Well, the All Blacks squad has just been announced so here is the list of 36 (Or 37) players being included in the 2023 Rugby Championship squad (And it is the 1st time I'll be doing the squad naming since 2 years ago in 2021):
Hookers:
Codie Taylor (32, Crusaders / Canterbury, 76)
Dane Coles (36, Hurricanes / Wellington, 84)
Samisoni Taukei’aho (25, Chiefs / Waikato, 24)
Props:
Ethan de Groot (24, Highlanders / Southland, 13)
Fletcher Newell (23, Crusaders / Canterbury, 6)
Nepo Laulala (31, Blues / Counties Manukau, 45)
Ofa Tu’ungafasi (31, Blues / Northland, 50)
Tamaiti Williams (22, Crusaders / Canterbury, *)
Tyrel Lomax (27, Hurricanes / Tasman, 23)
Locks:
Brodie Retallick (32, Chiefs / Hawkes Bay, 100)
Josh Lord (22, Chiefs / Taranaki, 2)
Samuel Whitelock (34, Crusaders / Canterbury, 143)
Scott Barrett (29, Crusaders / Taranaki, 58)
Tupou Vaa’i (23, Chiefs / Taranaki, 18)
Loose forwards:
Ardie Savea (29, Hurricanes / Wellington, 70)
Dalton Papali’i (25, Blues / Counties Manukau, 22)
Luke Jacobson (26, Chiefs / Waikato, 12)
Sam Cane (captain) (31, Chiefs / Bay of Plenty, 86)
Samipeni Finau (24, Chiefs / Waikato, *)
Shannon Frizell (29, Highlanders / Tasman, 25)
Halfbacks:
Aaron Smith (34, Highlanders / Manawatu, 114)
Finlay Christie (27, Blues / Tasman, 14)
Cam Roigard (22, Hurricanes / Counties Manukau, *)
First-five eighths:
Beauden Barrett (32, Blues / Taranaki, 112)
Damian McKenzie (28, Chiefs / Waikato, 40)
Richie Mo’unga (29, Crusaders / Canterbury, 44)
Midfielders:
Anton Lienert-Brown (28, Chiefs / Waikato, 60)
Jordie Barrett (26, Hurricanes / Taranaki, 48)
Rieko Ioane (26, Blues / Auckland, 59)
Braydon Ennor (25, Crusaders / Canterbury, 6)
Dallas McLeod (24, Crusaders / Canterbury, *)
Outside backs:
Caleb Clarke (24, Blues / Auckland, 15)
Emoni Narawa (23, Chiefs / Bay of Plenty, *)
Leicester Fainga’anuku (23, Crusaders / Tasman, 2)
Mark Telea (26, Blues / North Harbour, 2)
Will Jordan (25, Crusaders / Tasman, 21)
Shaun Stevenson (26, Chiefs / North Harbour, *) *
*: Called in as injury cover for Mark Telea
Unavailable through injury:
Angus Ta’avao, Ethan Blackadder, Cullen Grace, David Havili, Joe Moody, George Bower, Patrick Tuipulotu, Quinn Tupaea, Sevu Reece and TJ Perenara.
And what do I think of the squad naming? Five new faces, including Samipeni Finau, Dallas McLeod, Emoni Narawa, Cam Roigard & Tamaiti Williams have at least made it as on of the rookies in the squad, but no Brad Weber who didn't get in as well as Asafo Aumua, Folau, Jack Goodhue, Akira Ioane as well as Stephen Perofeta (And we have one player in the All Blacks XV squad which is one of Pops old students of Jona Nareki but 3 years of hard work has come down to all of this of making the AB's XV squad) & Hoskins Sotutu who has been dropped from the squad after his miserable Super Rugby Pacific form this year as he wasn't been selected in both the AB's & the All Blacks XV, well, that is a shame.
And tragedy has struck on the Titan sub near the wreckage of the Titanic as all 5 of them had been killed as a result of an implosion in Nova Scotia in Canada with flags being flown at half-mast & I mean that is totally shocking, absolutely shocking that Canada is in mourning about the disaster so all thoughts, prayers & condolences go to the families, friends & colleagues of the 5 victims who lost their lives during that sad & difficult time.
