Well, there are suggestions that which teams will face in the final of the men's 50 over Cricket World Cup, & it's going to be a dream final between the hosts India (Who haven't triumphed since 2011 in which they beat Sri Lanka in the final in Mumbai including captain at the time of MS Dhoni hitting the match winning six to achieve immortality for the 2nd time to add to their title in 1983 when they won against the West Indies in the final at Lord's where Kapil Dev had taken one of the best catches you'll ever see of all time to dismiss 'the Master Blaster' of Viv Richards which proved to be the game changer) & the 5 time champions Australia (Who has never won since 2015 in which they ended the Black Caps hopes of Cricket World Cup glory as Mitchell Starc easily bowled the New Zealand captain at the time of Brendon McCullum therefore they caused us to lose wickets as I mentioned in my previous blogs which proved to be the turning point) compared to the potential Rugby World Cup final matchup which is going to be the top ranked rugby playing nation in the world of Ireland (The heavy favourites who have never won a RWC title before but never reached beyond/past the quarterfinal stages of the Rugby World Cup but will their be their year? Well I hope not but to win the tournament, you've got to pick the right players as Pops told me on the day after ANZAC day) & the host nation of France (Who has never won the tournament before after coming so close on 3 occasions in both 1987 & 2011 against New Zealand (Our last triumph came in 2015 against the Wallabies (Who last tasted success in 1999) in one of the greatest Rugby World Cup finals ever by far as I mentioned in my previous blogs & are gunning to end 36 years of pain but will it happen for the 1st time if France had won the tournament on their home patch (Just like the All Blacks did in 1987 & 2011 & the Springboks in 1995)? I don't think so, but will it happen again if South Africa successfully defends rugby's most treasured prize which is the Rugby World Cup (Just like the AB's did in 2015)? No way (And I mean that, is rugby, & what did you expect? Did you think you could relax?) but will it be our year in terms of winning that tournament which is due in 5 months time? We'll see, but if we face Ireland in the quarterfinal (In which the All Blacks have never lost a quarterfinal game at a RWC since 2007 against France which was our most disappointing one therefore producing our worst result of the tournament so far) of this years Rugby World Cup, it'll be our country's biggest & most difficult but demanding, RWC game of our lives since the semifinal encounter against England in 2019) & 1999 against Australia).
And also there has once been a Formula 1 story about the ex-twice world champion of Fernando Alonso (Who is with Aston Martin now since he joined that team this year from Alpine & is the oldest driver in this years F1 grid at 41 or 42, therefore assuming that elder statesman role), whose last win came at his home Grand Prix in Spain in 2013 while driving for Ferrari then the last time the former 7 time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton (Who currently races for Mercedes in F1 since 2013 & is the 2nd oldest driver on the grid at 37 behind his former teammate at McLaren (Who got disqualified for leaking information such as classified documents from Ferrari therefore they lost all of their championship points in which the scandal was clearly known as Spygate in 2007, a year before Crashgate in which Nelson Piquet Jr was instructed by his race engineer to deliberately crash out during the first ever night race being staged in F1 history at the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix to allow Alonso a chance of winning the race (And after that, ING had pulled out as Renault's main sponsor following the Crashgate scandal during the 2009 season) & also Honda pulling out of the last minute of competing in the 2009 F1 season as a result of the global financial economic recession before Ross Brawn purchased them in a buyout (This is like WCW (World Championship Wrestling) being the chief rival of the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) 25 years ago in 1998, 3 years before the World Wrestling Federation's buyout of World Championship Wrestling in 2001 (This was the year before the WWF had to be renamed the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) because it sounded too much like the World Widlife Fund), & now AEW (All Elite Wrestling) is now the chief rival of the World Wrestling Entertainment this year) & then became Brawn GP which competed for just the one season which ended in