Well, there has been a rugby related story about Australian Eddie Jones (Who is known as boomerang Eddie since he took over from Dave Rennie as coach of the Wallabies again, & they're after them of taking back the Bledisloe Cup for the first time since 20 years ago, way back in 2003 where New Zealand have been the current holders of the Bledisloe since) being given the honor as the only coach to have never lost against the All Blacks (Who'll begin our road to redemption which is against the host nation of France on the 8th of September at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis) at a Rugby World Cup (First it was Australia in 2003 where Stirling Mortlock's intercept try in the semifinal ended New Zealand's hopes of reaching the final (And cue the disappointment as the All Blacks coach (And father of cricketer Daryl) John Mitchell had lost his job, allowing Graham Henry to take over from 2004 until our successful RWC glory in 2011) as I mentioned in my previous blogs followed by England in 2019 where they made no mistakes as they ended the All Blacks 19 match unbeaten streak at a Rugby World Cup & kissed our hopes of winning 3 Rugby World Cups in a row goodbye (And it must have been our poor discipline in the latter stages of the game after Ardie Savea had scored a try to put ourselves back in the contest that cost them our chance of reaching another final, especially Sam Whitelock who nearly got yellow carded by Welsh referee Nigel Owens by giving him a warning, but that all important try scored by Samoan born Englishman Manu Tuilagi during the semi, broke New Zealand hearts to put the game beyond doubt which proved to be the turning point when they progressed through to the final against the South Africans for their unsuccessful challenge of winning the Rugby World Cup), both coached by Jones), & we may face Australia (Their 1st game of the tournament is against Georgia at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on September the 9th) in the semifinal of the tournament just like in 1991, 2003 & 2011, even if we overcome either Ireland (Who Tonga will start their campaign with against the defending Six Nations champions as well as the heavy tournament favourites & the top ranked rugby playing nation in the world on the 16th of September in Nantes) or the reigning champs South Africa (The last time the Springboks (Who begin their title defence against Scotland on the 10th of September at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille) had been defeated in a RWC game was against us in the opening pool game in 2019 before winning 6 in a row en route to the title (It was against neighbours Namibia (Who are in Pool A in this years tournament along with New Zealand, hosts France, Italy & Uruguay) then Italy (The only tier 1 rugby playing nation to have never reached the knockout stages of the tournament) & Canada (Who failed to qualify in this years Rugby World Cup as they got beaten by newcomers Chile in an Americas qualification match in 2021) in the pool games, hosts at the time of Japan (Who turned the rugby world upside down in 2015 in which they famously stunned the Boks in one of the tournament's biggest shocks & are in Pool D in this years tournament along with England, Argentina, Samoa (Who begin their campaign against tournament debutants Chile in Bordeaux on the 16th of September) & Chile) in the quarterfinals in which they easily beat them, Wales (Who are in Pool C of this years Rugby World Cup along with Australia, Fiji (Who will commence their campaign against the Welsh also on September the 10th in Bordeaux but the Fijians have never beaten them since 2007 at a Rugby World Cup), Georgia & Portugal) in the semi which was a close encounter, & the AB's chief tormentors England in the final to claim their 3rd RWC title, inspired by their previous triumphs in 1995 & 2007 (In which Jones was the assistant coach as well as being the technical adviser for South Africa under head coach Jake White (One of 3 South African coaches who have successfully won the Rugby World Cup along with the late Kitch Christie & ex-Springbok player Rassie Erasmus who played in the 1999 tournament 20 years before he was the coach in the 2019 edition of the tournament which ended in glory) as I also mentioned in my previous blogs) in the quarterfinal of this years RWC.
Well, the finalists of this years World Test Championship final are in as Australia (The current holders of the Ashes which is scheduled in June between the hosts England & the Aussies who will appear in their very 1st ever WTC final, taking New Zealand's place) will play India (The hosts of this years men's 50 over Cricket World Cup scheduled for October to November this year who will appear in another final after Sri Lanka lost dramatically against the Black Caps in the 1st test at Hagley Oval in Christchurch (Including former test captain Kane Williamson thought that he was out run out on the last ball of the match on the 5th & final day of the 1st test, but he made it as the ex-skipper in the test format was home & safe with an unbeaten 121, therefore securing an unlikely victory (And the Black Caps went on to win the 2nd test in style as well as the series against the Sri Lankans by an innings & 58 runs at Cello Basin Reserve in Wellington, with Kane Williamson (Who was player of the series) top scoring 215 & then all of a sudden, Henry Nicholls (Who is best known as the brother of Black Caps media manager Willy) producing an unbeaten 200 in the first innings in which he was awarded player of the game honours), hoping to redeem themselves after losing to New Zealand who triumphed in 2021 by winning our 2nd ICC sanctioned tournament (Our 1st since 2000 in the ICC Knockout Trophy ironically, against the Indians in our memorable match of our lives) in Southampton) at the Oval on the 7th to 11th of June + a reserve day on the 12th of June.
And the latest on the Super Rugby Pacific competition as the results of the 3rd round of the competition are in:
Chiefs 28 - 7 Highlanders (It was the Chiefs night as they remain flawless this year after a win against the poor old Highlanders at FMG Stadium in Waikato)
Rebels 34 - 27 Waratahs (And it was the Rebels night as they claim an unlikely upset win over the Waratahs at AAMI Park in Melbourne)
Fijian Drua 25 - 24 Crusaders (And yes, that game was by far, the biggest boil over in Super Rugby Pacific history in which the Drua prevailed over the defending champions in front of a packed crowd at Churchill Park in Lautoka with a match winning penalty goal scored by none other than Kemu Valentini (Brother of Brumbies & Wallabies player Rob)
Hurricanes 19 - 25 Blues (And it was the Blues night as they became the 1st side to beat the Hurricanes (Who were without inspirational captain Ardie Savea as he is suspended for this match) in this years Super Rugby Pacific season at Sky Stadium in Wellington)
Brumbies 23 - 17 Reds (It was the Brumbies night as they manhandled the Reds to maintain their 100% winning record in 2023 at Canberra Stadium in Canberra)
& Force 21 - 18 Moana Pasifika (It was the Force night as they deny Moana Pasifika (Who had Mike McKee recieved a 20 minute red card for a no arms tackle which resulted in a head on head clash on Force hooker Folau Fainga'a) a win at HBF Park in Perth for their 2nd win of the season)
And finally, onto the Six Nations news as the results of round 4 are also in:
Italy 17 - 29 Wales (It was the Welsh who gained revenge from last year's result over the Italians at Stadio Olimpico in Rome)
England 10 - 53 France (And it was the hosts of this years Rugby World Cup who completely hammered England (Who had suffered their worst defeat at home & by having a mistake of naming England captain Owen Farrell on the bench) in a blowout for the ages at the home of English rugby at Twickenham in London)
& Scotland 7 - 22 Ireland (And it was Ireland who claim another scalp over Scotland (First Wales, then France & of course Italy) to remain undefeated in both the Six Nations & this year, but their 9 match winning streak (Their last defeat came was against New Zealand a year ago) as well as their hopes & dreams of achieving both the Six Nations title for the 1st time since 2018 & the grand slam, is on the line when they go into the next game against England in Dublin in the last round of the Six Nations competition in which this key matchup is sorta like a Rugby World Cup final)
So that is my 491st blog of the year 2023 (MMXXIII) & my 15th of this year, viva Ukraine.
No comments:
Post a Comment