And in football related news such as Spain featuring its main player from Manchester City of Aymeric Laporte (Who was born in France but opted to play for Spain mainly because of him being of Spanish origin) have won the UEFA Nations League for the 1st time on penalties against the Luka Modric led Croatia (Who have yet to win a major football trophy after appearing in the 2018 Football World Cup final against France (Who appeared in another final at a Football World Cup last year against Argentina led by its mercurial skipper of Lionel Messi in which they went down & missed out on successfully defending the World Cup which was decided on penalties) which ended in defeat) in the final over in Rotterdam in the Netherlands (And they also won against Italy with a match winning goal provided by Joselu in the 88th minute in the semifinal) to capture their 1st major trophy since their triumph at Euro 2012 & to join the likes of both Portugal (The Euro 2016 champions who won the inaugural edition in 2019) & France (The twice European & twice World champions who won it in 2021 (The same year that the Italians won the Euros where they had to win on spot kicks against England (Who had their home crowd right behind them at Wembley, but fell short on that occasion) in the final while the French were outlasted by Switzerland on spot kicks in the Round of 16 during the tournament) ironically against Spain (Who redeemed themselves of winning this years edition 2 years after losing to the French) as the other champions of the UEFA Nations League.
And it has been one full year since the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe V Wade which introduced a clamp down on abortion throughout America where most Americans disagreed that they were unhappy about the full abortion ban which was focused ahead of next year's general election in the United States between the US president & the Republican presidental candidates.
And finally in the Super Rugby Pacific final as poor discipline cost the Chiefs a crack at the SRP title after losing to the Crusaders who were in overwhemingly dominant fashion after 3 yellow cards being handed out by referee Ben O'Keefe (Who is now facing death threats directed at him for online abuse in a similar fashion to dumb idiots who are supporters of AS Roma who assaulted the English football referee Anthony Taylor at an airport in Budapest, Hungary for his bad decisions which gifted Sevilla the UEFA Europa League title (And action needs to be taken in a bid to stamp out online hate, but Ofa Tu'ungafasi, Sonny Bill Williams & Sam Cane expressed support & solidarity towards O'Keefe who was the victim of threats being spread online by those disgruntled clowns related to both bullying & harassment for which I label it as shocking as well as diabolical & volatile, but they need to introduce a crack down of online hate being spread on social media such as fines or suspensions being handed out to merciless cowards who are absolutely despicable & stupid, but the treatment of O'Keefe by some Chiefs fans who are scumbags following the Super Rugby Pacific final is unacceptable) to Anton Lienert-Brown for a dangerous tackle on Dallas McLeod (Even though the All Black fans are hoping to see him wearing in black for the first time, but he might be ruled out of the 1st test of the year against Argentina as he is experiencing possible head injury symptoms but now Anton Lienert-Brown has been given a 3 week suspension for his sanctions in the final for a reckless high tackle with malicious intent on McLeod (Or 2 if you will if he cleans up his act by choosing to attend tackle academy which is run by World Rugby) as well as recalled All Black Luke Jacobson for not supporting his own body weight (The laws state that when you're going to the pilfer, you must at least support your own weight, but Jacobson didn't as he copped a sin binning for that during the final in which the Chiefs fans are gutted about the result, especially me) at a ruck & one of the Chiefs co-captains of Sam Cane who came in from the side of the ruck (In which in fact the ball wasn't out but O'Keefe had to be booed from the Chiefs fans who were in disbelief at a post match presentation for his poor decisions that he had similar to Anthony Taylor did in the Europa League final but one of the decisions O'Keefe had missed was a clear & obvious forward pass by the Crusaders in which the Chiefs (Whose fans had less charitable memories in front of the referee during the final which was the strangest in Super Rugby history since 2006 in which the Super 14 final between the Crusaders & the Hurricanes was played in the fog in which the fans, the commentators & the TV cameras were unable to see properly as a result of poor visibility dubbed as gorillas in the mist (But this is like a year after in Formula One at the 2005 United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (The home of the world famous Indy 500 which hosted its first grand prix in 2000 (A year before the 9/11 tragedy has struck America when 4 planes were hijacked. Both brought down the towers of New York City's World Trade Center; another crashed into the Pentagon at Washington, DC; & the fourth was forced down into a wooded area in Pennsylvania as the world was stunned when F1 played a huge part of America's healing process for their slow recovery after a tragedy occurred like that when the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, 19 days later, was the largest public gathering in the shattered nation since that fateful day (And security had to be heightened for that memorable occasion (And before 9/11, it was easier to get on a plane in the United