Well, kia ora guys & girls (Hey, it's me yet again as I'm about to post a hat-trick of blogs today), Whetu here on my Kiwiavenger blog that I'm always tuning, but first in the rugby where the AB's side have revealed our team for the 2nd & final Bledisloe Cup test against the Wallabies at Sky Stadium in Wellington (Our most recent meeting between the 2 teams was this year at Accor Stadium in Sydney where the Wallabies almost pulled it off during the test in which we were fast starters in the first 20 minutes of the game (And the AB's (Who had Beauden Barrett withdrawn through injury sustained in the warmup with Harry Plummer replacing him in the reserves while Sevu Reece is elevated to the starting lineup on the right wing position with Will Jordan moving to fullback) went on to retain the Bledisloe Cup on that occasion for another year after our narrow 3 point win against Australia therefore snapping a wretched 2 match losing run against the best in the world of South Africa), but my favourite Bledisloe Cup memories would have to be in 1996 at Lang Park in Brisbane where a Wallaby Michael Brial caused a punch up (Although he should've picked up a red card, but Brial was lucky to remain on the field when he got away with it when the Wallabies had been awarded the penalty for not releasing ball, but the Scottish referee Jim Fleming had reversed the penalty in which the Wallaby fans were livid about the decision) on Frank Bunce who later scored the game winning try at the death therefore having the last say, then in 2000 in Sydney, Australia just 2 months before the start of the Summer Games in that city where the late great Jonah Lomu (AKA the greatest rugby player of all time) also scored the match winning try (And it was Taine Randell who provided a brilliant try assist to the big marn who went all the way to the try line then score) against the defending world champions at the time to go 1 - 0 up in the series or should I say, draw first blood in one of by far the greatest rugby tests ever played in front of 109,874 people (A world record crowd back then which was during the first Bledisloe Cup game of the new millennium on the 15th of July way back in 2000, but we failed at Sky Stadium (Back then it was the WestpacTrust Stadium to replace the old Athletic Park) in Wellington where Wallaby lock forward who was the captain at the time of John Eales when he provided the clutch moment of scoring that winning penalty goal in Wellington to secure the Bledisloe for Australia, & to once again break New Zealand hearts), while in 2014 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane where Malakai Fekitoa scored a try at the death to level the scores right before Colin Slade kicked the winning conversion & the rest was history (Although Australia had to sack their coach Ewen McKenzie after that game following New Zealand's win in Brisbane, & brought in Michael Cheika as his replacement), & finally in 2015 where Dan Carter made a sidestep to one of the Australian players before connecting the pass to Dane Coles who sprinted all the way to score in which we retained the Bledisloe in Richie McCaw & Carter's farewell Bledisloe Cup game for the All Blacks (And others including Tony Woodcock, Keven Mealamu, Ma'a Nonu (Who is a fan of the late American rap musician 2pac, but still plays rugby for San Diego Legion in Major League Rugby) & Conrad Smith (Who is a Mumford & Sons listener, & is learning the ways of becoming a referee in which he did by officiating a game between Classic Taniwha & the Classic All Blacks in Whangarei just before an NPC game as part of the curtain-raiser), just right before our another successful Rugby World Cup glory/triumph in England in the same year which was our most recent to date (And we had to face Australia again in the final in which we successfully did) in Sam Cane's 100th All Blacks test since he made his debut back in 2012 against Ireland in Christchurch & last but not least, TJ Perenara (Who made his debut 10 years ago against England in Auckland also back in 2014) is playing his farewell home game in our last Aotearoa test of 2024 before heading to Japan to play for a club competing in the Japanese club rugby competition (And it looks like that Cortez Ratima, Noah Hotham & Finlay Christie (And potentially Cam Roigard is fit & available) will be the 3 halfbacks for the All Blacks when they go on tour to both Japan & Europe this year) as well as the final round of this year's Rugby Championship (Which will be decided in Nelspruit between the world champion Springboks & Los Pumas of Argentina, but whoever needs to finish with a win would guarantee the title), so here is the starting lineup according to Razor:
STARTING XV
FORWARD PACK
FRONT ROW
1 (Loose head prop): Ethan de Groot (Highlanders/Southland)
2 (Hooker): Codie Taylor (Crusaders/Canterbury)
3 (Tight head prop): Tyrel Lomax (Hurricanes/Tasman)
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): Wallace Sititi (Chiefs/North Harbour)
7 (Open side flanker): Sam Cane (Chiefs/Bay of Plenty)
8 (Number 8): Ardie Savea (Moana Pasifika/Wellington)
BACK LINE
HALVES
9 (Half-back): TJ Perenara (Hurricanes/Wellington)
10 (First five-eighth): Beauden Barrett (Blues/Taranaki)
MIDFIELD
12 (Second five-eighth): Anton Lienert-Brown (Chiefs/Waikato)
13 (Centre): Rieko Ioane (Blues/Auckland)
OUTSIDE BACKS
11 (Left wing): Caleb Clarke (Blues/Auckland)
14 (Right wing): Sevu Reece (Crusaders/Southland)
& 15 (Fullback): Will Jordan (Crusaders/Tasman)
& REPLACEMENT PLAYERS
16 (Reserve hooker): Asafo Aumua
17 (Reserve loose head prop): Tamaiti Williams
18 (Reserve tight head prop): Pasilio Tosi
19 (Reserve lock): Patrick Tuipulotu (Who is healthy again & raring to go as he takes Sam Darry's spot at the reserve lock position)
20 (Reserve loose forward): Luke Jacobson
21 (Reserve half-back): Cortez Ratima (Who is dropped to the pine with TJ Perenara being elevated to the starting lineup to start at halfback)
22 (Reserve midfielder): Damian McKenzie (Who is dropped to the bench as he replaces his great mate Anton Lienert-Brown who is elevated to the run-on team to replace the injured Jordie Barrett at second five)
& 23 (Reserve back): David Havili (Who replaces Harry Plummer to be on the pine as he covers the reserve back position)
