Glory, Glory Hallelujah/From the Blind Spot/Go: My 40th blog of the year 2024

Well, hey guys it's Whetu here as the Olympic Games in Paris is officially underway but first, the Black Ferns sevens (Who are farewelling players such as co-captain Sarah Hirini, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe (The NRLW bound player who is the female equivalent of the late great men's New Zealand rugby legend Jonah Lomu compared to Spanish footballer Aitana Bonmati (The one who appears in the EA Sports FC 25 ultimate edition alongside cover star Jude Bellingham of both the England national team & the Spanish club he plays for of Real Madrid, & the 3 football legends of England's David 'Becks' Beckham (Current owner of Major League Soccer club Inter Miami led by the incredible Argentinian Lionel Messi) & a pair of Football World Cup winning players such as France's Zinedine 'Zizou' Zidane & Italy's Gianluigi 'Gigi' Buffon) & she has the same age as me) who is dubbed as the Andres Iniesta of women's football in Spain), Stacey Waaka (Who bids farewell to all forms of rugby before going to league next year with the Brisbane Broncos women in the NRLW competition, but I saw her in an New Zealand Beef + Lamb advert before on TV just before the Olympics had started where the Black Ferns sevens went on to claim the gold once again in Paris) & Tyla King (Who will play for the St George Illawarra Dragons women competing in the NRLW) are Olympic champions again after a hard fought victory in the gold medal match against Canada who finished silver in one of by far, the most incredible rugby sevens matches, man or woman, that I have ever seen on TV of all time (And watching the 2nd half of the gold medal match was my best 7 minutes of my life when I told Pops about it), then in the rowing department such as the Kiwi women's double sculls duo of mothers Brooke Francis (Who was once known as Brooke Donoghue prior to her marriage) & Lucy Spoors (Who took over from Hannah Osbourne following Tokyo but the duo of Francis & Spoors were the first New Zealanders to win the women's double sculls gold since the Evers-Swindell twins of both Caroline Meyer & Georgina Earl in Beijing 2008) went on to claim our country's 2nd ever gold medal in Paris 2024 after they had a slow start but they've managed to have a good comeback at the 1500m mark to ease past the Romanians of Ancuta Bodnar & Simona Radis who won gold 3 years ago at the delayed Tokyo 2020.

And news straight out of Belgium in F1 such as the former multiple world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton (The Scuderia Ferrari bound driver) who originally finished 2nd in the Grand Prix, has been declared the winner (And that is win number 105 for Sir LH during his decorated & illustrious F1 career, as he is 14 ahead of another multiple world champion of Schumi (Michael Schumacher) in terms of the all-time active grand prix victories list) which was marred by his Mercedes-AMG teammate George Russell who got himself disqualified for an underweight car in the aftermath of him who originally won the race (Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari had nabbed the pole after Red Bull's Max Verstappen got penalized 10 grid places (His first of the season) after originally posting the fastest lap time in the wet during qualifying), but I wonder the headlines would say: RUSSELL SHELLSHOCKED OF DQ, SIR LH DECLARED WINNER, but the last time a driver won a Grand Prix before it was overturned by DQ was Michael Schumacher back in 1994 in Belgium when Schumi originally won the race but his win had been annulled due to disqualification for an illegal skid block wear which resulted in victory to Britain's Damon Hill (The most famous examples was in 1985 were Alain Prost had stripped of his race win in San Marino for an underweight car (The late Italian Elio de Angelis was declared the winner despite not leading a lap during the Grand Prix) the same as Russell did most recently in Belgium this year, just like Brazilian Nelson Piquet (The one who got suspended from the F1 paddock for life, but got fined nearly $1 million for racially related comments regarding to Sir Lewis Hamilton back in 2022) in 1982 at his home GP in Brazil which was won by Prost & the late James Hunt in his home race in Britain at Brands Hatch who was the first to win then get a DQ for it as he failed to complete the whole lap in the aftermath of a red flag with the late great Niki Lauda in the Ferrari, being declared the winner & Ayrton Senna in 1989 in Japan for illegally rejoining the track via a push start from marshals which resulted in a win for the Italian in the Benetton of Alessandro Nannini & the championship going in the way of Prost (Senna got fined $100K & had recieved a suspended 6 month ban for his actions that he recieved), while the next race takes place in Zandvoort in the Netherlands for the Dutch GP which is the home race for the 3 time defending Formula One world champion of Max Verstappen who dominated the last 3 Grands Prix in front of his adoring home crowd in which Verstappen (Who hasn't won in Formula One since Spain this year before Russell won in Austria then Hamilton in his home race in Britain for his first win in Formula One since Saudi Arabia in 2021 followed by Aussie Oscar Piastri who took the victory for the first time in F1 in Hungary & Sir LH once more at the next Grand Prix in Belgium in the aftermath of his teammate Russell who had his win thrown out as a result of a disqualification) is having his emotional homecoming since the Dutch GP had been welcomed back to the F1 calendar in 2021 (It was originally going to be held in 2020, but it never happened due to COVID).

