Well, there was a incredible Rugby World Cup story about the All Blacks thought that they would going to play the Wallabies (Who originally became the Rabbits in 1908 by some cheeky English press, but that name thought it was involuntary, & replaced it with Wallabies, the 1st time the name was used according to experienced New Zealand rugby broadcaster/commentator Grant Nisbett in the Rugby Challenge video game series) in the final of the 2011 tournament, but due to ramifications according to the comment that I remember now from Scotty 'Sumo' Stevenson made after Ireland's win over Australia in the pool games that the Aussies had shunted on the same side of the draw as the AB's meaning that we're playing against them in the semis at Eden Park (A night after the Welsh captain Sam Warburton's moment of madness had been escalated as he was red carded by the Irish referee Alain Rolland (Who did not get the chance of taking charge in a final again) for a tip tackle on a French player Vincent Clerc in which that have should've been yellow in which France won the semi by a single point with Wales hopes of reaching the final had been evaporated as well as being dead & buried) in Auckland, & we did by getting our 1st win against our trans-Tasman rivals at a RWC after 2 straight losses in both 1991 & 2003 behind them (One of the memorable moments in the semi was Israel Dagg went through the gap before being tackled by a Wallaby player in which he set the try it up with a beautiful offload infield to Ma'a Nonu who scored New Zealand's only try of the game & also Jerome Kaino manhandling Digby Ioane to stop a try being scored during the match & also, Aaron Cruden's drop goal that occurred in which I label it as critical), to reach the big dance against the French in a replay of the 1987 final in which we successfully won by a whisker to end a 24 year hoodoo as I mentioned in my blogs (And then 4 years later in 2015, we did play against the Australians in that memorable final of our lives in which I was stoked about it as I also mentioned in my blogs which was a trans-Tassie affair, in a successful bid to retain the Rugby World Cup in 2015 at Twickenham Stadium in London, England).
And there is floods throughout Auckland as they had to declare a state of emergency with several people evacuated from that course especially Auckland Airport (And there was an Elton John concert being called off at Mount Smart Stadium as a result of flooding but I hope both Andy & Kels are alright back in Auckland but their home (Except it was flooding in the garage a wee bit along with our place that it always gets flooded in our garage) hadn't been affected as Pops told me on the 29th of January).
And in sevens rugby news as the Black Ferns 7s becoming the last ever women's champion in Hamilton after their successful bid for glory at that event against the United States in the women's cup final in which they followed up to our win in Cape Town then the Argy Bargies became the last men's champion in Hamilton after they thought the All Blacks 7s had scored the winning try but was denied by the TV referee in which New Zealand were heartbroken & gutted about the defeat in the final, meaning that Argentina had won the men's cup final, inspired by their country's football team's success at the Football World Cup last year (1st it was Samoa in Cape Town who ended the All Blacks 7s hopes of becoming champions of that event then the Argentinians in Hamilton in which they held on for the win) but the next World Sevens Series event is in Sydney at the brand spanking new Allianz Stadium, which was won by both the Black Ferns 7s (Who had won 3 in a row including Cape Town in which we beat our traditional trans-Tasman rivals Australia then the USA at our home event in Hamilton & finally getting one over France again after previously met them with a win during the pool stages in Sydney but the most famous meeting between the Black Ferns & France was at Tokyo 2020 at the delayed Summer Olympic Games in 2021 in the gold medal match where New Zealand proved to be overwhemingly dominant to win gold & did have the chance to redeem ourselves after falling short in 2016 in Rio against the Wallaroos 7s in which we were so disappointed about the result as I mentioned in my previous blogs) & the All Blacks 7s (It was their 1st win of this season's World Rugby Sevens World Series circuit after missing out twice against Samoa in the wet in Cape Town, South Africa & Argentina in our final home event in Hamilton in which we were so gutted after our match winning try had been rubbed out/erased by the TV referee) who both recorded their shutout/clean sheet wins over the French women & Bitzbok 7s (Who beat the AB's 7s earlier in the tournament in the final pool game with 'Tricky Ricky' of Ricardo Duarttee scoring the match winning penalty goal at the death, resulting in heartbreak for New Zealand who got penalized for diving off our feet) respectively in the cup finals of the women's 1st then the men.
