Well, I have been sharing a lot of stories on my blogs, especially around the sporting department as well as sometimes the international world news & of course sometimes, our family life, but there was once a rugby story that after the 57 - 0 hammering by the All Blacks in 2017 that the Springboks (Who had Raymond Rhule being overlooked for the next test (Then he was dropped from the squad after the events of the 2017 Rugby Championship) after missing a heap of tackles during the game in his worst performance in the Springbok jersey) had hired a new coach in the form of former player Rassie Erasmus (Who is no longer the coach when Jacques Nienaber took over as their current coach since 2020, but Erasmus is currently the director of rugby for the Springboks) a year later in 2018 (The year that South Africa delivered when they pulled off the unthinkable to defeat the All Blacks at Westpac Stadium at the time in Wellington where they gained from strength to strength according to the blog that I did last year, gave them relief for South Africa which set the tone as part of their motivating factor building towards their success at the tournament a year later in Japan) to replace Allister Coetzee, a year out until their successful Rugby World Cup glory in a campaign dubbed as 'Chasing the Sun' against England (The AB's nemesis in the semi) in the final at International Stadium Yokohama in Yokohama (To win their 3rd RWC crown inspired by their triumphs in 1995 & 2007 also according to the blog that I did last year & to equal with New Zealand (Champions in 1987 (That was Pops most memorable RWC moment), 2011 (Dad prefers this one as his standout) & 2015 (My most memorable moment of the Rugby World Cup not only that I was stoked about it) as the most successful then the South Africans became the 1st side in history to win the tournament after beginning their campaign with defeat ironically, against the All Blacks (Similar to Spain (Who lost to Switzerland in the opening game before winning all 6 games en route to the title including the final against the Netherlands at Soccer City in Soweto, South Africa in which Andres Iniesta had scored the winning goal during the 2nd period of extra time (It was similar 4 years later in 2014 in the final at the Maracana in Rio, Brazil between Germany who won in the end & Argentina (It was a rematch of the controversial final in 1990 where West Germany at the time won) led by Messi (In his 1st World Cup final which ended in failure, but the Argentinians had a massive turnaround 8 years later against the French in the final) where a winning goal had scored during the 2nd period of extra time which belonged to the German of Mario Goetze) did in 2010 at the Football World Cup along with Argentina (Who just had the one blemish against Saudi Arabia in the tournament opener at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar...then took victory in all of their remaining matches in style including the penalty shootout victory against the defending world champions at the time of France in one of the greatest Football World Cup final in history at the same venue to become world champions) last year in captain Lionel Messi's final ever World Cup game which was a fairytale farewell for him of bringing the Football World Cup trophy back to Argentina after 36 years (In which was the days of the late Diego Maradona who passed away in 2020 & his nation's success of securing their 2nd of 3 Football World Cups that the Argentinians won along with 1978 at their home World Cup led by Daniel Passarella featuring the likes of Mario Kempes) that Erasmus had been touted as the next successful South African rugby coach, then he chose Siya Kolisi to be their captain when Kolisi was hailed as South Africa's future RWC winning captain.
And I once heard a story from Carole about her bro Martin playing tennis against the French great Yannick Noah that every time Marty plays against him, he would lose every damn time, but hell he's so difficult to play against (And unlike Pops beating Dad in tennis matches every time, until Dad turned 14 when he started beating Pops as I heard a story from Pops on the 31st of May when me, Pops & Carole were at The Cobb).
