Well, the latest on the rugby spotlight as former England coach Eddie Jones has been welcomed back as the new Wallabies coach to replace the embattled New Zealander Dave Rennie & is now in his 2nd tenure (His 1st was he took over from the successful Rod Macqueen from 2001 until 2006 where John 'Knuckles' Connolly had taken over until the 2007 tournament) hoping to bring back the glory days of winning Rugby World Cups just like in both 1991 & 1999 as well as winning back the Bledisloe against New Zealand (Who dominated since 2003 in which they famously won back the Bledisloe Cup after 5 years) where they haven't held it for 21 years (And the headlines would probably say: WELCOME BACK EDDIE, JONES RETURNS TO COACH WALLABIES or more like: FORMER ENGLAND COACH IS BACK AS COACH OF AUSTRALIA RUGBY TEAM AGAIN), & they're after them according to AB's coach Ian Foster, but it's just 7 months until the eyes of the rugby world will be in France, as the nation plays host to the Rugby World Cup tournament (A year before Paris plays host to the summer Olympic Games as well as Germany gearing up to host Euro 2024 (It is Germany's biggest sporting event since the 2006 Football World Cup (Won by Italy who prevailed over France on penalties in the aftermath of an incident involving Zinedine Zidane who took Marco Materazzi out illegally with his head during extra time by hitting the Italian defender in the chest, resulting in a red card to Zidane in his last game of his illustrious football career when Zidane's career had ended in disgrace in his final international) & Barcelona in Spain are preparing to host the 37th America's Cup with Emirates Team New Zealand being the current holders of the prestigious Auld Mug while INEOS Britannia is already locked in as our challenger of record).
And the latest on the cricket as it looks like that Pakistani cricketer Naseem Shah (A young gun who is a bowler) is going to be the next big thing in world cricket after decimating the Black Caps batters during the 1st ODI which resulted victory for Pakistan (Who haven't triumphed at the men's 50 over Cricket World Cup since 1992 against England (The current world champions of both the men's 50 over & 20 over format who last appeared in the final until in 2019 that they won their 1st ever men's 50 over Cricket World Cup against New Zealand (Who had to wait 2 years of winning an ICC sanctioned tournament, in which we won that historic 1st ever World Test Championship in our memorable final of our lives in which Ross Taylor hit the winning runs in front of 4,000 die-hard cricket fans as I mentioned in my previous blogs against India (Who have never won the men's 50 over Cricket World Cup since 2011 & in contention of making another appearance in the World Test Championship final if they lose 1 or 2 out of the 4 tests in an upcoming test series against Australia on Indian soil after the Indians host New Zealand in a limited overs series) which put the final nail in India's coffin for the New Zealanders at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton after the disappointment of both the 2015 & 2019 men's 50 over Cricket World Cup finals against Australia & the English respectively behind them but New Zealand's next cricket tour is against India on Indian soil in a limited overs series which is the last before this years men's 50 over Cricket World Cup being staged in India) in a dramatic super-over at Lord's in London) in the final at the MCG) as he picked up 5 or 6 wickets during the match (And at least we won the ODI series after dominating the last 2 One Day Internationals) but there was a draw in the Sydney test between Australia (Who is on track to reach their 1st World Test Championship final) & South Africa in which the Aussies surprisingly won the test series against the South Africans on Australian soil for the 1st time since 2005-06 after the Proteas would went on to win the last 3 test series in Australia against the Aussies until most recently.
And there once was a rugby story about Wallaby winger Marika Koroibete not being handed a suspension after getting sent off by New Zealand referee Ben O'Keeffe for a dangerous tackle (And yeah, it was in 2017 that the war on dangerous head contact in rugby union began after a major shakeup to the rugby laws which resulted a ban on high tackles, 2 years before the introduction of the decision making framework for tackles regarding to contact to the head & neck, as well as with the tackle height set to be altered in time for this years Rugby World Cup as well as certain law trials used in this years Super Rugby Pacific competition & the Six Nations from the shoulders to the waist area in an effort to make the game safe & the implementation of the high tackle technique warning which results players getting banned for just the 1 game, even if they commit the 2nd high tackle technique warning during the match (And World Rugby's so-called high tackle epidemic is better than the war on gun violence that they're currently having in the USA) during the deciding test against France at Lang Park in Brisbane in 2021 in which the French player Anthony Jelonch took a dive or should I say, simulated like a football player in which the crowd where outraged by giving Koroibete raspberries after he had been shown the red card for a high tackle violation as I mentioned in my previous blogs in which the Wallabies prevailed by winning the test series against the French 2 - 1 after Noah Lolesio's match winning penalty goal, proved to be the game changer but he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the judiciary meaning that he was free to play for the next test against the All Blacks at Eden Park in Auckland in which the All Blacks won by 8 points.