glory with Jenson 'JB' Button (Who hailed as Britain's next world champion when he made his Formula 1 debut in 2000 with Williams whose career seemed to be going down the plughole at the very moment Lewis Hamilton was rocketing to stardom in 2008 just before the events unfolded in the 2009 season) winning the drivers title & Brawn (Who later became Mercedes from 2010 onwards) becoming the constructors champion which shocked the F1 world) in 2007 of Alonso but I didn't know that he's been knighted a few years ago for his services to motor racing meaning that he is now Sir Lewis Hamilton) won an F1 race, it was at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021 (That was before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix where Red Bull's Max Verstappen (One of now my favourite Formula 1 drivers now since Sir Lewis Hamilton stopped winning in due course when Verstappen (Best known as the son of former F1 & A1GP ace Jos as well as being the most successful racing car driver from Holland since Arie Luyendyk & his 2 Indianapolis 500 wins in both 1990 & 1997) took over as the sport's number 1 driver, although our Kiwi F1 fans are in favour of the Mexican of Sergio Perez as well) ended Hamilton's hopes of a record 8th F1 title (And if Hamilton held off Verstappen & won both the race as well as the title, he would've solidified his legendary status as one of the greatest racing car drivers of all time in F1 history), by overtaking him on the last lap of the Grand Prix in which he won both the race & his 1st of 2 world championships that he won as well as becoming the 1st Dutch F1 driver to do so of winning the title, but there has been a Dutch takeover in motor racing according to the blog that I did last year with Max Verstappen winning his 1st 2 titles in F1 in both 2021 (That season was labelled as one of the greatest F1 seasons of all time in the history of the sport, & it must've been the sim racing stuff that propelled Max Verstappen into greatness) & last year & last but not least, a Kiwi of Dutch origin of Shane 'SVG' van Gisbergen who won both consecutive Supercars Championship titles in both 2021 & last year to add to his 1st championship that he won in 2016 as well as both victories at the great race which is the Bathurst 1000 in 2020 & last year with Australian Garth Tander (The 2007 champ) but this year he is teaming up with another Kiwi, Richie Stanaway for both the returning Sandown 500 event & the big one which is the Bathurst 1000 this year) & of course the current 2 time world champion Max Verstappen's most recent win in F1 came at the most recent Grand Prix in Australia filled with drama where the race was red flagged not once not twice but 3 times which resulted in 3 standing starts when all 3 world champions (2 former & 1 current) appeared on the podium altogether (Compared to Italian born naturalized American citizen Mario Andretti (Father of former driver turned team owner of Michael & grandfather of Marco who was an Indycar driver), synonymous with American motor racing who triumphed in the Indianapolis 500 in 1969 (The only time the Andretti family have tasted success at Indy) & the Formula 1 World Championship in 1978, being the last American to do so & of course he raced until he was 54 in 1994 when he officially retired from competitive motor racing (Compared to our own Kiwi of Kenny Smith who is still competing in motor racing at 81 & is also synonymous with New Zealand motor racing as well as the 4 time Indy 500 winner from Brazil of Helio Castroneves being the oldest to compete in this years Indycar grid at 47 since Jimmie Johnson walked away from Indycar racing to compete in NASCAR again, compared to the 6 time Indycar champion from our country of New Zealand of Scott Dixon who is 42 & the current twice Indycar champion of Australia's Will Power who is 41 years of age (And the younger gen have taken over such as 2021 Indycar champion from Spain of Alex Palou as well as Mexico's Pato O'Ward & the son of American racing car driver Bryan of 22 year old Colton Herta (Who is an American just like his father but he is a member of the lesser known rock band called the Zibs as a drummer when he's not racing compared to Riley Hawk (Son of the world famous skateboarding legend & icon Tony) who is a member of another lesser known rock band, Warish as the lead singer & guitarist but he used to be a skateboarder just like his famous father, until he had that injury which ended his chances of competing at the big time & is a massive fan of the stoner rock music genre (The one famous rock band that is part of the stoner rock music genre is Queens of the Stone Age), but