Well, g'day guys & girls, my name is Whetu here on my Kiwiavenger blog, but first, the AB's (Who are now entering their post Fozzy era) have done it, winning by just a single point against England in that epic 1st test at Forsyth Barr Stadium in 'Dunners/Edinburgh of the South' of Otepoti Dunedin to kick off the Razor era so let's relive the last 10 minutes of the test:
71ST MINUTE, PENALTY NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand 16-15 England, 71 minutes, A mighty shove! A proper scrum time lesson from the replacement All Blacks front row, destroying their English counterparts. The All Blacks boot up beyond halfway.
72ND MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), FREE KICK (SHORT ARM PENALTY) ENGLAND: New Zealand 16-15 England, 72 minutes, But that’s uncharacteristically loose from New Zealand. Asafo Aumua dummies his lineout throw and is free kicked. Fin Smith sends something skywards. Jordie Barrett hurries in to snatch it out of the hands of team mate Finlay Christie, who looked pretty uncertain under it.
73RD MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER): New Zealand 16-15 England, 73 minutes, The crowd howls as Beauden Barrett runs into the back of a blowing Fin Baxter having chipped beyond the England prop. The officials are content that there is nothing illegal in Baxter’s challenge, the loosehead seemingly having just stood his ground, as he is entitled to.
74TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER): New Zealand 16-15 England, 74 minutes, Pulverised! Sevu Reece absolutely vaporises George Furbank on the kick chase. A colossal hit, but somehow the England full-back holds on. Neither side is giving an inch in phase play. England kick up to halfway; Finlay Christie replies with a box kick that Furbank wisely marks before Reece can double his destructive dose.
76TH MINUTE (2 MINUTES LATER): New Zealand 16-15 England, 76 minutes, Ollie Sleightholme is on for his debut. Can he be England’s hero?
77TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), PENALTY NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand 16-15 England, 77 minutes, Penalty to New Zealand! Alex Coles’ no-arms tackle is pinged. It’s out on the right but eminently kickable, and Damian McKenzie’s point to the posts will waste another minute at least.
79TH MINUTE (2 MINUTES LATER), THE SHOT CLOCK EXPIRES! New Zealand 16-15 England, 79 minutes, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? Damian McKenzie has taken too long! The shot clock expires, Nika Amashukeli whistles and England have a scrum - and hope!
80TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), PENALTY ENGLAND: New Zealand 16-15 England, 80 minutes, Penalty to England! Finlay Christie looks to be pinpoint in his breakdown scavenging but Dalton Papali’i is penalised for obstructing one of England’s clearout men. Into the All Blacks half Steve Borthwick’s side go with chance of snatching victory!
80TH MINUTE + 1ST MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), PENALTY NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand 16-15 England, 81 minutes, Penalty to New Zealand! Tupou Vaa’i and Dalton Papali’i force a turtled Englishman to hold on! The All Blacks have clung on!
FULL TIME: New Zealand 16-15 England
FT: New Zealand 16-15 England, A brutal and brilliant first Test that the All Blacks have just about emerged on top of. So many positives for England, but full credit to New Zealand for shutting the game down in that final quarter, even if they never managed to move through the gears with the tourists’ scramble defence simply outstanding. The hosts take a 1-0 lead to Auckland next week.
All Blacks edge brutal first Test as England denied famous win. How much better will the All Blacks be next week? For a first effort under a new coaching staff, their set-piece and defence were very impressive, and you felt like they have more layers to add to their attacking shape. And now England have to go to Eden Park, where New Zealand haven’t been beaten since 1994.
England suffer agonising defeat as All Blacks snatch victory in first Test
England fell agonisingly short of registering a famous victory over New Zealand as a narrow second-half lead ebbed away in a 16-15 loss in Dunedin.
Steve Borthwick’s tourists were kept in the first half by their spirited defence as the All Blacks threatened to cut loose and although their blitz system was open to exploitation, they were able to hustle a 10-10 scoreline heading into half-time.
Fly-half Marcus Smith endured a poor day off the kicking tee but his running skills were at the heart of Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s 47th-minute try that nudged them 15-10 ahead in a gripping series opener at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
England have triumphed on New Zealand soil on only two previous occasions and joining the heroes of 1973 and 2003 was the tantalising prospect before them as they pressed for another score.