And in tennis related news happening in Australia as the finals of both the women's & men's the Australian open final are locked in as last year's Wimbeldon ladies singles champion from Kazakhstan of Elena Rybakina (Who defeated Victoria 'Vika' Azarenka (Formerly from Belarus who is now competing under a neutral nationality) in the semi) will do battle with ex-Belarussian of neutral nationality of Aryna Sabalenka (She beat her opponent of Poland's Magda Linette in the other semi) in the women's section then it's Greece's Stefanos 'Stef' Tsitsipas (The tennis player who defeated Karen Khachanov (An ex-Russian competing in a neutral nationality) & is of Russian origin because of his mother while his father named Apostolos is a full blooded Greek) in the 1st semifinal to reach his 1st Australian Open final & his 2nd grand slam final since he appeared at the French Open final in 2021) who'll do battle with Serbia's Novak Djokovic (Who had beaten American Tommy Paul in the other semi who is known both as 'The Djoker' &/or 'The Serbinator') in the men's section which is a rematch of the 2021 French Open men's singles final but there's been an update as Sabalenka wins her 1st grand slam title which is the Australian Open women's singles title against Rybakina by dominating the last 2 sets after dropping the 1st set, then a day later it was Djokovic's night as he is officially back of winning the Australian Open men's singles title in straight sets over Tsitsipas to claim his unprecedented 10th title (His 1st triumph came in 2008 when he beat Frenchman Jo Wilfred-Tsonga in the men's singles final way back then before he did it 9 times).
And continuing onto the rugby stuff as Ireland's Josh van der Flier (A man whose name is South African sounding according to Tony Johnson in commentary during a rugby test in 2016 that I remember but he is of Dutch origin) takes over from France's Antoine Dupont as the best rugby player in the world after being awarded the World Rugby men's player of the year (And he played a crucial but pivotal role when Ireland (Who seemed to be competitive against us when they gained from strength to strength since they beat us 5 times now) triumphed in the test series against New Zealand for the 1st time during the professional era (And the 1st side since France in 1994 before the sport had turned professional) as well as he was the 1st Irishman to achieve the award since Jonny Sexton (Who is seeking to become the 1st Irish captain to lift the prestigious William Webb Ellis trophy & in counter point, that he could pull off a Lionel Messi (The most recent Football World Cup winning captain for the Argentinians after Daniel Passarella (Who according to as one of the greatest defenders throughout that generation) in 1978 & his childhood idol as I mentioned in my previous blogs, the late Diego Maradona (Who was once regarded as the best Argentinian footballer ever produced of all time) in 1986 & one of by far, the world's greatest ever footballers during modern times for his country) by finishing off his international rugby career as a Rugby World Cup winning player as well as the winning skipper, but no foreign born head coach has ever won the RWC but will it be the Englishman Andy Farrell's time as a tournament winning coach? Even though with Farrell being rugby's equivalent of Pep Guardiola (The former Spanish football player who is now the coach/manager of current Premier League champions Manchester City in which he is widely regarded as the super coach) in 2018 & with the Irish setting their sights of reaching their 1st semifinal & 1st final at a Rugby World Cup in history after they struggled to reach the semi 7 times in the quarters but they are gunning to end their drought during the tournament) while women's rugby player of the year went to Black Ferns co-skipper Ruahei Demant for successfully guiding New Zealand of defending the 2021 women's Rugby World Cup last year & the coach of the year honours went to 'The Professor' of Wayne 'Smithy' Smith (The ex-Crusaders, All Blacks coach & AB's & Chiefs assistant coach who had taken over from Glenn Moore after their horrendous tour from hell in 2021 after record/landmark defeats in which the fell to both England twice & France twice) for his heroics when he coached the Black Ferns to a successful women's RWC glory in the same year.
And I've got a family photo frame taken at Kathryn & Ken's home in Northland in my room of Huia, Huia's partner (Although he's no longer together with her as of today), Huia's brother Ben, Ben's partner Sanne, Huia & Ben's mother Kathryn, Kathryn's partner Ken & last but not least, Huia & Ben's niece as well as Kathryn's grand-daughter & Gemma's daughter Rosalie that Ben gave it to Pops but I've put it in my bedroom anyway.
And finally in NFL news such as the Philadelphia Eagles led by its star quarterback Jalen Hurts secure a place in the Super Bowl for the 1st time since winning it in 2017 after hammering the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship which was overshadowed by dodgy officiating while the Kansas City Chiefs (Who haven't been to a Superbowl since 2021 & haven't won it since 2019) led by Patrick Mahomes who had an incredible performance have won the AFC championship against the Cincinnati Bengals after a game winning field goal attempt in the dying seconds, punched them a ticket to Superbowl LVII in which the game was marred by some terrible officiating which was questionable about the personal foul on a Bengals player for taking out Mahomes out of bounds.
So that is my 485th blog of the year 2023 (MMXXIII) & my 9th of this year, viva Ukraine.
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