And on to the political stuff in America such as on the 21st of July that US President Joe Biden announced that he's stepping down of challenging Trump for re-election therefore allowing the US Vice President Kamala Harris to take over from Biden (Who had been the Preisdent of the United States since 2021) as the main Democratic presidental nominee according to the previous blogs that I did, & then all of a sudden that Harris has jumped into the lead as she is ahead of the former US president Donald Trump (Who survived from an assassination attempt in July) according to the polls (And I was like: Wow! When Harris had taken over, but I'm now a pro-Harris supporter just like pro-left wing & pro-Liberal compared to me still being anti-Trump as well as anti-Conservative & anti-right wing) 3 months in the leadup to the US general election which is due to be held on November as Harris bids to become the first female US president in history (And they already had Barack Obama as the first African American president way back, but Harris is gunning to become the 2nd ever black president of the United States).

And onto the rock music related news where Incubus (Well, the first time I started to remember listening to the band was way back in 1999 when one of their tracks of Pardon Me came out, while Drive was my 2nd song that I've heard from the band a year later in 2000) have revealed a new band member to replace bassist Ben Kenney (The guy who took over from Alex 'Dirk Lance' Katunich in 2003 before departing last year when he recovered from a terminal illness) who decided to move on last year when he announced his retirement after being 20 years being as a band member with female bass player Nicole Row (Who once played bass for both American pop singer & former actress Miley Cyrus & Panic! At the Disco (Who are now retired as of today after their lead singer Brendon Urie became a father when his wife Sarah gave birth to a baby last year) & has the same age as me (And I had the opportunity to be born in the millennial generation in 1991 which is during the 90's decade & it was during the grunge music era as the most popular form of rock) & both female New Zealand rugby players of Ruby Tui (The ever popular New Zealand female rugby player who decided to become a fifteens player in the aftermath of her success with the Black Ferns 7's in Tokyo 3 years ago, just like Mils Muliaina did when he made the decision to transition to 15 a side rugby in order of becoming an All Black in light of the success at Manchester, England during the Commonwealth Games in 2002 when New Zealand won the gold medal in rugby sevens) & Portia Woodman-Wickliffe (Niece of former All Black Fred Woodman & was once a netball player before she took up rugby as her main sport of choice (And she's married to a fellow rugby player of Renee Woodman-Wickliffe via a same sex marriage as of today) taking over from him permanently just before the band had re-recorded the Morning View album from 2001 called Morning View XXIII which came out in May this year (The band thought that they originally going to release it in 2021 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the album release, but it got delayed as a result of the COVID pandemic so they pushed it to May 10th this year), & when I first heard one of the tracks of the re-recorded album that the lead singer Brandon Boyd's singing voice is drastically changed (From the chest that he once had in then to nasal as of today trying to sound like Brian Molko who is the Placebo frontman) mainly although not only he is getting older, wiser & mature now (He is 48 as of today compared to 25 at the time when the original version of the album that I got in my bedroom came out in 2001), compared to the original in which his singing voice was youthful back in the day which was just incredible, but he was trying to sound like Tom DeLonge from Blink-182 while the re-recorded songs sounded like an incomplete polished album that had to start with, but the men of our generation are always into Linkin Park (The band members that I remember were the late great Chester Bennington (Before being replaced by new co-lead singer Emily Armstrong (Whose singing voice is trying to sound like Lzzy Hale from Halestorm) from Dead Sara in which Linkin Park are very similar to both American pop-punk band Blink-182 & Armenian American rockers System of a Down having the dual vocalists in the band), Mike Shinoda (Who is the co-lead singer alongside the late Chester Bennington's replacement of Armstrong), Brad Delson, Dave 'Phoenix' Farrell, Rob Bourdon (The original drummer who left the band therefore allowing Colin Brittain to be his replacement as the band's new drummer) & Joe Hahn) these days compared to the fathers who are always fanatics of Metallica (Which features the likes of James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Rob Trujillo (Who took over from Jason Newsted since 2003) & Lars Ulrich) & the grandfathers who are always hooked into Black Sabbath (Which includes Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler & the late Bill Ward) as part of the generations of rock & metal according to the YouTube comment that I saw in one of the rock related songs that I heard it from (And I've got a total of 64 songs that I downloaded straight from the internet such as MP3 downloader ranging from alternative rock (AKA alt rock where it is the most popular genre in rock since 2004), to grunge (When it took over from glam metal as the most popular genre form of rock from 1990 until 1993), Britpop (The genre that took over from grunge from 1994 until 1997) & nu metal (The most popular form of rock/metal music as they took over from Britpop beginning in 1998 until 2004).