But the All Blacks crept back in front through two penalties from Damian McKenzie to reward their superiority at the breakdown.
New Zealand 16-15 England: Two penalties from Damian McKenzie sunk England as the All Blacks fought back to win Scott Robertson’s first game in charge.
And what do I think of the test? Well, there were 7 players who were standouts for the AB's such as Stephen Perofeta, Sevu Reece, Ardie Savea, Patrick Tuipulotu, Tyrel Lomax, Ethan de Groot & Beauden Barrett, but the real standouts in the English team were both George Furbank (The pick of the English backs) & Maro Itoje (The pick of the English forwards) who made massive impacts into the game. But I widely criticise Damian McKenzie who should've nailed that penalty goal to extend that lead, but it was too late as the shot clock had been expired which nearly cost New Zealand the test when England (Who nearly had it when Dalton Papali'i secured the winning pilfer for NZ with the help of Tupou Vaa'i which was similar to Sam Whitelock did against Ireland in last year's Rugby World Cup quarterfinal who would've gone on to win the test by a single point (For which the test could've gone either way) had been awarded the scrum for taking too long just like Bernard Foley did in 2022 during the Bledisloe test against the AB's in Melbourne which resulted World Rugby adjusting its law amendments in a bid to speed the game up by introducing shot clocks for conversions, penalty goals, scrums & lineouts similar to basketball, gridiron, tennis & baseball (In which Robertson had demanding the stadium operators to install a shot clock system at the grounds such as Eden Park every time a kicker takes a conversion after the try had been scored or a penalty goal after the team is awarded a penalty), but what a way to start the Razor era with a 1 point victory against the English (And Scott Robertson's first game in charge against England this year which resulted in victory is similar to 20 years ago where Graham 'Ted' Henry began his AB's coaching tenure against England (Who were defending champions at the time) at a same city but with a different venue), but the AB's have lost TJ Perenara who was injured again with what looks like to be a knee injury (And Noah Hotham, from Tasman, has been called into the squad immediately as injury cover (But why would the AB's have gone with Hotham instead of Folau? Because of Folau who was having a disappointing Super Rugby Pacific season for the Highlanders even though with the AB's selectors had just chosen the young gun Hotham to replace Perenara for the time being), & is likely to be ruled out of the next test at 'the garden of Eden' at Eden Park in 'the City of Sails' of Tamaki Makaurau Auckland where New Zealand have never been defeated at the garden of Eden since 30 years ago way back in 1994 against France (Who had scored a game defining try dubbed as 'The try from the end of the world' by Jean-Luc Sadourny that won them the test for the French, but it would be the end of the damn world if England had won it from there! But let's hope not by extending our unbeaten run which stretched from 1995) with Finlay Christie promoted to starting halfback while Chiefs player Cortez Ratima is in line to make his test debut off the bench as the reserve halfback, but I don't fully understand about the Dupont law (Compared to Pops who never understands about the brake foot law which had been introduced in 2022) regarding to French rugby player Antoine Dupont where rules state that every time a kicker kicks the ball that the kicker's teammates must get back within the allocated 10 metres until they're put being all onside, or else they'll be penalized for being offside in front of the kicker which is an unacceptable form of cheating (AKA gross misconduct), & the refs are always policing that meaning that they don't want players getting offside by encouraging them to remain onside & be behind the kicker wherever they make a tackle regarding to the law amendments about kick tennis that have been made from the sport's governing body, World Rugby & the option of taking a scrum in both free kicks & marks which is known as the Willemse law, has been abolished meaning that you have only 2 options, whether they kick the ball straight away or to take a quick tap.
And in the other results in the rugby such as 2027 Rugby World Cup hosts Australia begin the Joe Schmidt era with a win against Wales at Allianz Stadium in Sydney in Schmidt's first game in charge as the Wallabies coach therefore the Aussies did successfully have a shot of redemption after losing to the Welsh last year during the World Cup pool phase (Including that incredible run all the way to the try line from Tom Wright who made a massive sidestep to a Welsh player before scoring that has surely won the game for Australia, while a try by the grandson of an English cricketing great Ian & son of former rugby player Liam (Who is Ian's son & James's Dad), James Botham, had been disallowed due to shepherding where one of Botham's Welsh teammates was exactly in front of the ball carrier in the leadup to the try which had been erased, but Liam Williams tried to celebrate him, then Botham accidentally headbutted Williams in the process & during the match that the ref had asked Williams to go off the field for an HIA), followed by the 4 time defending world champions South Africa who go 1 - 0 up in the series against the reigning Six Nations champs Ireland with a 7 point win in a rematch of the RWC pool game from last year at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria (And the Springboks are now 2 & 0 since they retained rugby's most treasured prize, the William Webb Ellis cup in France last year at the most recent Rugby World Cup).
