Well, there is an interesting rugby fact that the only time the All Blacks lost a tour match during their successful grand slam tour was against the Irish club of Munster (This was the days in which Ireland had never beaten the AB's in international rugby before until 2016 at Soldier Field (Home of the team that plays in the NFL, the Chicago Bears), in Chicago) in that famous game in 1978 which was immortalized in a play called Alone It Stands in which New Zealand infamously lost by 12 points in a tour match in one of our most shocking losses in history (And we played them again in 2008 in a tour match in which we won, 30 years after that defeat to Munster).
And in news related to the rock music industry such as Tom DeLonge of Angels & Airwaves has announced his return to his old pop punk band of Blink-182 (Which consists of guitarist & one of the vocalists of DeLonge, bassist & another one of the singers of Mark Hoppus & drummer Travis Barker & is one of my favourite pop punk bands (I especially love that band because I'm a fan of them & their music but I like Green Day as well), therefore replacing Akaline Trio's Matt Skiba who has left the band (And DeLonge's return to Blink-182 is rock music's biggest storyline since John Frusciante who rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers back in 2019, taking Josh Klinghoffer's place, but they have released a new song called 'Edging' last month in which the song is expected to be from the brand new album due to release next year & one of the band members of Mark Hoppus is in his 50s now, compared to both DeLonge (Whose singing voice might've been altered (Unlike the Foo Fighters song Shame Shame that I 1st heard in 2020 that lead singer Dave Grohl's singing voice had remained the same as in any other previous studio albums that the Foo Fighters had released) since he last appeared in an album with Blink-182 called Neighborhoods which was released back in 2011 before his departure in 2015 as Matt Skiba replaced him & had been with the band until this year in which he left, allowing DeLonge to open the door to infamously rejoin the band) & Barker (Who has a fear of flying since he was involved in a serious plane accident way back in 2008 a year before the band's reformation after originally broken up in 2005 althogugh he is apparently married to one of the Kardashians & is a fan of female American pop singer Billie Eilish) who are nearly approaching in their 50s).
And still onto the rugby stuff that on Halloween that it's been 23 years since the AB's (Who had the late Jonah Lomu (Who scored his last 2 tries in international test rugby against England in a losing effort during the Twickenham test 20 years ago way back in 2002 (Compared to his 1st 2 tries of his international rugby career which was against Ireland during the Rugby World Cup in 1995) crossing over twice during the game) infamously lost against France (Who staged a successful comeback to seal the deal & advance through to the final) in the semifinal at the 1999 RWC at Twickenham (Known as the traditional home of English rugby compared to Wembley Stadium which is a football venue & Lord's being a designated cricket ground) in London in one of Rugby World Cup's greatest games, but 7 years have passed since the All Blacks had last triumphed at the Rugby World Cup in 2015 in the final against the Wallabies in that memorable game of our lives (And it is one of my memorable moments watching rugby on TV) at the same ground in Twickenham (It was both Dan Carter & Bernard Foley traded penalties before Nehe Milner-Skudder who broke the deadlock by scoring the opening try of the final, just right on halftime before Sonny Bill Williams came on to replace Conrad Smith & delivered an offload to set up the try scored by Ma'a Nonu who raced in all the way to score then Ben Smith copped a yellow card (The 1st & only time in a Rugby World Cup final) for a lifting tackle on Drew Mitchell in which the Wallabies had staged a tremendous fightback with both David Pocock & Tevita Kuridrani scoring tries each to put them back in the contest before Carter (Who converted it with his right foot in his last scoring act of his international rugby career after Barrett got the try) scored a drop goal then a penalty goal at long range before Beauden Barrett provided the vital moment in the final in which Ben Smith chipped in a kick before Barrett kicked then he went over for the try meaning that the RWC, is still, New Zealand's cup! (And it was before the moment that All Blacks captain at the time of Richie McCaw became the 1st man & 1st New Zealander to lift the William Webb Ellis trophy twice).
