Well, there was an incredible story about Richie McCaw (Who was the 1st New Zealander to reach 100 test caps (Along with Mils Muliaina, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock, Dan Carter, Ma'a Nonu, Kieran Read, Owen Franks, Sam Whitelock, Aaron Smith, Beauden Barrett & Brodie Retallick) for the AB's (It was against France during a pool game at the Rugby World Cup in 2011 in which Dan Carter stole the show for his best game of the tournament as he was the standout player of the game but the most recent All Black to join the 100 test club was Brodie Retallick (Who served a 2 week ban after becoming the 8th different All Black after the late Cyril Brownlie, the late Sir Colin Meads, Sonny Bill Williams (Who took Anthony Watson out with a dangerous cleanout similar to Retallick did on Himeno in 2017 in which the AB's would lose a test against the British & Irish Lions in Wellington), Scott Barrett (For a cheap shot on Wallabies captain at the time of Michael Hooper in which we caused us to lose the 1st Bledisloe Cup test in Perth in 2019 which was World Cup year), Ofa Tu'ungafasi (For his sanctions on Australian winger Tom Wright in which he whacked him in the head with his shoulder during the 4th & final Bledisloe Cup test in 2020 in which we were on the losing side), Jordie Barrett (For his troubles in which he laid out Marika Koroibete with his foot straight to the head but was lucky not to get suspended by the citing officer after being cited in which we won the 3rd & final Bledisloe Cup test in 2021) & Angus Ta'avao (For illegally taken Garry Ringrose out with a crude headbutt in a head on head clash during the 2nd test in Dunedin last year in which the Irish won to keep their hopes of winning the test series alive) to be sent off in a test by Georgian referee Nika Amushukeli for the dangerous cleanout on former Highlanders player Kazuki Himeno during the test against Japan at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo & had to serve an intervention programme run by the sport's governing body World Rugby in order to avoid getting red carded again) in our most recent rugby test against England 2 months ago in which the English came back to snatch a draw after Beauden Barrett easily got yellow carded for a professional foul that looked a bit cynical, on English first-five Marcus Smith in which they thought was a penalty try during the test with New Zealand's hopes of sealing our 1st test win against England since 2018 (A year before England ended our hopes of a historic first ever threepeat of the RWC in the semi (And I exactly remember that we've blown it in Yokohama against the English in the semifinal (As described by All Black halfback Aaron Smith that the New Zealand changing room had turned into a funeral according to the comment Pops made to me in 2019 in which we were disappointed & so gutted about the result) & after South Africa won against Wales in the other semi that the RWC was on the line in the final between England & the Springboks, in a replay of the 2007 final with the Boks winning their 3rd Rugby World Cup title (To join the All Blacks as the other 3 time winners of the Rugby World Cup), & their 1st in 12 years (Just like they did in 2007 to add to their title in 1995 as their other RWC triumphs for the South Africans) as they dominated the game much after their English prop forward Kyle Sinckler went off with a head injury that took him out of the match so Dan Cole had to come on to the field as an HIA replacement for Sinckler, for the remainder of the final which was about 77 or 78 minutes but the English missed out when they got crushed as South Africa (Who had both Makazole Mapimpi (Who was the 1st South African player in history to score a try in the Rugby World Cup final) & Cheslin Kolbe (Who mesmerized Owen Farrell with a beautiful but lovely sidestep then he had gone all the way to the try line to score) as their try scorers during the final) became for the right to be called themselves as the world champions) & our 1st defeat at the tournament since 2007 against France (Of who the AB's will play in the tournament opener a fortnight after we play the reigning Rugby World Cup champions of South Africa (Who'll begin their title defence against Scotland in Marseille) in a pre-RWC test in Twickenham in London, England & our 1st meeting against the French (Our last meeting was in 2021 where the French (Who played like the Irish a week earlier but their style of play had been entirely different), ended our hopes for victory in which France (The current Six Nations champions who won it last year & ranked number 2 in the world behind Ireland (Who is ranked number 1 in the world after their historic test series win against New Zealand last year & are the tournament favourites in this years Rugby World Cup taking over from South Africa but they haven't won the Six Nations championship since 2018 compared to Wales who haven't won it since 2021 as well as England who has never won the Six Nations since 2020 & Scotland who haven't triumphed in the Six Nations since 1999 which was during the Five Nations era & they haven't won it since while Italy (Who don't deserve to be in the Six Nations, but why South Africa should replace them? And if they're in the competition, they would have to be based in Europe for the forseeable future) have never won it in the tournament's history but there is something interesting in Super Rugby Pacific this year as there are 3 key matchups to look forward to such as the opener in round 1 between the 11 time defending champions of SRP, the Crusaders taking on the Chiefs in a rematch of the semifinal from last year at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch as well as the red & blacks face the Highlanders in the great southern derby at AAMI Park in Melbourne during the super round in round 2 & of course they play the Blues in a replay of this year's Super Rugby Pacific final (In which the Crusaders dominated where the final which was lopsided when it ended in a one-sided affair where the Blues (Who are seeking redemption in this years upcoming Super Rugby Pacific season according to their captain Dalton Papali'i (Who is still haunted by that final defeat from last year) just fell agonizingly short of a chance of claiming their 1st full Super Rugby crown since 2003 & they were gutted about the result in which the Crusaders won) during round 4 of the competition) but both sides are due to meet in round 2 of this years Six Nations) had their 1st win against the All Blacks since 2009 in Dunedin & the 1st victory against New Zealand on French soil since 2000 in Marseille but there was one English writer that Pops told me predicting that France will win the tournament for their 1st RWC crown (And they have never done that before in the tournament's history after coming so close 3 times in 1987, 1999 & 2011 as I mentioned in my previous blogs & are gunning to end 36 years of pain & agony) but the people of Australia think that the Wallabies could actually win the tournament while some say it might be an Australia - France final just like in 1999 (It was the year that the Wallabies had last won a Rugby World Cup but they haven't done it since when they last appeared in the final in 2015 in which they fell short against the all-conquering AB's) while the Irish might have an outside chance of winning the tournament not only they're the top ranked rugby playing nation in the world & are favourites to win the RWC, but have never reached both the semis & final before after losing in the quarterfinal on 7 occasions (1987 & 1991 against Australia, 1995 & 2003 against France, 2011 against Wales, 2015 against Argentina & 2019 against New Zealand, but will the Irish make history this year to reach the semis for the 1st time in the tournament's history? We'll find out in 7 months time) had been evaporated) unlike their national football team missed out last month on defending their Football World Cup title in which they lost on penalties against the Lionel Messi led Argentina who had to win their 3rd Football World Cup championship (And here's an interesting fact that every time Canada would appear in a Football/Soccer World Cup, Argentina would've gone on to win the tournament (And only once that the Argentinians have won the World Cup even though Canada didn't qualify, it was in 1978), & they did it twice in both 1986 & last year), & their 1st since 1986 to add to their title in 1978, in that memorable but iconic final in Football World Cup history (And the Argentinians had a great tournament despite the single blip against the Saudis (Who ended Argentina's 36 match unbeaten streak (And they were just 1 shy of the all-time record set by the current European champions Italy with 37 who were destroyed & crushed as the Italians were stunned after missing out on making the Football World Cup again after their defeat against North Macedonia (Who pulled off a Sweden in 2017 before falling to Portugal (Who beat Turkey in the Football World Cup European qualification playoff semi, but lost to Morocco in the quarterfinal of last years tournament as they became the 1st African side in history, to advance to the semis of the World Cup) in the final of the Football World Cup UEFA qualification playoff) earlier last year, in the semifinals of the Football World Cup European qualifying playoff) in their opening game of the tournament) since the game in 1950 (There was no final way back then) between Uruguay & Brazil in which the Uruguayans came out of nowhere to beat the hosts at the time of Brazil in an epic match (That was 8 years before Brazil ended their wait & would gone on to win their 1st of 5 Football World Cup championships way back in 1958 which was a long time ago) at a Rugby World Cup since 2015 in which we hammered them in a blowout in the quarterfinal which ended in sheer humiliation, including Julian Savea's heroics in which he bagged himself a hat-trick during the knockout game in which was the biggest winning margin at a knock out game in the RWC since the AB's completely thrashed Wales 49 - 6 at Ballymore in Brisbane, Australia way back in 1987 marred by that serious foul play incident in which Welsh lock forward Huw Richards had been shown the red card for striking one of the Whetton twin brothers then