Well, g'day guys & girls (Hello again), it is Whet here indeed on my Kiwiavenger blog but first in sport, after back to back defeats against the best in the world of the Springboks in which we are winless against them since August last year although our quest of defending the Rugby Championship has been short lived, the AB's have named their team to play against the Wallabies (Who haven't beaten New Zealand since 2020 in Brisbane in which Ofa Tu'ungafasi copped a red card for a high contact on Tom Wright, then a Wallabies player of Lachie Swinton did the same on Sam Whitelock, but a late yellow card by All Black lock Scott Barrett has cost New Zealand the test therefore blowing our opportunity over there, but the Aussies have last won a Bledisloe Cup way back in 2002 (Same year that Helen Clark was in charge as the Prime Minister of New Zealand (It's Christopher Luxon as of today), compared to John Howard who was the Prime Minister of Australia back then (It's now Anthony Albanese), while Austin Powers in Goldmember (Which featured the likes of Canadian actor Mike Myers, famous American singer Beyonce Knowles, British actor Michael Caine & the late Verne Troyer as the movie stars appearing in that famous movie, but I love gooold) was the number 1 movie of the year here in our country (And I mean, very shagadelic baby!), then the average house price in Auckland were a whopping NZ$290,000, meanwhile the New Zealand Warriors made our historic first ever NRL grand final, in which we went downhill after that famous try scored by Stacey 'Stace/Jonesy/the Lil' General' Jones, while Jeff 'Goldie' Wilson was playing cricket again & Mils Muliaina was a sevens rugby player when he triumphed in Manchester with a Commonwealth Games gold for the New Zealand men's rugby sevens team (Before it was known as the All Blacks sevens), then Scott Robertson in his rugby playing days when he was winning Super Rugby championships with the Crusaders which was during the Super 12 era (And somethings had never changed), meanwhile famous New Zealand cricketer Nathan 'Nath' Astle went berserk when he got a double hundred which was the fastest 200 in test cricket history for the Black Caps as he posted 222 against England (Who had to cling on to win by 98 runs after Astle became the last man to be dismissed) at the old Lancaster Park ground in Christchurch in the Canterbury province in which he became the Kiwi master blaster, while Canadian rockers Nickelback (The most hated rock band in the world (Compared to Jos Verstappen (Max's dad) being Formula One's most hated driver) as of today (But I love them because it is by far my fave Canadian rock band (And my old bestie Sophia Ong likes them), compared to both African American hip hop musician Timbaland & the lead singer of the UK pop rock band Coldplay of Chris Martin who seemingly favour towards Nickelback according to the Wikipedia page that I saw during the 2000's), but why the hate & hostility towards Nickelback? Because of the average rock listeners who mainly criticized them online in the process that the band had ever faced after being so much loved when 'How You Remind Me' being the most successful rock song to date by the band which rose to fame in the noughties (Although they had humble beginnings in a rural area in Hanna which is located in the Canadian province of Alberta, but way back in 2002 they had covered a System of a Down song at a music festival in Portugal which was a not so good place where the local fans started booing them as they pelted projectiles such as rocks towards the band meaning that had hardly got any Portuguese Nickelback fans out there where they had never won the respect they gave by losing a bit of fan support, but the band had never returned to that country again since (Just like Shihad have never been back to the United States since after they left the country & once they arrived back home in NZ that they were forced to change the name of the band to Pacifier in 2002 because of the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks a year earlier in 2001 when they toured over there (And I remember a comment from Leon Benbaruk last year about Shihad changing their band name to Pacifier after September 11th, 2001) according to the blog that I did in 2021 about the story of Shihad becoming Pacifier following the September 11th tragedy (And Pacifier was indeed the worst band name ever, but it's been 20 years since they had to change their old name back to Shihad way back in 2004, a year before they hosted a free concert at Aotea Square in Auckland also way back in 2005 where the loyal fans have paid back their respects by thanking them in due course as I mentioned in my blog that I did in January this year) according to the doco that they recently came out last year called Hate to Love: Nickelback) reached number one in the New Zealand music charts at the time where they ruled on top, yes, Nickelback rule with their smash hit song 'How You Remind Me' which initially came out or should I say, released