it's great to have Formula 1 back on Sky Sport here in New Zealand after Spark Sport (Which is going to be defunct from July this year) had the broadcasting rights which lasted from 2019 until last year (And the next F1 grand prix racing event takes place at round 4 in Baku in Azerbaijan on the weekend of the 28th to the 30th of April (The winner of the most recent race which had taken place last year went to none other than Verstappen (Who has both wins this year compared to his teammate at Red Bull Racing (Led by its famous head honcho of former British racing car driver Christian Horner (Who is married to a former Spice Girl named Geri Haliwell-Horner who is due to appear in the upcoming film of the Gran Turismo movie which is based of the life of GT Academy winner of Jann Mardenborough (Son of famous footballer Steve) of 'Checo' Perez (He shares the same nickname as Italian America's Cup sailor Francesco Bruni) who won it once in Saudi Arabia but the son of an F1 driver is doing well in motor racing as the young Austrian Charlie Wurz (Son of famous driver Alexander who competed in Formula Ford in the 1990's (And Charlie describes that his father Alex once said that the New Zealand drivers are known for their aggression) in New Zealand before going on to compete in the DTM in 1996 & Formula 1 from 1997 to 2000 (He drove for Benetton during that period) & 2007 (He competed with Williams for one season after he spent time with McLaren as a test driver in which he competed just the one race at the San Marino Grand Prix in 2005 then he retired from F1 & was a twice the winning driver of the 24 Hours of Le Mans) had won the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship (Formerly the Toyota Racing Series & is known to produce drivers such as our own New Zealander Liam Lawson (The former champion who currently competes in Super Formula in Japan as well as being the test & reserve driver of Alphatauri & is touted as New Zealand's next big Formula 1 star (Although Brendon Hartley was the last Kiwi to compete in F1 in 2018, a year after his debut at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas), Brazilian Igor Fraga (One of the ex-champs who is the inaugural Gran Turismo World Champion in 2018 followed by German Mikal Hizal, Japan's Takuma Miyazono, Italian Valerio Gallo & Spain's Coque Lopez & is currently competing in Super Formula Lights (Which is one step below Super Formula (The main open wheel racing series in Japan compared to Indycar in North America & Formula 1 worldwide) this year), Britain's Lando Norris (The 2016 champion who is the current F1 driver competing for the McLaren (Which is an iconic British sports car manufacturer, but is founded by a New Zealander of the late Bruce McLaren who was a famous race car driver & is one of 3 New Zealanders that were part of the golden generation of New Zealand motor racing drivers in the 1960's along with the late Chris Amon (Father of his children of both Georgia & James) & the late Dennis 'Denny' Hulme (Our country's one & only F1 world champion in 1967) according to the blogs that I did last year) F1 team) & Canada's Lance Stroll (The son of a famous Canadian billionaire of Lawrence who is currently competing in Formula 1 driving for Aston Martin who was champion of the TRS in 2015) title (Who beat his teammate of Callum Hedge (The young 19 year old New Zealander currently competing in both the United States in Formula Regional Americas, & in Australia in Porsche Carrera Cup Australia) in an epic title battle for the ages) by following his father's footsteps of racing in New Zealand, but he's now competing in the Formula Regional European Championship for ART Grand Prix).
And a quick sports flash such as our own Kiwi who fights under the Nigerian flag of Israel Adesanya regaining the middleweight title over Brazil's Alex Pereira (Who had to move up to another weight class after his defeat in the hands of the fighter known as 'The Last Style Bender') via way of KO (Knock-out)/TKO (Technical knock-out) at UFC 287 in Miami, Florida in one of the greatest revenge stories in sport (First, Adesanya got defeated by Pereira, then Pereira lost during his title defence against the Nigerian-Kiwi fighter in what was in fact, a different story), then the All Blacks sevens claim an unlikely victory over Argentina in the cup final to win the sevens event in Singapore (And that's our 4th to go with our titles won in Sydney, Los Angeles & Hong Kong) with New Zealand having to clinch the automatic qualification spot at the Paris Olympics next year, therefore capping off an incredible New Zealand Easter sporting weekend that happened.