And continuing onto the rugby as the All Blacks secure another win against the Wallabies in Sam Cane's 100th test as well as TJ Perenara's farewell game for New Zealand (Which is the land of rugby that I didn't know when I was playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater PS1 game in 2002 where skateboarding is the most popular extreme sport in our country, but during one of the NPC matches on TV where sideline commentator Nathan Harris (Who was a former All Black during his rugby playing days) had referenced the garryowen kick AKA the up & under as seen in the Jonah Lomu Rugby PS1 video game (The greatest rugby video game of all time along with Rugby 08 on the PS2 which was good) that he was alluding to) before departing overseas, but it was a good decision made by the AB's coach Razor of putting Beauden Barrett as the starting 10 while McKenzie would be dropped to the pine as the reserve first five (And it must've worked that made the difference of winning another test match), & I mean how appropriate & how good the AB's were of finally breaking a 6 year win drought at that hallowed ground of Sky Stadium in Wellington since against France in 2018 (Before we went downhill since that we lost both against the French in 2021 & last year in the opening match of the tournament during the Rugby World Cup), but we managed to keep the Wallabies (Who were fast starters compared to the Sydney test) scoreless in the 2nd half meanwhile there was a yellow card to All Blacks two try hero Caleb Clarke for an intentional offside even though we finished the game with 14 players on the field (Although he got penalized for tackling a player in the air which was perilously close to a sin binning offence, but he got away with it with just a penalty), but our next game is against Japan in Yokohama on the 26th of October then the 3 most difficult weeks of our lives against England (Who New Zealand haven't played since July in which we won a 2 match test series against them on our home patch) first in London at the newly named Allianz Stadium London followed by the formidable Ireland side in Dublin in a rematch of last years Rugby World Cup quarterfinal & France at the Stade de France (Venue for much of the Summer Games this year & the site of the Black Ferns rugby sevens team (Which features the ever impressive star Michaela Blyde) getting the job done of claiming gold again against Canada in the women's gold medal match, then Hamish Kerr finally becoming the Summer Games champion in the men's athletics high jump when he defeated American Shelby McEwen in a deciding sudden death jump off) in Paris in a replay of the RWC opener before wrapping the test year off against Italy in a rematch of the pool game in Lyon during the RWC last year at another ground in Torino being known as Allianz Stadium Torino (And there has been an update in the rugby as Los Pumas couldn't even stop the Springboks from winning the Rugby Championship during the decider in Nelspruit where South Africa came out on top with authority to claim the Southern Hemisphere rugby tournament for the first time since 2019 as they ended a 5 year drought between winning the Rugby Championship, nearly a year on from their Rugby World Cup success yet again (First it was the RWC last year, & now they've got the Rugby Championship this year as well as the Freedom Cup to put in the trophy cabinet, but moving on to gaming related stuff that I'll be getting the digital copy of both the PS4 & PS5 versions of the Rugby 25 game (For which I'll pre-order the physical copy of that game on the PS5 for Dad, so that he can update both the players & teams just like in the Rugby League Live 4 PS4 game that he always does) once it comes out but I'm not sure about the release date whether it's December this year (And it'll feature the likes of Super Rugby Pacific in Australia, Fiji, New Zealand & the Pacific Islands, the Gallagher Premiership in England, the Top 14 competition in France, the URC (United Rugby Championship) in Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa & Wales & Major League Rugby (MLR) in both the United States & Canada + international teams such as the All Blacks, the Springboks, the Wallabies, England, les Bleus of France, los Pumas of Argentina, Scotland, the Azzurri of Italy, the Brave/Cherry Blossoms of Japan, the Flying Fijians of Fiji & other international sides appearing in the video game).
And something is very interesting has happened as Dad told me during our phone call on the 27th of September that I have a step cousin as well as Jansi's half-cuzzie named Hollyrae Mete (The one that she went to St Marcellin alongside Jans during her primary school days) who got a hat-trick for the Manawatu Cyclones against the Otago Spirit during the final of the Farah Palmer Cup championship which was played on September 22nd this year, ironically speaking (And she plays in the midfield at centre by the way but I was watching it on the internet on the same day on the 27th, a day before I recorded & watched that game a day later on the 28th where Mete is rocketing to stardom after scoring 3 tries during the final in the best Farah Palmer Cup game I have ever seen of my life (And I would like to meet her one day, but she's kinda tied up with her job in Papaioea Palmerston North just like Paige of being a full-time mum to her daughter Norah (Who I always say her name daily because I'm still convinced as part of my influence on my blogs about her, but I always chat to Pops about the trip to Wellington in January next year every day) & I'll even follow her games that she plays according to Dad during our phone conversation on the 29th of September this year).
And finally that I've got 3 planned holidays coming up to deal with over the next 3 years such as the 1st Welllington trip with Pops in January next year for which me & Pops have not been since 2016 because I'll be dying to meet Cathey & Paige to relive the glory days as well as Norah for the first time, then our second Wellington trip which I'll be going with Pops again & with both Aunty Tan & Rej (Who are here in New Zealand every 2 years which is ideal for both of them) in either December next year to January 2026 to see Cathey Middelplaats, Paige Ahearn & Norah again, & finally to Northland with Carole & Pops for our proposed holiday to Northland (Which had its power outage lately affecting 88,000 customers) in 2027 for which I'll be seeing both Kathryn & Ken in which I haven't been there since December last year where we had a great epic holiday that I have experienced throughout my life.
So that is my 572nd blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 48th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.
No comments:
Post a Comment