So that is my 564th blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 40th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.

P.S. Because maybe

You're gonna be the one that saves me

And after all

You're my wonderwall

Out of the Night/Don't Wait for Me to Be What You Want Me to Be: My 39th blog of the year 2024 (AKA My fave golden Olympic moments for our country of New Zealand)

Well, hey everybody, this is Whetu here on my Kiwiavenger blog type of thing, but first, it all comes down to this (And 3 years of hard work has been paid off) as the world's pinnacle sporting event of the Olympic Games is back after 3 years as the French capital of Paris is getting ready to host the Olympics this year (And this is going to be a hell of a story indeed when the Olympics is descended upon the capital city of France but if you think the Olympics is great? Gimme a hell yeah), but I don't know how much gold medals New Zealand will win? Because last time out it was 7 at the delayed Tokyo 2020 in 2021, & we we're one shy of the all-time record set in Los Angeles in 1984, with 8 (Including future America's Cup champion with both Team New Zealand in 1995 & 2000 & Swiss syndicate of Alinghi in 2003 of Sir Russell Coutts (Current SailGP CEO (Chief executive officer) in which the Finn boat was his least favourite when he earned international recognition of claiming a gold medal in the Finn class according to the Team New Zealand story 1995-2003 book (And also that New Zealand were late starters in 1986-87 when we first competed in the Louis Vuitton Cup, 3 years after Australia first took the Auld Mug from the Yanks in 1983 (And there was a famous remark but one-liner from the then Prime Minister of Australia at the time of Bob Hawke following Australia's triumph on the water that any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a backside).

And I mentioned my favourite Olympic memory before on my blogs was the Kiwis golden hour of London 2012 where Hamish Bond & Eric Murray claimed the gold in the rowing men's pair at their debut Olympics, an hour before Mahe Drysdale who overcame dehydration before the gold medal race began, did redeem himself of finally getting the golden touch in the men's single sculls in the same sport, 4 years after missing out in 2008 in which he won the bronze which was won by a Norwegian competitor who was the Olympic champion at the time in Beijing.

And also the legendary moments in Kiwi sport at the Olympics throught their previous generations were the late great Jack Lovelock achieving gold in the 1500 metres in Berlin 1936, then it was the late Yvette Williams in the women's long jump in Helsinki 1952, while the late great Sir Peter Snell who dominated in Rome in 1960 in the 800m athletics event as well as the also late great Murray Halberg in the men's 5000m event & before Snell did it in Tokyo in 1964 in both the 800 & 1500m event followed by the men's eight in Muenchen 1972, 4 years before John Walker dominated the 1500m in Montreal, Canada in 1976 along with the New Zealand men's field hockey team that became Olympic champions for the only time & Ian Ferguson & his heroics in both LA 1984 in which he claimed 3 & Seoul 1988 in which he became the Olympic champion not once but twice, & then Barbara Kendall for her performances in the water in Barcelona 1992.