And in motor racing news such as the former twice Indycar champion of Josef Newgarden had won his 1st Indianapolis 500, becoming the 1st American since Alexander Rossi in 2016 (This was the year before Takuma Sato (Japan's most successful racing car driver in American open wheel racing since Toranosuke 'Tora' Takagi according to the blog that I did in February this year) won in 2017 then the defending 2 time Indycar champion Will Power (Who is Australia's most successful racing car driver since the good old days of Alan 'AJ' Jones who won the Formula 1 World Championship in 1980) won it in 2018 becoming the 1st Australian to do so followed by Frenchman Simon Pagenaud in 2019 then Sato again in 2020 which was a COVID-19 affected year as well as Brazil's Helio Castroneves in 2021 as he becomes the most successful driver at the Indy 500 with 4 to join the likes of AJ Foyt, the late 'Big Al' of Al Unser & Rick Mears as well as being the most successful foreign driver to triumph in that event, & Marcus Ericsson last year in which he became the 2nd Swedish driver to win after Kenny Brack in 1999 after his CGR teammate Scott Dixon nearly pulled it off, of winning his 2nd Indy 500 after a pit stop gone wrong which proved costly) to win that prestigious motor racing event in the United States (And I'm not sure that he'll be heading to Formula 1 after his success in the Indianapolis 500 this year, but he'll likely to remain in Indycar for the time being, & for the forseeable future), but I didn't watch it because of the drivers other than the 2 Kiwis of Scott Dixon & Scott McLaughlin were always going to win, & they did when they pulled it off.
And here are the results of the penultimate round of round 14 of the Super Rugby Pacific competition:
Highlanders 35 - 30 Reds (And yes that game was by far, the match of the round when Folau (He'll be the 1st choice halfback for the Landers when next year's Super Rugby Pacific competition begins) had a chance to win it for the Highlanders at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin, & he successfully did when he picked the ball up from the ruck then did a dummy before running all the way to the try line to secure the win to keep their playoff hopes alive in Aaron 'Nuggy' Smith's farewell home game as he is announced that he'll be playing for Toyota Verblitz in the Japan Rugby League One competition (And Folau's match winning try was easily the best finishes in the game so far in terms of Super Rugby Pacific this year)
Rebels 52 - 14 Force (It was the Rebels night as they hammered the Force at AAMI Park in Melbourne to boost their playoff bid)
Fijian Drua 47 - 46 Moana Pasifika (It was the Fijian Drua's day as they decimated the winless Moana Pasifika (Who are useless this season as they remain at the bottom of the table & is on a brink of a historic collapse, by completing the season without a single win) by a single point at Churchill Park in Lautoka by delivering both a Boston Celtics & Dallas Stars inspired performance)
Crusaders 42 - 18 Waratahs (And it was the Crusaders who won in the end against the Tahs at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch despite their disappointing game beset with injuries to key players such as Cullen Grace & David Havili (And they go into the last round of the regular season against the Hurricanes with many key men being dealt with injuries (And their reign as Super Rugby champions could end in an instant, not only a new SR Pacific champion will be crowned) while the Crusaders had handed a debut to one of the 39 year old prop forwards of former Blues & 2011 Rugby World Cup winning player of John Afoa who became the oldest player in Super Rugby history, breaking the previous all time record set by Ben May last year (And Afoa had to head back home to his country of birth of New Zealand on Thursday from France to join up the Crusaders squad as injury cover).
Blues 36 - 25 Hurricanes (And it was the Blues who scraped past the Hurricanes (Who had to bring back the trio of captain Ardie Savea, Jordie Barrett & Tyrel Lomax) to host a home quarterfinal at Eden Park in Auckland with 2 test All Black Mark Telea delivering another super human like performance just like in the Highlanders game in Dunedin in the opening round as he scored 4 tries in the game)
& Brumbies 21 - 31 Chiefs (And it was the Chiefs (Who had to rest both Anton Lienert-Brown & Tupou Vaa'i through the AB's rest requirements policy as the majority of the All Blacks top players cannot afford to play their 6th match in a row in Super Rugby Pacific) who were dominant against Australia's best which is the Brumbies (Who brought back their big guns for their all important clash) at GIO Stadium Canberra in Canberra to confirm themselves that they remained on top of the table)
So that is my 502nd blog of the year 2023 (MMXXIII) & my 26th of this year, viva Ukraine.
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