And in motor racing related news such as Alphatauri test & reserve driver as well as the former Toyota Racing Series champion of Liam Lawson has found a race seat when he competes in Japan's Super Formula series, hoping to emulate Nick Cassidy's success in 2019 in which he became the champion of Super Formula (That was a few years before he made the transition to Formula E in which he is one of the 2 Kiwis involved along with former Toyota Racing Series & GP3 champion Mitch Evans), but the biggest storyline in motorsport going into 2023 is fellow New Zealander & another one of the former Toyota Racing Series drivers of Marcus Armstrong finding a new ride to replace Jimmie Johnson who is heading back to NASCAR part time, in the legendary Chip Ganassi Racing to team up with the 6 time Indycar champion & Armstrong's childhood idol Scott Dixon for the road & street courses (With Japan's Takuma 'Taku' Sato (The former F1 driver who is the most successful Japanese driver in American open wheel racing since Tora Takagi 21 years ago when Sato triumphed in the Indy 500 twice in both 2017 & 2020) given the duties of racing on oval tracks) & will be one of 3 New Zealanders competing in Indycar along with Dixon & Penske driver as well as the former 3 time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin, but Marcus's main goal/objective is to beat the reigning 2 time Indycar Series champion from down under which is Australia (As well as the man who conquered the Indy 500 once in 2018 & is one of the strongest & fittest competitors ever to grace on the Indycar circuit ahead of last year's Indycar Series season), & one of McLaughlin's teammates in the Team Penske stable, Will Power (Who made Team Penske great again in Indycar when he won his 2nd title last year at Laguna Seca after he dominated qualifying where nobody was able to match Power's pole winning time as I mentioned in my previous blogs, but is looking to keep Team Penske great in Indycar if Power remains the champion this year (And yeah, that was a bit of a Donald Trump (The former US president who is running for president again in his last ditch bid of challenging the current US president of Joe Biden at the next US general elections next year) inspired reference that I made about Will Power's success in Indycar, just like South Africa did in 2019 when they won the Rugby World Cup against England (Who broke New Zealand hearts in the semifinal by ending our hopes of reaching another final in a bid for our historic 3rd straight RWC championship, but have never won the tournament since 2003 in which they famously beaten hosts at the time of Australia in the final in Sydney courtesy of a clutch drop goal provided by Jonny 'Wilko' Wilkinson) in the final in Yokohama, Japan (It was 4 years after the Japanese claimed the unthinkable as they shocked the rugby world with an historic upset win against the South Africans in Brighton, England during the pool game, dubbed as the Brighton Miracle with many male Japanese fans in the crowd getting emotional about the victory as Pops told me back in 2015, which turned the rugby world upside down) where they made South African rugby great again, but the Springboks are gunning to keep South African rugby great if they were to successfully defend the Rugby World Cup in France this year (And again I have made another one of the references, inspired by Trump about the Boks success at the 2019 tournament, but let's make New Zealand rugby great again after our failure in 2019 (That was the year before the global corona virus pandemic had happened in 2020 in March after the World Health Organisation had declared it when COVID-19 began to spread, resulting in both Euro 2020 (Won by Italy (Who didn't appear in the last 2 Football World Cups after failing to qualify twice on that occasion) after their victory against England (Who lost to France in the quarterfinal of the Football World Cup last year) on penalties at Wembley Stadium in London) & the Tokyo Olympics (In which our country of New Zealand won 7 gold medals at that games (The most in the modern era, but were 1 shy of the all time record set in Los Angeles in 1984 with 8) being delayed to a year) against the English in the semi, ending our quest of a 3rd consecutive Rugby World Cup title) as well as either McLaughlin who is the title favourite this year & the former 2 time champion of American Josef Newgarden who did it twice in 2017 & 2019) but the ticket price for the Indycar double-header in Iowa as well as their concerts are going to be high as well as being expensive/dear due to inflation still being affected worldwide according to the price hike in which most racing fans are livid about that.
And finally that the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (Who had a photo with both Pops & Carole back in 2020) is forced to give up the top job in the country as she announced that she's out as the Prime Minister of New Zealand by resigning, but I was shocked & surprised about the reaction of her calling her time as PM, who she served from 2017 until this year which is election year in which Ardern will not be seeking re-election as her daughter of Neve te Aroha who is preparing to go to school, so that's why she had to resign as she will remain Prime Minister until the day after Waitangi Day which is the 7th of February as she prepares to walk away from the leadership for good with many of the front runners are stepping up to replace Ardern.
So that is my 483rd blog of the year 2023 (MMXXIII) & my 7th of this year, viva Ukraine.
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