And finally the special but honorable mentions that I did before on my blogs was Danyon Loader who is from Otago in Atlanta 1996 as he won not once but twice in the 200m & 400m freestyle (That used to one of my fave Olympic moments then back in 2016 on my blog) then the Evers-Swindell twins who dominated in the women's double sculls in both Athens 2004 & Beijing in 2008 in which was in fact a close finish reminiscent to Drysdale did in Rio in 2016, followed by Dame Valerie Adams heroics in Beijing 2008 & London 2012 in the women's shotput (Including in 2012 where a Belarussian opponent originally claimed the gold & after the games that she failed a drug test which resulted in a disqualification therefore allowing Adams to be declared by crowning the Olympic champion once more) as well as Peter Burling & Blair Tuke's gold medal winning performance in Rio 2016 & of course, Dame Lisa Carrington & her quest of dominance over the last 3 Olympics in London 2012 first, then Rio four years later & of course, the most recent one at the delayed Tokyo 2020 in 2021, same as the Black Ferns sevens led by Sarah Hirini & featuring the likes of Portia Woodman-Wickliffe (Who is in her final ever Olympics after she announced that Paris 2024 will be her last as she gears up in her final Olympic swansong), Stacey Waaka (Who is rugby league bound as she plays for the Brisbane Broncos women in the NRLW competition), the ever popular Ruby Tui (Who is now a fifteens specialist), Michaela Blyde (Daughter of Cherry & sister of Liam who hails from Taranaki) & others did when they finally claim gold which was inspired by the book, Sevens sisters that I haven't got.

So that is my 563rd blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 39th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.

Nowhere To Run/Molly's Chambers/The Bucket: My 38th blog of the year 2024

Well, hi everyone, this is Whetu here on my Kiwiavenger blog but first in the rugby department that it's official that 'Hardie Ardie' of Ardie Savea (Who is the defending World Rugby player of the year last year who I label him as the Chris Wood (An All White from the 2010 Football World Cup who currently plays for Nottingham FC in the English Championship) of rugby) is going to Moana Pasifika starting from next year right until the end of 2027 to link up with his bro Julian (Jules the bus) & commits through to New Zealand Rugby until after the Rugby World Cup in Australia (But I thought players playing for Moana can't be picked for the All Blacks like Ardie for example, meaning that he is over there starting from next season, even though that Moana Pasifika is mainly a team consisting of Samoan & Tongan players as well as the Aussie & Kiwi players who have Pacific Island roots, & I have no problem whatsoever given that Savea's shock jump to Moana is in fact the biggest moves in the history of Super Rugby Pacific, compared to the late great Jonah Lomu (Who was one of by far, the all-time greats in the sport of rugby union & is one of the household names of New Zealand rugby according to the comment that I remember from former rugby league player turned rugby broadcaster of Fauono Ken Laban from the old Sky rugby shows circa 2009 when Lomu was 6 foot 5, 118 kilos, unbelievably fast (And I remember one of the comments on YouTube that Lomu was like an army tank powered by a Formula One engine) making the switch to the Hurricanes for the 2000 season from the Chiefs during the Super 12 era & Beauden Barrett joining the Blues from the Hurricanes in 2020 which was during the Super Rugby era).

And news coming straight out of Paris in France prior to the Olympics as many Parisians are moving out of the city, citing security reasons as the main factor because of them encouraged to work from home & they can't access the Eiffel Tower for the duration of the games to watch over there, but strangely speaking that security at the games have been asked to safeguard the entire Israeli Olympics team 24/7, especially the men's under 23 football team due to geopolitical tensions between Israel invading Hamas in Gaza which is often in a direct reference to the Muenchen massacre in which the Israeli athletes had taken hostage then they get murdered by an armed terrorist group way back in 1972 in which there is a movie inspired by the real life tragic event that was released in 2005 which featured an Aussie film star who played the Hulk in the movie that came out in 2003 of Eric Bana.