New Zealand loose forward Buck Shelford laid Richards out with his fist, but luckily he didn't get sent off (And he should've been should today's modern video technology replays be available) in the quarterfinal in which our unbeaten run at the RWC began, stretching back to 2011 in the opener against Tonga (+ both Rugby World Cup triumphs in 2011 in the final against our formidable rivals France at Eden Park in Auckland which was a close encounter & 2015 in the final against our Trans-Tasman neighbors Australia at Twickenham in London, England which was our most memorable moment our of lives in New Zealand rugby (And that was the 1st & only time, that the AB's had won the tournament away from home) in which McCaw, Carter & 3 others including Ma'a Nonu, Conrad Smith & Keven Mealamu who had their last games of their rugby careers) until the quarterfinals in 2019 against Ireland) & is the most capped All Black at 148, compared to Alun Wyn Jones of Wales being the most capped player in test rugby at 160 (148 for the Welsh & 12 times for the British & Irish Lions) in the 2011 Rugby World Cup that he played with a broken foot that he had for the duration of the tournament when the AB's had ended a 24 year wait of winning a RWC title (It was at the beginning of 2011 that McCaw sustained an injury during Super Rugby preseason with the Crusaders that he was intially ruled out for the whole season, especially the RWC but he managed to play in that tournament in which he defied his doctors orders of playing with an injury in which the All Blacks became the last host nation to win the tournament (And my thoughts after New Zealand infamously won the 2011 tournament in style after 24 long years on our home patch: "Hail to the king baby! I've got balls of steel!" (And that's both lines taken from the Duke Nukem games but I prefer Doom as my favourite shooting game series (I've got both the first Doom & Doom II games on the PS4 while Dad is into Call of Duty now but I prefer the 2005 version of Star Wars: Battlefront II as one of my favourite shooting games of all time) but also that Dan Carter got injured during training before our last pool game of the 2011 tournament against Canada meaning that his tournament was over as Aaron Cruden (Who originally missed selection when the selectors preferred both Carter & Colin Slade before the 2011 RWC) took Carter's place as an injury replacement (Then Stephen Donald (Who also along with Cruden missed selection & was the one who made that crucial mistake of not kicking it out when the All Blacks infamously lost against the Wallabies in a Bledisloe Cup test in Hong Kong back in 2010) assumed the call up in the aftermath of Slade getting injured whilst he was on a whitebaiting mission in the Waikato region as I mentioned in my previous blogs & kicked the penalty goal after coming on for the injured Cruden during the 1st half) allowing Piri Weepu to assume the playmaking duties for the rest of the tournament but however he strained a quad during the warmup against France in the final in which he struggled his goal kicking allowing Andy Ellis to take his place but Beaver's winning penalty goal was the turning point to achieve immortality by lifting te Wiremu aloft, 24 years after the events of 1987 in which David Kirk became the 1st All Black skipper to lift the William Webb Ellis trophy at Eden Park in Auckland against France in that infamous final of the inaugural Rugby World Cup as seen on national television as I mentioned in my previous blogs) but I'm looking forward to the upcoming rugby season this year especially the RWC that they're gonna have during the September-October period (And my thoughts heading into the rugby season this year: "Do not count your chickens before they hatch...You mess with the bull, you get the horns").
And the latest on the NFL as Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin had suffered a heart attack after being felled by a tackle during an NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals where he was rushed to hospital in a critical condition but his health had been steadily improving since being admitted in hospital but the NFL is showing solidarity to him with the remainder of the match between the Bills & the Bengals will not continue after that frightening incident in which Hamlin nearly passed away (And the 1st celebrity to pass away this year was American rally driver, car culture icon & the founder of the Hoonigan company, Ken Block at the age of 55 in which he was involved in a tragic snowmobile crash over in Utah but my thoughts are after Block tragically passed away: All thoughts, prayers & condolences go to the Block family for what they have just seen, rest in pieces (RIP) to the great man who had a decent life in which he was hooked into cars by becoming a car enthusiast (Then the 2nd celeb to pass away was German model Tatjana Patitz then the daughter & only child of the late singer & entertainer of Elvis most recently, Lisa Marie Presley at 54 (But I wanted to give condolences but all thoughts & prayers are behind both of the families of Patitz & Presley respectively so rest easy to both of them).
