Well, the All Blacks (Who are now 4 & 1 since the South Africans (Champions of the most recent Rugby World Cup in 2019 which evoked memories of the events in 1995 where the nation played host then won the tournament in their debut appearance at the RWC) became the 1st side to defeat New Zealand this year by snapping our 11 game unbeaten stretch, & it was payback of Mt Smart in Auckland in which they got beaten against us in an epic Rugby Championship test) will go into the 2023 Rugby World Cup, with defeat against the defending world champion Springboks (Who have now taken over as the favourites to retain the prestigious William Webb Ellis Cup while both hosts France (Who will be so relieved when their World Cup rivals had tasted defeat like that then against the reigning champs) & Ireland are the other contenders of winning their 1st Rugby World Cup championship, but I wonder the headlines would say: AB'S MANHANDLED BY OVERWHELMINGLY DOMINANT SPRINGBOKS SIDE or more like: SOUTH AFRICA GO INTO THE RWC WITH A WIN AGAINST NEW ZEALAND) who overpowered them in a comprehensive thrashing at Twickenham in London by 28 points (And what went wrong for New Zealand (Who for the 1st time since 2011 to go into the World Cup with a loss like that) to lose a test like this? It hurts not only we were so gutted about the result in which we were inconsistent that time around since we lost both Shannon Frizell & Brodie Retallick to injuries the reason why we lost the pre-RWC test (Including 2 yellow cards to Scott Barrett which resulted in a costly red card meaning that New Zealand will go into the opening game of the Rugby World Cup against France, without 3 first choice players such as Frizell & Retallick who succumbed to injuries & now Scott Barrett who has yet to be suspended after a red card which was in fact the 2nd yellow card for a tackle gone wrong on a South African player of Malcolm Marx which slipped up high as he becomes the 9th different All Black player to be sent off in a test in a match billed as the Twickenham horror show according to the All Blacks fans, but there has been an update as Scott Barrett is not suspended (But he's been cleared on any wrongdoing where it did not even meet the red card threshold) meaning that he is free to play in the World Cup opener against the hosts France who swept Australia aside in Saint-Denis), but they could meet us in either the quarterfinal or in the final) which is the AB's worst defeat in 24 years way back in 1999 after the Wallabies dismantled them by 21 points to retain the Bledisloe before they would gone on to win the World Cup later that year, but the main highlight throughout the last of the pre-RWC tests would have to be Fiji slaying England in an incredible match (Compared to Ireland having a close shave against Samoa who came so close & nearly made history by pulling it off, in Bayonne) at Twickenham which I was stoked where history had to be made as the Fijians (Who gave them belief going into their opening game against Wales scheduled on the 10th of September) become the 1st tier 2 side to defeat England in international rugby (But I also wonder the headlines would say: FIJI EXPRESS STUN ENGLAND IN HISTORIC BOILOVER or more like: ENGLAND RUGBY TEAM MESMERIZED BY INCREDIBLE FIJIANS, but it's the best international rugby test I have ever seen on TV not involving the All Blacks) so let's relive the last 8 minutes of that epic test that you have just seen (And that's the 2nd time I'll be doing the last minutes of the game, this time in rugby since I did the last one which is the final of the Football Women's World Cup):
72ND MINUTE: England immediately make a hash of taking the restart, granting Fiji advanced possession. The Pacific Island side don’t make the most of it, losing control of a ruck, but when George Ford missees touch, back they will come...
TRY ENGLAND: England 22-30 Fiji (Simione Kuruvoli try, 73 minutes)
Is this a famous Fijian day?
The travelling fans go wild as Fiji open that advantage up again. The irrepressible Selestino Ravutaumada is the architect, his mad sketchings decipherable only by his teammates with England lost in a whirl of limbs. Ravutaumada lofts an offload which Simoine Kuruvoli collects - Caleb Muntz’s kick is true, too!
75TH MINUTE (3 MINUTES LATER): England have already had one great escape at Twickenham during this Summer Nations Series - they need another here. Danny Care is on to try and spark it, with Fiji flying out of the line at every England carrier.
76TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), PENALTY: Penalty to the Pacific Islanders! The Fijian flags wave as their side defend with aggression and accuracy and turn England over five metres out from their own line. England’s players look to the heavens.
78TH MINUTE (2 MINUTES LATER), PENALTY: Another penalty Fiji’s way. They are two minutes away.
79TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER): Fiji’s attack is aimless, but it doesn’t really matter with the clock ticking ever closer to 80 minutes. They won’t much mind a knock-on, either - there are fewer than 50 seconds to play as the two front rows pack down.
80TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER): Fiji are going to beat England! Fiji are going to beat England. Danny Care explores the blindside but Max Malins runs out of room after the scrum half tries to set him away up the touchline. The clock is dead!
FULL TIME! ENGLAND 22-30 FIJI: For the first time in their history, Fiji have beaten England! (And the game is over! Rugby history! Fiji, beat England, for the first time!)