And in Formula One news such as McLaren's Oscar Piastri (The young gun in this years F1 grid compared to Spain's Fernando Alonso who is Formula One's elder statesman) finally became a race winner in F1 following that stunning victory in Hungary ahead of his British teammate Lando Norris in 2nd while Sir Lewis Hamilton (Who took current points leader Max Verstappen in the Red Bull out during the race before getting penalised) in the Mercedes-AMG, had rounded out the podium with Piastri becoming the first Aussie to win a Grand Prix since Daniel Ricciardo (AKA Dan/Danny Ricc/The Honey Badger who is currently with RB & was the guy who took over Nyck de Vries's race seat since last year in which RB was once known as Scuderia AlphaTauri) at Monza in Italy in 2021, also in a McLaren which was overshadowed by controversy whether Lando should've won the Grand Prix, but he let Oscar pass during the closing stages of the race (And there are calls for team orders to be prohibited again, just like from 2003 (In which has been implemented since Michael Schumacher took the victory from his Ferrari team-mate at the time of Brazilian Rubens Barrichello who was in the lead in Austria way back in 2002, before Barrichello returned the favour in the United States in which he snatched victory from Schumi) until 2011 (A year after in Germany in which Alonso was faster than Felipe Massa according to the radio message that I remember from Massa's old race strategist at the time of Rob Smedley before the Spaniard went on to win on that occasion way back in 2010, but had got fined for breaking the rules, then it was legitimate since 2011 that they brought back team orders, but there are calls to crack it down again in wake of Piastri stealing the lead from Norris).

And finally that US president Joe Biden is pulling out of the presidental race (Well, I didn't see it on CNN, but I should've watched it anyway), mainly due to health reasons as well as old age according to the announcement that had come on the 21st of July with US vice president Kamala Harris is now officially taken over as the Democratic presidental nominee of challenging the former US president Donald Trump at the US general elections in November to determine who'll become the new president of the United States.

So that is my 562nd blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 38th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.

Holy Grail/Sitting Inside My Head/Downhearted: My 37th blog of the year 2024

Well, what's up guys & girls, it's Whetu here on my Kiwiavenger blog but first, the AB's team has been named for our one-off test against Fiji at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California, USA (The site of Team New Zealand's infamous win against Stars & Stripes aboard the Young America Yacht way back in 1995 in which where the America's Cup was then became, New Zealand's cup, according to the previous blogs that I did), but the most recent test between the 2 countries was in 2021 in the 2nd test in Hamilton where the AB's had a landslide win against the Fijians with Fijian born All Black Sevu Reece scoring a hat-trick as well as Samisoni Taukei'aho (Who came into the squad as injury replacement for Dane Coles who suffered an injured calf) getting a double on his debut test) in our last hit-out before the Rugby Championship against Argentina at Sky Stadium in Wellington during the opener which is a rematch of the semi in last years Rugby World Cup, so here is the starting lineup according to Razor:

STARTING XV

FORWARD PACK

FRONT ROW

1 (Loose head prop): Tamaiti Williams (Crusaders/Canterbury)

2 (Hooker): Asafo Aumua (Hurricanes/Wellington)

3 (Tight head prop): Fletcher Newell (Crusaders/Canterbury)

SECOND ROW

4 (No.4 lock): Scott Barrett (Captain, Crusaders/Taranaki)

5 (No.5 lock): Tupou Vaa'i (Chiefs/Taranaki)

LOOSE FORWARDS

6 (Blind side flanker): Luke Jacobson (Chiefs/Waikato)

7 (Open side flanker): Ethan Blackadder (Crusaders/Tasman)

8 (Number 8): Ardie Savea (Hurricanes/Wellington)

BACK LINE

HALVES

9 (Half-back): Cortez Ratima (Chiefs/Waikato)

10 (First five-eighth): Damian McKenzie (Chiefs/Waikato)

MIDFIELD

12 (Second five-eighth): Anton Lienert-Brown (Chiefs/Waikato)

13 (Centre): Billy Proctor (Hurricanes/Wellington)

OUTSIDE BACKS

11 (Left wing): Caleb Clarke (Blues/Auckland)

14 (Right wing): Sevu Reece (Crusaders/Southland)

& 15 (Fullback): Beauden Barrett (Blues/Taranaki)

& REPLACEMENT PLAYERS

16 (Reserve hooker): George Bell (Who replaces Asafo Aumua (Who is promoted to the starting lineup to replace Codie Taylor) to cover at hooker whilst making his test debut)