in 2001 from the album Silver Side Up, & last but not least, John Mitchell (Who is now the England women's rugby team coach) & Eddie Jones (The current Japan men's rugby team coach) were the coaches of the AB's & Wallabies respectively back then, but will it be Razor's time? Or will it be a Schmidt who'll definitely come out on top this year?) at Accor Stadium in Sydney for our highly anticipated first Bledisloe Cup test of the year (Our most recent meeting between the 2 teams was last year at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin in our last Aotearoa test of last year in which we had a tough game to start with including that we rested our first choice players for the return clash, but we did win courtesy of Richie Mo'unga slotting that winning penalty goal) as well as the penultimate round of this year's Rugby Championship, so here is the starting lineup according to Razor:
STARTING XV
FORWARD PACK
FRONT ROW
1 (Loose head prop): Ethan de Groot (Crusaders/Canterbury)
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): Cortez Ratima (Chiefs/Waikato)
10 (First five-eighth): Damian McKenzie (Chiefs/Waikato)
MIDFIELD
12 (Second five-eighth): Jordie Barrett (Hurricanes/Taranaki)
13 (Centre): Rieko Ioane (Blues/Auckland)
OUTSIDE BACKS
11 (Left wing): Caleb Clarke (Blues/Auckland)
14 (Right wing): Will Jordan (Crusaders/Tasman)
& 15 (Fullback): Beauden Barrett (Blues/Taranaki)
& REPLACEMENT PLAYERS
16 (Reserve hooker): Asafo Aumua
17 (Reserve loose head prop): Tamaiti Williams (Who is dropped to the bench to replace the out of form Ofa Tu'ungafasi with regular starter Ethan de Groot returning from injury to start at loosehead prop)
18 (Reserve tight head prop): Pasilio Tosi (Who replaces Fletcher Newell who is ruled out with a calf injury to get his first taste of Bledisloe off the pine)
19 (Reserve lock): Sam Darry
20 (Reserve loose forward): Luke Jacobson
21 (Reserve half-back): TJ Perenara
22 (Reserve midfielder): Anton Lienert-Brown
& 23 (Reserve back): Sevu Reece (Who is also dropped to the bench as he makes way for Beauden Barrett who is elevated to the starting lineup, replacing Will Jordan who is moved to the right wing side)
And there has been an update in the rugby as the All Blacks (Who had lost Beauden Barrett before the game with an injury, then his brother Jordie who got replaced at halftime with a knee injury) retain the Bledisloe Cup for another year following their narrow 3 point win against the Wallabies in Sydney, but our performance in the 2nd half was slightly disappointing as we conceded both tries in the 2nd half just like the first half in which we led at halftime, as well as getting both yellow cards against Caleb Clarke & replacement player Anton-Lienert Brown for infractions such as a deliberate knockdown & offside (In which the AB's fans were mad at each other about the 2 yellows which resulted in New Zealand having to play with 13 players for around 10 minutes, but both of our All Black tries had been overturned by the TMO during the 1st & 2nd halves with the Wallabies fans cheered every time a potential All Blacks try would be ruled out) & we managed to pile on the pressure such as holding up a Wallaby maul in the dying seconds which resulted in a scrum to us before Ardie Savea had broken off with the ball at the back of the scrum, then kicking the ball out for the final whistle, while in the other game that this year's Rugby Championship will be decided in Nelspruit following a close win by Los Pumas who became the 2nd side after Ireland to defeat the best in the world of South Africa (Who just needs to finish with a win at Mbombela Stadium to collect the maximum 4 points required (That's 1 for an attacking bonus point & 5 for both a win & an attacking bonus point), & the Rugby Championship is theirs in which the South Africans have never won a Southern Hemisphere rugby competition since 2019 (Same year that South Africa would eventually win a Rugby World Cup in Japan, 4 years before retaining the William Webb Ellis trophy in France last year) in Santiago, including where Manie Libbok had missed a penalty goal that needed to secure the championship which resulted in victory to the Argentinians.
And the latest in the Louis Vuitton Cup in Barcelona, Spain such as the final of the America's Cup challenger series is set, it'll be the best of the challengers of INEOS Britannia (Led by Sir Ben Ainslie which features the Olympic champion in the 49er class at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021 of Dylan Fletcher) who beat the favourites to lift the Auld Mug of Alinghi Red Bull Racing in semifinal 1, set to square off against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Led by both Aussie Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni who defeated American Magic once more in the 2nd semifinal) yet again, in a rematch of the 2021 Prada Cup with the right to challenge our own defender of Emirates Team New Zealand led by Peter Burling, in the America's Cup match coming in October.
