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.
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