17 (Reserve loose head prop): Ethan de Groot (Who is dropped to the bench to replace Ofa Tu'ungafasi therefore covering the loose head prop position)

18 (Reserve tight head prop): Pasilio Tosi (Who replaces Fletcher Newell to cover at tight head prop whilst also making his debut test with Newell elevated to the starting lineup to replace Tyrel Lomax)

19 (Reserve lock): Sam Darry (Who is called to the squad as injury cover to Patrick Tuipulotu as he replaces Tupou Vaa'i (Who is elevated to the run-on XV as he replaces Tuipulotu) to make his test debut off the bench)

20 (Reserve loose forward): Wallace Sititi (The son of a Samoan rugby legend Semo who is another test debutant as he replaces Luke Jacobson by allowing him to start at blindside flanker as he replaces Samipeni Finau who started the last 2 tests against England in that position)

21 (Reserve half-back): Noah Hotham (Who is in line to make his test debut off the pine with Cortez Ratima promoted to the run-on XV as he replaces Finlay Christie who is rested for this test)

22 (Reserve midfielder): Jordie Barrett (Who is dropped to the bench as he makes way for Anton-Lienert Brown who is promoted to the starting XV)

& 23 (Reserve outside back): Emoni Narawa (Who plays his first All Black test since last year (In which he made his test debut against Argentina during the Rugby Championship opener before injury took him out of last year's Rugby World Cup) as he also makes way for super-sub Beauden Barrett who gains promotion to the run-on team)

And the rugby fraternity here in New Zealand is in mourning as former Southland, Wellington, Hurricanes & All Blacks player as well as the winner of Dancing With the Stars NZ 2005 of Norm Hewitt who unfortunately passed away due to being a MND (Motor Neuron Disease) sufferer when he had complications from it (And he was the one who confronted & eyeballed English player Richard Cockerill (The current Georgia national rugby team coach as of today) when he performed the haka right in front of him in a test match at Old Trafford which ended in a draw in 1997, but when he first became an All Black, he was a fanatic of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in which the AB's aren't supposed to eat fast but junk food these days according to the comment that I remember from Sir John 'JK' Kirwan prior to the AB's - Fiji test in San Diego during the build up on TV, & then all of a sudden, I remember at one point of me seeing a photo of him with my former step-sisters Johnella (Who currently resides in Tutira in the Hawke's Bay province with her partner Tony Bouskill (The world fencing champ from 2020) & their children of daughter Keira-Lee (KL), & both sons Jack (Named after Nella's late grandfather) & Katana (Named after the famous sword from Japan) & Hera (Currently residing in Brisbane, Australia with her Aussie partner Brendon & her daughter Willow (Cousin of KL, Jack & Katana) during my Raetihi Primary School days, & it brings me back memories & also he played in the 2000 NPC final for Wellington against Canterbury with a broken arm (And the key pivotal moment of the final went to the late great Jonah Lomu (The first true global superstar of the game who is one of the all-time greats of the sport of rugby union who played alongside the likes of Tana Umaga, Christian Cullen, the late Jerry Collins & Rodney So'oialo during his time with Wellington from 2000 until 2003, but how many times have I mentioned that great humble man many times before in my blogs? Well, there are too many of them in fact, to say the least (And he was the one who sat next to Aunty Tan during a Tongan graduation in Palmy in late 1995 according to the blog that I did in 2018) swatting off one of the Canterbury players of Marika Vunibaka before scoring a crucial but vital try which resulted in Wellington winning the NPC for the first time since 1978 & the last time they won an NPC title until 22 years later in 2022 (That was the year after Waikato won a full NPC title in 2021 during a year affected by the COVID pandemic & the year before Taranaki won the NPC last year) in which he was the captain at the time), so all thoughts, prayers & condolences go to the Hewitt whanau back home in Wellington, he will be sorely missed, rest in love.