Steve Borthwick’s side sink to a new low, but how about that performance from the Pacific Islanders? England were thoroughly out-fought, out-fought, and out-played. (Outstanding achievement for Fiji)
Where do England go from here? Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse for Steve Borthwick and his side, well, that happens. (I don't know England could muster)
It is, strictly, only a warm-up, but it is hard to convey the enormity of that result. This was a close to full strength England side, and Fiji were missing a couple of genuine stars - it mattered not! (But Fiji are all over them)
England’s dismal build-up to the World Cup reached its lowest ebb as they collapsed to their first defeat to a current tier-two nation by losing 30-22 to Fiji at Twickenham. (Tremendous game that the Fijians have had)
Jonny May raced over to seize an early lead but what followed will have shaken head coach Steve Borthwick as England were outplayed by a side they had dispatched in all seven previous meetings. (Not so super glad for the English just before the World Cup had even begun)
Waisea Nayacalevu and Vinaya Habosi touched down to propel Fiji in front and, although tries by Marcus Smith and Joe Marchant hinted that a seismic upset might be avoided, the Islanders had other ideas. (And I mean what a ripper of a match that they just had, especially from the Fijian point of view)
The leaky home defence cracked one final time in the 73rd minute, with Simione Kuruvoli delivering the decisive blow to wrap up a historic victory that will create shockwaves ahead of the World Cup. (It's been a cracking game, look forward to seeing you next time, bye from us)
And in motor racing news straight out of Formula One such as twice world champion Max Verstappen has won his Grand Prix in front of his adoring home fans in Holland to go 3 & 0 at his home venue in Zandvoort on New Zealander Liam Lawson's debut in F1 (In which Lawson (Who became the first Kiwi to compete in F1 since Brendon Hartley in 2018) finished a creditable 13th in the race in his first appearance in F1 driving for Alphatauri as an injury replacement for Australian Daniel Ricciardo (Who was ruled out of the grand prix with a broken hand) at Zandvoort in the Netherlands, but Liam Lawson is 2nd in the championship in the Japanese Super Formula competition) as he ties the record for most straight wins at 9 alongside Sebastian Vettel back in 2013 as well as he claimed his 11th win of the season but finishing behind Verstappen is Fernando Alonso (The elder statesman in F1 at the age of 42 (Compared to the young gun of Australian Oscar Piastri who is the youngest in the F1 grid at 21 or 22 (Before Lawson joined F1 as a replacement for Piastri's fellow countryman Ricciardo) as well as being the 1st Formula One driver to be born in the 21st century in 2001 followed by the Kiwi of Liam Lawson who was born a year after Piastri in 2002) who topped it off with a bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the race & is 12 points ahead of Sir Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes going into the next Grand Prix in Italy) in the Aston Martin who finished in 2nd while Pierre Gasly (Who hasn't been on a podium since Azerbaijan in 2021) has rounded out the podium in 3rd (He picked up a 5 second penalty for a pit lane speeding infringement (In which has been cleared) along with Sergio Perez who narrowly missed out on the podium after copping a penalty for going too fast in the pit lane just before the red flag came out which lasted 10 minutes before the race got back underway when the rain was cleared & also Lawson who did the same as Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda (One of Lawson's Alphatauri teammates who got penalized for an avoidable contact during the Grand Prix) & Perez (Who didn't clear the penalty as he'd been given a post-race penalty for that but the next race on the F1 calendar is in Italy at the Parco di Monza circuit where they will have an emotional homecoming for 3 Italian teams such as Ferrari (In which the passionate tifosi will be cheering them on as they're gunning to end Red Bull's incredible winning streak dating back to Abu Dhabi last year in which Verstappen won the season ending Grand Prix as well as ending Red Bull's quest of maintaining their perfect record in Formula One this year, but the last non-Red Bull driver to win a Grand Prix was also last year in Brazil with George Russell behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG team (Although pole for the sprint race went to Denmark's Kevin Magnussen in the Haas to secure the American constructor's one & only pole position in Formula One), Alfa Romeo (In it's final year before reverting back to Sauber) & Alphatauri (The Italian constructor once known as Scuderia Toro Rosso who hadn't won a Grand Prix since Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Who is with Alpine now) took that famous win in 2020 which was a year impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic), but also news straight out of the Indycar as New Zealander Scott Dixon has won another race, this time at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illnois in which he had a better fuel consumption than the rest of the field as he keeps his title aspirations alive (Although the weekend was overshadowed by defending Indycar series champion Will Power who wrecked his car when he avoided his Penske racing teammate Scott McLaughlin (Who took pole but he had recieved a grid penalty for changing the engine which resulted him in starting 10th on the grid for the race) when Power (Who collided with Dixon during a practice in Road America this year was shades of 1996 when the late Andre Ribeiro who clipped the late Greg Moore during the race going into Canada corner in one of Indycar's most memorable but dramatic moments) went into the wall then he crashed into former Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson (Who'll be heading to Andretti Autosport next year with fellow Swede Linus Lundqvist taking over Ericsson's ride at Chip Ganassi Racing) who had to switch to a back-up