Ken Block
1967 - 2023
Tatjana Patitz
1966 - 2023
& Lisa Marie Presley
1968 - 2023
And the latest on the football is Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo signing a new deal to join a Saudi Arabian club of Al-Nassr but he has to serve a 2 game ban as a result of an incident involving him knocking a fans phone while he was with his former club Manchester United back in April last year (And he is among the suspended players list along with FC Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski of Poland who is suspended for 3 matches for an obscene gesture directed at opposition fans which resulted in a sending off by the referee).
And finally in Brazil that protesters storm onto the parliament & supreme court buildings illegally in Brasilia demanding that Jair Bolsonaro (Who lost in an election on the 31st of October last year in the 2nd round of voting) should not accept defeat in last year's election against the current Brazilian president Lula da Silva reminiscent to the events of the Capitol insurrection riots on January 6th, 2021 (And in the aftermath of the events of January 6th that security measures had been stepped up in the Capitol buildings by coming out of an abundance of warning since while the US Capitol Police is on standby by their civil disturbance units for several protests on the Capitol grounds that have already been granted permits and at the Supreme Court building) which triggered a huge breach to security which there will be repercussions in the aftermath of the event (And so the Brazilian law enforcement units have been summoned & arrived by first using tear gas to disperse crowds & there has been an update as heaps of arrests being made due to vandalism to the facilities but there will be security upgrades possible to both the parliament & supreme court buildings such as gates being installed therefore stopping any future incidents being happened) but there has been an update as 1,500 protesters have been detained for attacks to the parliament buildings, resulted that security had been upped throughout the parliament buildings following the incident compared to the Peru protests that turned sour & violent in which the death toll was risen to 47 which was about the call made by supporters of the ousted president of Peru, Pedro Castillo as well as the main goal demanding the resignation of the current president Dina Boluarte, but there is a curfew in place from 8pm until 4am for 3 days in a bid to stamp out violence throughout the area to protect the life, integrity & freedom of citizens following the conflicts in Puno, the Council of Ministers tweeted Tuesday, aimed at putting an end to (A rebellion or other disorder), typically by the use of force as well as 6 people have been stabbed & got wounded at Gare du Nord which is a busy train station located in Paris as the armed attacker got shot & had his weapon disarmed by law enforcements when he got neutralized & apprehended which resulted in major delays in a frightening incident as well as I haven't mentioned about the shootings in Virginia at a University where 3 have been killed & 2 others have been injured but 4 of the victims, including the 3 who died, were members of the UVA football team while the suspected gunman is facing 3 counts of second-degree murder & other charges in connection to the shooting & also the mass shooting in Buffalo in May last year at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighbourhood, claming 10 victims in a serious incident fuelled with racism, which resulted the alleged gunman being charged with both murder & terrorism by pleading guilty & is likely to be sent behind bars for life with no parole & also a 6 year old shot a teacher at a school which resulted the very young gunman likely to serve in juvenile detention (And the war on gun violence in the United States (Which has the reputation of being the most dangerous country in the world due to the high murder rate involving firearms) has to stop (Well, this is making me sick), especially those innocent people getting targeted by being shot to death by those suspected gunmen by introducing the bipartisan law (AKA the domestic partner loophole) which prohibits would be criminals from accessing guns in the aftermath of the Ulvalde shooting tragedy last year (Same year that the clamp down on abortion rights in America was implemented in the aftermath of the decision made by the supreme court, to overturn Roe v Wade) & raising the legal age from 18 to 21 just like they raised the drinking age which helped reduce vehicle accidents, in an effort to keep the country safe just like 4 years ago in 2019 in March that the Mosque shootings have happened in Christchurch in New Zealand which resulted in a crack down on high powered rifles like the AR-15 semi automatic rifle used in the shooting here in our country, in the aftermath of a tragic event like that (And the suspected gunman who conducted the shooting was from Australia while the Christchurch terror attacks was reminiscent/shades of the tragic shootings in Port Arthur in the island of Tasmania in Australia in 1996 (And in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre where gun laws might have worked with many of the high powered rifles were seized & destroyed by police as a result of the clamp down on them) as I mentioned in my previous blogs & it was worse than the tragic events unfolded in Aramoana in 1990).
So that is my 482nd blog of the year 2023 (MMXXIII) & my 6th of this year, viva Ukraine.
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