Norm Hewitt

1968 - 2024

And there has been an update in the rugby, & what a win by the All Blacks who produced a landslide victory over Fiji (Who weren't so competitive as the English did in our first 2 tests of the year) in San Diego (And I mean, what a performance compared to the last 2 tests against England which were in fact tighter ones) in which the conditions are Suva like where there has been hotter over there in our last hitout before the Rugby Championship, but what do I think of the match so far? There were both standout rookies who had a cracker of a game such as reserve hooker George Bell & the most significant is centre Billy Proctor who might have sent a warning to Rieko Ioane with Proctor likely to be a future test starter at centre, but both wingers of Caleb Clarke (Who is re-signed with NZ Rugby as well as the Blues & Auckland, but only on one condition which is just a year) & Sevu Reece (The man who fought against both Blues players of Caleb Clarke & Mark Telea many times every time he played for the Crusaders in Super Rugby Pacific, but there was Brodie Retallick who once said in an article that the toughest player he faced on the rugby field throughout his career was indeed a South African in the form of fellow lock Eben Etzebeth who is a twice Rugby World Cup winning player for the Boks & is one of the 23 South Africans as dual RWC winning players along with the 14 All Blacks & 5 Wallabies) who also had crackers when they scored tries, so too is Cortez Ratima who has been having a cracker until he left the field concussed (And after Ratima departed, Noah Hotham (The brother of women's sevens player who plays for the Black Ferns sevens of Jazmin Felix-Hotham as well as under 20 graduate) was on the field who played superbly, but the AB's have had some real problems such as unsuccessfully defending cross kicks which resulted in tries being scored by the opposition (And England did that not once but twice when Immanuel Feyi-Waboso had scored off a cross-field kick taken from Marcus Smith (Who I label him as the Jude Bellingham of rugby compared to Owen Farrell who used to be rugby's equivalent of football's Harry Kane, & Fin Smith being English rugby's equivalent of another English footballer Bukayo Saka), followed by Tommy Freeman (In which Smith repeated the dose just like the 1st one) which put the English in front on the stroke of halftime, then the next test where a Fijian player named Vilimoni Botitu did the same thing as both Feyi-Waboso & Freeman did but the only try in the match scored by Fiji had been unconverted).

And here are the other results coming in such as Georgia nearly made history of claiming an upset win when they were 2 points behind against a 14 man Australia who had to win at Allianz Stadium in Sydney (In which a Wallaby player of Filipo Daugunu had been given a card under review before being upgraded to red for a reckless knee to the head challenge on a Georgian player but now he's been handed a 3 game ban for his actions (Or 2 if he successfully completes tackle academy which is run by the sport's governing body, World Rugby) & are now serious contenders of claiming the Rugby Championship since 2015 under their current coach Joe Schmidt (The former Ireland coach who was the one who took over from Eddie Jones following last year's dismal RWC for Australia according to the previous blogs that I did), meanwhile normal service has resumed for the world champs & world number one of South Africa who return to winning ways against Portugal (Who pulled off a stunning upset win against Fiji in the very last pool game of last year's Rugby World Cup in France) whilst having to play with 14 then 13 players in the aftermath of Andre Esterhuizen being shown the red card by Scottish referee who is a woman of Hollie Davidson (Who was the first female ref in history, to take charge in a men's rugby test involving the Springboks) after originally being given a card under review for a illegal dangerous contact which deemed to be a deliberate but reckless abuse on a Portuguese player named Jose Lima (And recently that Esterhuizen has since been suspended for 3 matches (Or 4 if he fails to complete tackle academy run by World Rugby) then both Springboks had to be sent to the bin such as Kurt-Lee Arendse for a crocodile roll on another one of the Portuguese players which has been prohibited under the laws of the game (In which Shannon Frizell did the same thing on Bongi Mbonambi during last years Rugby World Cup final in which he became the 2nd man to be shown the yellow card (After Ben Smith in 2015 for a tip tackle on Drew Mitchell), then it was the South African skipper Siya Kolisi & Cheslin Kolbe while the All Blacks captain at the time of Sam Cane who was the first man in RWC history to be shown the red card that cost the All Blacks the story last year according to the previous blogs that I did in which the Springboks remained champions of the world in the sport of rugby) then Quan Horn for dangerously taken another Portuguese player out in mid air where the South Africans finished with 13 players at Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein in their last game prior to the Rugby Championship when they square off against the Wallabies at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

So that is my 561st blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 37th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.