car for the remainder of the weekend), but there are only 2 races still left to go in which the man known as 'The Iceman', has an outside chance of winning his record tying 7th Indycar championship, & he's trailing behind his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate of Spain's Alex Palou (Who is gunning for his 2nd Indycar Series title 2 years after winning his first in 2021 (That was the year after Dixon won his 6th & most recent crown (To add to his titles won in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 & the aforementioned 2020 season as well as his victory in the Indy 500 in 2008) & the year before Will Power went on to win his 2nd Indycar championship to go with his title that he first won in 2014 as well as winning his only Indy 500 in 2018) in which he picked both Alonso & none other than Dixon as his childhood idols growing up (And there was Danny Sullivan who was a great racing car driver but was a terrible commentator when he once worked for ESPN in the mid to late 1990's after his racing days were over after he crashed in 1995 during a Indycar event in Brooklyn, Michigan at Michigan Motor Speedway which resulted in injuries that ended his career (That was the year before Emerson Fittipaldi who did the same thing as his racing career came to an abrupt halt due to injuries sustained in the crash) by 74 points going into the next race at Portland International Raceway which is located in Portland, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest, then Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, California, plays host to the Indycar season finale this year before the streets of Nashville in Tennessee takes over of hosting the final round of the NTT Indycar Series starting from next year in 2024.
And the latest on the Donald Trump saga (For which I haven't being doing on my blogs about Trump getting charged since May of this year but this is like Watergate all over again where the late US president of Richard Nixon had to resign in 1974 over the scandal involving illegal activites including the robbery to the HQ of the Democratic National Committee on June 17th, 1972 which was the worst in American history, dealt with corruption at the highest level and office of the government) as the former US president from 2017 until 2021 as well as the man who ruined every American people when he got elected as the president of the United States in 2016 (And after Trump got elected that some American people are trying to flee from their homeland to other countries, such as New Zealand because of him), turned up in Georgia handing himself in to law enforcements in Fulton County under heightened security to appear in court for his latest criminal charges regarding to his time during the presidency, but he has pleaded not guilty about attempting to overturn the result of the US election in 2020 therefore staging a riot on the US Capitol buildings on January 6th 2021 with the trial of the former US president set to get under way on the 4th of March next year at the peak of the primary season therefore stopping him from campaigning, & I mean that is terrible that Trump is gonna pay for what he did for interfering the election in 2020 like that as he has been charged with election related crimes in the run-up to the January 6th attack in the US Capitol which counted as a felony, oh shameless (But my thoughts about Trump are "Then you're out of your damn head, & also that I just whooped your back side"), then it's such a rip off, it's a shameless rip off about election related issues in the United States going on there, but oh god I hope they get sued, you know I, maybe that's a slap on the wrist for that (And by the way that Trump will spend more time locked up behind bars as Pops told me before if he's sentenced with a severe punishment like that (Holy hell), then Trump is now obviously in a dark place now, & he does not know what to do about his latest criminal charges that he's had).
And I hadn't mentioned about that the state of Victoria in Australia will not host the Commonwealth Games in 2026 as a result of a budget blowout regarding to inflation (And Auckland has since been ruled out of hosting the next Commonwealth Games as well following the news that the Australian state of Victoria who pulled out as hosting rights for the next Commonwealth Games in 3 years time, but this is like Durban in South Africa pulling out of hosting last years Commonwealth Games after originally being awarded as the English city of Birmingham got the nod instead) according to the comment I remember from my Moroccan Jewish mate for 19 years of Leon (Who I haven't seen him since the last day of July when he left Whanganui, & has now settled in the UK in Nottingham to be with his fiance Michelle Johansson who is a Kiwi of Swedish origin who I have not seen her since last year before she left right on cue) in July.
And it's been one full year since Her Majesty the Queen of Queen Elizabeth II (The longest regining monarch in history for 70 years from 1952 (The year that His Majesty the King of King George VI had passed away) until last year) who passed away as a result of natural causes according to the death report from a royal observer, allowing her son His Majesty the King of King Charles III to take over as the current head of state of the Commonwealth (The 2 events have occurred was the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II also last year in which was held under heightened security & the coronation of a new King in May this year while the UK national anthem had to change from God Save the Queen to now God Save the King).
And finally my thoughts before I wrap this blog up? It is going to be probably my last blog before I start work on my new one which is something special, & it's about the preview of Rugby World Cup 2023 featuring all the 20 teams competing as well as the history of the tournament so far which is called: My 40th blog of the year 2023 (AKA Breaking Dawn III: The 2023 Rugby World Cup preview).
So that is my 516th blog of the year 2023 (MMXXIII) & my 40th of this year, viva Ukraine.