And so many sporting events to look forward to this year such as the Football Women's World Cup being held in Australia & New Zealand (The United States are the current holders, having previously won the 2019 edition of the tournament against the Netherlands (Who'll play the Americans again during the group stages in a rematch of the 2019 final) in the final at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in the Lyon suburb of Decines-Charpieu) followed by the Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa (In which the Silver Ferns of New Zealand are the defending champions going into the 2023 edition of the event having previously won in 2019 by a single point against our Trans-Tassie rivals Australia in the final in Liverpool, England to claim our 1st World Championship since 2003 in Jamaica to add to our crown that we won in 1987) then the Rugby World Cup in France (South Africa are the reigning champs going into the 2023 edition of the tournament having previously won at the most recent RWC 2019 against England (Who knocked the All Blacks (Who were without the injured Damian McKenzie which changed the course of the World Cup, but we could've used him should he had not been injured during a Super Rugby game) out in the semifinal ending our bid of a successful historic 1st ever threepeat as I also mentioned in my previous blogs in which we were heartbroken) in that infamous final at Yokohama Stadium in Yokohama, Japan) which I'm always most looking forward to (And hopefully the Rugby World Cup this year will be better than the Football World Cup late last year (And watching the final of last years Football World Cup as well as seeing Argentina win on penalties against France was my life changing moment throughout the football side of it) & of course the men's 50 over Cricket World Cup being staged in India (The English are the current holders going into the tournament, having previously won in 2019 against the Black Caps (Whose hopes of winning our 1st CWC crown proved costly as Martin Guptill was run out by Jos Buttler off an incredible throw by Jason Roy that won them their 1st World Cup but the English had scored the most boundaries than us according to the boundary count back regulation) in the final which was decided by a super over at Lord's in London).
And the latest on the cricket as former Black Caps captain Kane Williamson (Who was the 1st ever World Test Championship winning captain when he led the Black Caps to a successful triumph against India in that memorable final at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton in 2021 in front of 4,000 people which was a corona virus capacity) has been ruled out of this years men's 50 over Cricket World Cup as a result of a serious injury sustained during an IPL game in India (It was shades of Sevu Reece getting injured during a Super Rugby Pacific rugby match between the Blues & the Crusaders in which he is ruled out of the Rugby World Cup altogether with a bad injury) which is going to hamper the Black Caps bid of ending 48 years of agony & hurt (And losing him was a hell of a blow, but this'll be a massive blow for New Zealand & our chances of winning our 1st men's 50 over Cricket World Cup title to add to our WTC crown in 2021 & the ICC Knockout Trophy title in 2000) after coming oh so close twice of claiming cricket's biggest prize in 2015 against co-hosts Australia & 2019 against previous hosts England, but the next most important cricket match is the World Test Championship final between Australia & India at the Oval in London on the 7th to the 11th of June followed by the most important test cricket series in the world which is the Ashes between the Brendon McCullum coached & Ben Stokes led England (Who have not won an Ashes series since 2015 but is it time to unleash Baz ball against the Aussies? We'll see) hosting the current holders of the Ashes which is the Aussies (Who have been the defending holders since 2017/18) coached by former test player Andrew 'Ron' McDonald (Who took over from former test player Justin 'Alfie/JL' Langer since early last year after the events of the previous Ashes series being staged) & led by Pat Cummins (Who has been captain of Australia in the test format when he took over from Tim Paine since the most recent Ashes test cricket series in 2021-22 in Australia) which is held between June to August & the big one is the men's 50 over Cricket World Cup being staged in India (The twice world champions (First 1983 then 2011 in which they have never won since) who have not won since 2011) where the English (Champions of the most recent tournament in 2019) are the defending champions going into the tournament (And Australia was the last side to defend the men's 50 over Cricket World Cup back in 2003 but will this be England's year as they become the 1st team since the Aussies to retain the title? No way).