States, but since that horrific tragic event, it was incredibly difficult as airport officers search for something illegal inside such as a bomb, knife, or a gun, & if it's not a explosive or a weapon, the status of the all clear would be given) during the event where Ferrari's Michael Schumacher (Who won the last race of the 2001 season in Japan which was Hakkinen's farewell race in Formula One) of Germany took on pole, but the race went to Mika Hakkinen (Who was Schumacher's main rival during the late 90's to early 2000's period & had taken over from Damon Hill who was Michael Schumacher's first rival) in the McLaren for his last ever victory in Formula One, his 20th of his decorated career) & on that weekend, however, the Grand Prix acted as a statement of national resolve in the aftermath of such tragedy) where Michael Schumacher won that famous grand prix despite spinning out during the race until 2007 where Lewis Hamilton took his 2nd win of his F1 career as he followed up his success in Canada where he scored his maiden win in Formula One) in Speedway, Indiana in which the constructors fitted with Michelin tyres opted not to take further part in the 73 lap race allowing the constructors fitted with Bridgestone tyres participated in which most fans were livid as they gave them raspberries by booing the 6 cars fitted with Bridgestones during the race as well as they threw beer cans & plastic water bottles, mainly because of Toyota's Ralf Schumacher (Whose brother & defending 7 time world champion at the time of Michael in the Ferrari won the race (I remember watching that race before going to Ruapehu College back in 2005 where someone told me at a library that only 6 drivers took part in the Grand Prix which is sorta like a race on the Gran Turismo video game from the first one until the 4th), his only win in 2005 (In which the championship was won by Spain's Fernando Alonso in the Renault) but the Michelin tyre company did send full refunds to the unhappy fans post race in which the F1 community was stunned) who crashed on an oval banked part of the area due to tyre failure during practice on Friday, resulting with an injury (And the FIA suggested that they should introduce a chicane to slow the cars down but eventually they had chose not to on that occasion by defying it) then Brazilian Ricardo Zonta filled in for the injured German of Ralf Schumacher before he was one of the 14 competitors alongside the eventual world champion of Alonso pulled out at the last minute regarding to Michelin's tyre debacle which was deemed to be a backlash from the disappointing fans who supported the teams that are associated with the famous French tyre company according to the blog that I did in January last year) were unhappy about that they should've awarded the scrum that cost them dearly, in a similar fashion to Wayne Barnes in which he missed a blatant forward pass by the French to go for the try with a match winning conversion to come against the All Blacks in the quarterfinal of the Rugby World Cup in 2007 which was always disappointing for the people of our country of New Zealand (And what went wrong for the Chiefs to lose the final like this? It must've been the discipline which hurt them a bit in which they cost a big opportunity to win their 3rd championship & their 1st since 2013 but hopefully they will be better next year (And will they about to change? Well, I hope so) in the dying seconds which cost them dear as the Crusaders (The Manchester City or the Kansas City Chiefs of SRP) win their unprecedented but record extending 12th Super Rugby title as well as retaining it in style (They first did it in 1998 against the Blues at a packed Eden Park in Auckland then they did it again in 1999 followed by 2000, 2002, 2005-06, 2008, 2017-19, last year & now this year) in 'Razor' Robertson's fairytale farewell (And is this his last breakdance before taking over from Foster as the new AB's coach starting from next year? You betcha) when he won his 7th out of the 8 trophies in the last 6 years that he won as coach (And he is the Pep Guardiola or Andy Reid of Super Rugby Pacific while Richie Mo'unga is in fact the definite equivalent of both Kevin de Bruyne & Patrick Mahomes & of course Codie Taylor is like sharing the same role as both Erling Haaland & Travis Kelce) to add to his 4 Super 12 titles that he won as a player in his 7th & final year of coaching the Crusaders (Who unveiled a mystery playbook by containing the Chiefs both on attack & defence, but it was a good call by the Crusaders of bringing back wily old veteran Sam Whitelock (Who played his last game for his beloved club as he seeks a new chapter of joining Pau in the French Top 14 competition after this years Rugby World Cup in order to get rich) from injury for the final which ended in glory as they successfully defended that Super Rugby Pacific title to follow up that they won last year) before taking over the All Blacks head coaching role from Ian Foster (Who is in his final year as the All Blacks coach) starting from 2024 (And I wonder the headlines would say: CRUSADERS REMAIN SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC CHAMPIONS or more like: CHIEFS MISS OUT ON SRP CHAMPIONSHIP AGAINST DOMINANT CRUSADERS or especially: HEY REF, DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT, but what a disappointing end for the Chiefs, what a match for our viewers right around the world (As the retired Australian cricket broadcaster Bill Lawry used to say along with "It's all happening!").
So that is my 506th blog of the year 2023 (MMXXIII) & my 30th of this year, viva Ukraine.
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