutely frustrating) especially Beauden Barrett who just come onto the field from the bench, got that yellow card on that occasion (Along with one of the Springbok players of Damian Willemse early but Jesse Kriel had to be pulled early due to concussion so Willie le Roux came on the field for him for the remainder of the match) for deliberately tackling a player off the ball on young Springbok halfback filling in for Faf de Klerk, Jayden Hendrikse but the new front row of the All Blacks of Ethan de Groot, Samisoni Taukei'aho & Tyrel Lomax made the difference in our contribution to our victory (And Jordie Barrett was the standout of the game at Ellis Park compared to Handre Pollard (Who was the pick of the South African players in the Rugby Championship opener) did in Nelspruit but the player of the game honours went to All Blacks midfielder Rieko Ioane (Brother of loose forward Akira & son of ex-Black Fern Sandra Wihongi as well as former Western Samoa player Eddie & the one that Pops famously met in 2019 when he & Carole went to Hawaii) for his outstanding game so far) that may have saved Ian Foster's job as All Black coach (If New Zealand had lost, Foster would've been fired) but in the other Rugby Championship game such as the Michael Chieka coached Argentina gave the Wallabies a hiding in a revenge best dished served cold in San Juan & have now taken over the lead in the standings on points difference with all teams gave a victory & a defeat each in the 1st 2 rounds of the competition.

And there also has been an update in round 3 of the 2022 Rugby Championship season such as the Wallabies (Who looked a bit bleak in the last 10 minutes of the game) win 3 in a row against the Springboks at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide with one of the Wallaby players of Marika Koroibete made a game deifining try saving tackle on 2019 Rugby World Cup winning player for South Africa, Makazole Mapimpi, which proved to be the game changer in what was beleived to be the tackle of the century but sad news for our die hard New Zealand rugby fans as the All Blacks fell short against Argentina (Whose resilient defence that they won them the test on that occasion (Especially a Super Rugby Pacific winning player for the Crusaders of Pablo Matera (Who is rugby union's equivalent of the great Lionel Messi (A Copa America winning player for Argentina last year when they beat Brazil in the final at the Maracana as well as the Olympic gold medalist in Beijing 2008) but the Argentinian rugby team used to have Hugo Porta who is the Diego Maradona (Who passed away in 2020) of rugby union) being the standout players of the game as well as he was the pick of the Argentinian players after his excellent contribution throughout the game & like I said before in 2020 that the art or power of the forward pack by the Argentinians, made all the difference), was the turning point in which they made history again) for the 2nd time at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch in which the Argentinians have caused the upset of this year's Rugby Championship (Man, this is like 2020 all over again when the Argentinians 1st beat us but now they are getting competitive after their 2nd win over New Zealand (And that is the 1st time that they lost in Christchurch since 1998 against the Wallabies & the 1st time the AB's had been defeated at Orangetheory Stadium but the Argentinians become the 3rd side to defeat New Zealand (Who had lost 4 games this year) after Ireland twice & South Africa once & Argentina could be the dark horses of the Rugby Championship this year (And also the Rugby World Cup next year in France) as they maintain their lead in the standings), muchas gracias (Thanks very much) to all of you Argentinians out there but what a performance from them (And I have to give credit to them but let's hope all of that can change for New Zealand in the next test in Hamilton in which we need to cut down the penalties (And man this has been frustrating from our All Black point of view, not only that I'm always sick of it now but I remember a comment from Carole 3 months ago about other sides like Ireland & Argentina are trying to catch up mainly due to their competitiveness on the rugby field).

So that is my 463rd blog of the year 2022 (MMXXII) & my 11th of this year, stay safe & one love, viva Ukraine.

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