And onto the motor racing stuff as our own flying Kiwi of Shane van Gisbergen (Whose dominance would've been a different story if Scott McLaughlin remained in the Supercars Championship but is now dating his old boss Roland Dane's daughter Jessica, in which he labels her as his partner now since he had an affair with her) clinching his 3rd Supercars Championship (And how good was he? Man, what a driver, what a Supercars Championship season he's having) by winning race 31 at the Gold Coast 500 (And it has been all SVG when he won both races (His record extending 20th & 21st race victories of the season) with one round to spare which is Adelaide (Who'll gear up to host the season finale of this year's Supercars Championship season as well as the 1st time the Supercars Championship will race at the old F1 circuit since 2020 & the last time that Holden (Defunct since 2020) will race in the Supercars Championship before being replaced by Chevrolet next year as it moves to Gen 3) at Surfers Paradise in Australia a day before he dominated race 32 (He is now on a 5 race winning streak dating back to race 28 at his home event in Pukekohe, New Zealand including his famous triumph with his Australian co-driver Garth Tander at the mountain at Mount Panorama in Bathurst which is the Bathurst 1000 simply known as the great race by overcoming both penalties including a grid penalty for causing a collision during qualifying as well as a 5 second penalty at a pit stop for an unsafe release during the race in which was the benefit of the doubt) of the event which CART/Champ Car/Indycar once ran (But I wonder if this year's Supercars Championship season ends with one of van Gisbergen's main title rivals of Will Davison, Chaz Mostert & Cam Waters are thinking going into the next season next year in 2023 is to beat Shane which is their number 1 priority).
And finally the latest on the rugby as the All Blacks (Who have never lost a test match since against Argentina (Who made history by dispatching the All Blacks in Christchurch 3 months ago in a Rugby Championship test) at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch during this year's Rugby Championship) hammer Wales (Who weren't so competitive compared to Japan in Tokyo) at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, in one of the best All Black games on foreign soil that I've ever watched on TV (Compared to the best rugby game I've ever seen in a home test on TV against Argentina in Hamilton this year) with Jordie Barrett, Aaron Smith (Who becomes the most capped All Black back at 113, surpassing Dan Carter in which he had an incredible match including a try he scored when he went past the gap all the way to score & his 2nd try came in which the standout player of the game Ardie Savea set it up by throwing a dummy before passing it to Smith to dot it down) & Codie Taylor picking up doubles but the player of the moment went to the try scorer of All Black number 8 forward Ardie Savea (One of the best All Black players ever produced since the days of McCaw, Carter & Kieran Read) for his monster game that he had (And onto the other games such as the number 1 ranked Ireland (Who had their 1st match since winning their historic 3 match test series against the AB's in New Zealand back in July) knocking over the defending world champions of the Springboks at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, a year out until their very 1st meeting at a Rugby World Cup in France to decide who will top Pool B to avoid taking on the All Blacks (If they beat or fail to beat France in the opening match of rugby's global showpiece event) in the quarterfinal followed by the hosts of next year's tournament of France able to put the 2027 tournament hosts Australia to sleep at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis & Argentina topple England (Who are due to meet the Argentinians again at a Rugby World Cup hosted by the French next year just like in 2019) in rugby's biggest boil over during the weekend at Twickenham after they traded penalties during the game & of course, the newly formed All Blacks XV, producing a thrashing over Ireland A at the RDS Arena in Dublin).
So that is my 472nd blog of the year 2022 (MMXXII) & my 20th of this year, stay safe & one love, viva Ukraine.
P.S. And it's been 20 years since the tragic Bali bombings have taken place on crowded nightclubs in the tourist district of Kuta in the Indonesian island of Bali at about 11pm on the 12th of October, 2002 in which a serious incident involving terrorism, resulted in 204 casualties (That includes 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 7 Americans & 3 New Zealanders whose innocent lives had been taken away) involved including both suicide bombers & 209 have been wounded as a result of the bomb blast but the motive behind this is for fighting back for America's support of the war on terror & Australia's role in the liberation of East Timor.
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