And there has been an update in Formula One such as Australia's Oscar Piastri in the McLaren (In which their car had made significant upgrades of getting the car faster such as prior to both the Miami & Dutch Grands Prix), has won his second Formula One career race in Azerbajian which was embroiled with controversy once again as he is finished ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc from Monaco in the race (But Piastri's car had been checked whether it was illegal or not that it featured a mini-DRS thing in the car), but the next race will be in Singapore in which Carlos Sainz won the Grand Prix last year, breaking Red Bull's winning streak of 15 races dating back to Abu Dhabi in 2022 (And it was our own Kiwi Liam Lawson in the now defunct Alphatauri who finished in the points in 9th in which he had his best result of his F1 career) until Italy last year at the Parco di Monza circuit, meanwhile in the Supercars Championship at the last Sandown enduro event where one of the Red Bull Ampol racing drivers won the race prior to the big one which is the annual Bathurst 1000 of either Will Brown or Broc Feeney (Who was born in 2002 along with young New Zealand Formula One racer Liam Lawson & the son of a famous Samoan rugby player of young All Black Wallace Sititi), but back to the F1 department as there has been an update in Singapore which is all about Norris when he won the Grand Prix, therefore edging closer of taking over the lead of the championship from his main rival Max Verstappen (Who had recieved a penalty against him for an infraction but grabbed the fastest lap in the race, & I fear that his dominance in F1 which began in 2021 might be the beginning of the end of him because of Lando Norris (Who trails behind Max by 52 points in terms of the championship) taking over as the new fastest driver in Formula One (Just like former US president Donald Trump (Who survived another assassination attempt in which another gunman was detained by cops eventually) had retaken the lead ahead of US Vice President Kamala Harris (Who currently still leads in terms of most polls) according to some polls in September just 2 months prior to the US election in Trump's comeback bid of returning to the White House (Which is the world's most protected building according to one of the movies of White House Down in 2013), but my thoughts would be if Trump wins the election: "America sucks! America sucks!" But the result of the US election could decide the outcome of starting World War III (And it's not until 2032 with the collapse of the United States according to the prediction or in 2034 if there's a nuclear war just in case) while many American people especially the left wing Liberals don't want Trump to win, except the right wing Conservatives do) as well as McLaren taking over as the fastest car in this year's F1 grid where they've taken over from Red Bull as the new leader in the constructors championship when Piastri won in Azerbaijan in which McLaren have never won the constructors title for 26 years since way back in 1998, but the latest as Daniel Ricciardo (Who made his F1 debut in 2011 with the now defunct Hispania Racing Team) announces that he'll step aside in Formula One after Singapore, with our own Kiwi Liam Lawson (Who hasn't competed in Formula One since last year in Qatar, but recently he copped it when Lawson was the victim of abusive silly threats online about the Aussie losing his seat in which the loyal followers of Ricciardo were outraged & aghast right through the thick of it which is potentially shocking) all but confirmed at RB starting from the United States Grand Prix at COTA in Austin, Texas).
And finally that me & Pops have finally got an idea for a place to stay in Wellington when we go over there in January next year, but we could go again as a matter of fact in either December in the same year or in January 2026 with Pops, Aunty Tan (Who had a phone conversation with her along with Pops on the 21st of September) & Rejean in an effort of meeting Cathey (Whose son & another one of my cousins Luca is heading to uni when Pops alluded to me on the 27th of September), Paige & Norah (For I have not seen both of these women since over 8 years ago but never met that baby girl before) which is John & Lim's place for which I have not been there since 2016, but I haven't met both John Coburn & Lim Chin Keong since ages ago when they visited Whanganui here according to the phone conversation from Dad on the 19th of September then at Caroline's where I had a chat to Carole about it which was a day later (And I have confirmed our next visit to Northland when I go with both Carole & Pops, it'll be 2027 for sure because it might be a possibility in fact (But it's a long way).
So that is my 571st blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 47th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.
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