And I've been going full political here about mentioning the Gaza situation on my blogs in which Aunty Tan once alluded to me on the phone during Pops 77th birthday on the 5th of July (And there has been protests everywhere about Israel's invasion of Hamas (And I recently heard that the displaced people of Gaza had been asked to evacuate by the Israeli forces, but that madness needs to stop! Because it not only the lust of aggression sickens me), especially in America such as Columbia recently about students protesting the war, but the only way to stop the protests is the use of highly trained jacked up cops who are usually counter-protesters because they don't want people to cause a whole mess for it), but when will I get rid of that stuff? Once the war is over but I'm not sure why though (But this could take forever of someone asking for an offer about the ceasefire), but it's been 25 years since the horrific events of the Columbine Shooting massacre in 1999 (Same year that the late John F Kennedy Jr (The son of a US President of the late great John F Kennedy who was born a fortnight after his father was elected president in 1960, 3 years before JFK was the last ever US president to be assassinated in 1963) had tragically passed away in a plane crash along with his wife & sister-in-law on the 16th of July near Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts) in which 13 innocent students lives had been taken away while injuring many more, but both deceased suspects had been Doom fans was to blame about the mass shooting stuff that had happened (And then it was Sandy Hook in 2012 which was the most tragic (In which the US President at the time of Barack Obama addressing to the media following the tragic event that the US needs to introduce gun control measures just like both Australia & the UK did in 1996 as well as possibly Norway in 2009/2010 & our country of New Zealand in 2019), before that it was Parkland High school in 2018 & then finally, the Uvalde, Texas tragedy in 2022 that they once had as the majority of the American people are calling for gun control reforms to be handed out) as every high school, college & university in the United States have introduced metal detectors to check prohibited weapons being carried out since the tragedy unfolded in Columbine to prevent that from being occurred such as copycat attacks (And now elementary & junior high schools are following suit in light of the Uvalde mass shootings that they had which killed 21).
And American sports news that I missed such as the Jayson 'Jay' Tatum (Formerly from Duke University in the US) led Boston Celtics win their 1st NBA Championship in 16 years after winning the NBA Finals series against the Dallas Mavericks led by Slovenian Luka Doncic as well as their unprecedented 18th overall to ease past the Los Angeles Lakers to become the most successful side in the NBA then in the NHL as the Florida Panthers claim their first Stanley Cup championship after dominating the 7th & deciding game against the Edmonton Oilers at their home ice, therefore the dominance & invincibility of American teams in the NHL continues in which they have always been on god mode since 1993-94 where the New York Rangers had become Stanley Cup winners for the last time while the Montreal Canadiens was the last Canadian side to date to win a Stanley Cup in 1992-93 (And I haven't mentioned the Patrick Mahomes led Kansas City Chiefs (Who overpowered the San Francisco 49ers led by Brock Purdy in Superbowl LVIII) retaining the Vince Lombardi Trophy earlier in the year, being the first side to do so since the New England Patriots in 2004-05).
And the eyes of the Olympic world will be in Paris, as the city plays host to the Olympics, meanwhile American gymnast Simone Biles (Who is an American & is one of the top American athletes alongside swimmer Katie Ledecky & young 20 year old female tennis player Coco Gauff) the world's leading Olympian going into the Paris Olympics, compared to Dame Lisa Carrington who is New Zealand's leading Olympian (Along with Lydia Ko, Hamish Kerr, Ellesse Andrews, Portia Woodman-Wickcliffe, Sarah Hirini, Michaela Blyde, Stacey Waaka & others, but standing in Carrington's way is her main opponent in the form of fellow Kiwi Aimee Fisher according to the previous blogs that I did, but both Charlotte Caslick & Ariarne Titmus are the leading Olympians from Australia heading into Paris 2024 compared to Antoine Dupont who is the leading Olympian for the hosts France, along with basketballers Victor Wembanyama & Rudy Gobert).
So that is my 558th blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 34th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.
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