And I was telling Leon at Caroline's on Easter Sunday about Morocco's fairytale run to the semifinal of the Football World Cup last year when the Moroccans (Who had their previous coach/manager of Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic being sacked 3 months out until the tournament, allowing one of the assistant coaches of Walid Regragui (Who is a French born Moroccan) to take over as coach/manager of the Morocco football team which featured foreigners including 14 of them who opted to play for the Moroccans including Younes 'Yassine' Bounou who was born in Canada, then includes the Spanish born star talisman Achraf Hakimi, Sofiyan Amrabat who originally comes from the Netherlands along with Hakim Ziyech & Sofiane Boufal who was originally a Frenchman) became the 1st African side to reach the semis (They famously crashed the 2010 champs & 3 time European champions Spain (Featuring Aymeric Laporte of Man City as their main man for their country) out on penalties, then put the Cristiano Ronaldo led Portugal (Champions of both Euro 2016 & the 2019 UEFA Nations League) to bed in the quarters when they made history, but they missed out on a win against the 2 time defending champions at the time & twice European champions of France (Which featured Kylian Mbappe who stepped up to that occasion as the leading star player for the French following the injury to Karim Benzema before the tournament had started) in the semi), compared to my thoughts to Dad (Who is a bit of a league fan himself) about the Samoa rugby league team reaching the 2021 Rugby League World Cup final which was held last year in which they became the 1st Pacific Island nation in history to do so of reaching the big dance (1st they defeated Tonga in the quarterfinal which was a bit of payback when the Samoans lost to them in 2017 in the pools, then they upstaged the host nation at the time of England in that infamous semi including that match winning field goal provided by twice premiership winning player for the Penrith Panthers of Stephen Crichton (Who is a teammate of Jarome Luai in both club & international level), exacting revenge after their defeat in their opening pool game before falling short to the dominant Kangaroos side of Australia (Which featured a star studded team including captain James 'Teddy' Tedesco, Daly 'DCE' Cherry-Evans, Valentine 'Val' Holmes, Cameron Munster, Nathan Cleary (Son of famous league player who used to play for the New Zealand Warriors of Ivan & one of Crichton & Luai's teammates with Penrith), Josh Addo-Carr (The one who broke New Zealand hearts where he scored a try during the game to put the semi beyond doubt which proved to be the turning point) & Lindsay Collins) in the final).
And finally the latest on the Super Rugby Pacific competition as the results of the 7th round of the competition are in:
Crusaders 38 - 21 Moana Pasifika (It was the Crusaders who got the job done as they maintain their 100% winning record against Moana (Who gave the Crusaders a real fright when they led at halftime but it wasn't enough to down the Crusaders who is 4th on the table behind the Brumbies) in Super Rugby Pacific at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch)
Reds 24 - 52 Brumbies (And it was the Brumbies who remain in 3rd in the compeition ahead of the Crusaders to remain Australia's best when they overpower the Reds at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane)
Highlanders 14 - 29 Hurricanes (It was the Hurricanes night as they pummel the Highlanders at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin as they take over the lead of the standings ahead of the unbeaten Chiefs)
& Rebels 17 - 54 Blues (And it was the Blues (Who had their 1st game at AAMI Park since the Super Round in which poor discipline cost the Blues chance of winning against the Brumbies) who thrash the Rebels (Who dominated the 1st half before the Blues took control of the 2nd half & won with Mark Telea who got yellow carded along with Cabous Eloff of the Rebels (Who can't spare any more front row & lock replacements late in the game & they were down to 13 players after hooker Alex Mafi left the field with an injury along with reserve hooker Jordan Uelese & others like prop forward Pone Fa'amausili & lock forward Trevor Hosea), scoring a hat trick of tries during the match) at AAMI Park in Melbourne).
So that is my 495th blog of the year 2023 (MMXXIII) & my 19th of this year, viva Ukraine.
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