Well, kia ora guys & girls, as I always say that welcome to all our audience here in New Zealand & around the world, it is Whet here on my usual Kiwiavenger blog that I'm tuning here but first, the AB's (Who had Mark Tele'a scoring a late try as well as Damian McKenzie nailed a conversion attempt from the sideline which secured the win in which that test was the best game of rugby I have ever seen since the 2015 Rugby World Cup final) had a close shave as we managed to cling on for the win against England at Allianz Stadium London who had reserve English player George Ford who just come on for Marcus Smith missed both a penalty goal attempt to take the lead as well as a drop goal for the win which sailed wide (For which I was bursting out laughing about it, but that was lucky eh?), so let's let's dive into the last 10 minutes of the test according to NZ Herald website:
70TH MINUTE, PENALTY ALL BLACKS (FRONT ROW STANDING UP): Monster shove from New Zealand this time! They have the penalty as England pop up and turn in under the pressure!
71ST MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), SCRUM FEED ALL BLACKS: Lineout set up over halfway, but yet again it's gone straight over the top and unclaimed this time! England clean up, and Randall puts it high off the boot. Clarke does well under pressure to secure it. Roigard sends it back to McKenzie under pressure, and he puts the kick high. England knock it on again under pressure from New Zealand's chase! Jordan sends it through to the left wing where Sititi steps on the touchline trying to burst away! Back for the knock as advantage was still on.
73RD MINUTE (2 MINUTES LATER), PENALTY ALL BLACKS: Advantage called for the visitors! Quick ball infield to Tele'a who barges up into contact, and there's a second advantage called! Gardner will take them back for the penalty as it's slow ball on the floor.
74TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), PENALTY ALL BLACKS: Lineout set up just inside the 22. Popped off the top from Tuipulotu to Tu'ungafasi who barges up the shortside into contact. That channel is quickly shut down. Through the midfield they go where Cane and Aumua link up and make a good few metres. McKenzie with the offload to Ioane who makes another couple. Back on the inside now with some quick hands, and Ioane dragged down just short of the 5 in the midfield. Another penalty called for the visitors!
76TH MINUTE (2 MINUTES LATER), TRY ALL BLACKS (M. TELE'A): Tap and go! Roigard sends it to the left for Tu'ungafasi, but he's driven back in the tackle! Sititi stopped short as well. Savea back on the inside going nowhere. Aumua carries it up, and there's another advantage called! Quick hands now to the right wing, and it's Tele'a again! The man is liquid! Somehow he manages to fend off the tackle right on the touchline and slams it down in the corner!
77TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), CONVERSION ALL BLACKS (D. MCKENZIE): A stunner from McKenzie! He slips it just inside the right post from out on the right touchline!
78TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), PENALTY ENGLAND (DANGEROUS TACKLE): Short restart well reclaimed by England, and it's Dan who barges up into contact. Shift through the width of the pitch to the left wing where Tuipulotu puts in a monster tackle. Back infield where Slade makes a couple of metres before he's pulled down, and the ball comes loose as they shift back to the right. That was surely a high tackle there from the All Blacks... They're being called back for something else though...
YELLOW CARD ALL BLACKS (A. LIENERT-BROWN): Another tackle off the ball from the All Blacks, and Gardner isn't even asking questions here. Straight to the bin goes Lienert-Brown!
TMO REFERRAL & CARD UNDER REVIEW ALL BLACKS (A. LIENERT-BROWN): They're also looking at some head contact earlier in the spell... It's also Lienert-Brown in that tackle, and since that tackle was before the off-the-ball contact, the yellow will be for the head on head contact instead. And Gardner wants an off-field review as well! He has dipped into the tackle, so hopefully for him that's enough mitigation to keep it yellow.
Ford is calling for the tee here!
79TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), PENALTY GOAL MISS & SCRUM FEED ENGLAND: It's 15m in from touch and almost back on the 10, and Ford bounces it back off the right post! New Zealand claim it on the floor, but they instantly knock it on! England will have a scrum halfway up the 22 with a minute left on the clock!
80TH MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER): Messy ball out the back of the scrum, and Ford is smashed in the tackle as he has to take a loose pass! Baxter with the next carry gets them back into the 22. Itoje stopped short. Slow ball here as the clock hits the red!
80TH MINUTE + 1ST MINUTE (1 MINUTE LATER), DROP GOAL MISS ENGLAND: Curry out on the right stopped short, so back on the inside they come for another phase. Recycled back to Ford for the drop, and he's missed it! Pushed away to the right under pressure from the All Blacks chase! The New Zealanders have it!
FULL-TIME: 22 - 24
It wasn't pretty, but New Zealand have done it! They had the lead through most of the first half and into the break, but it was England who came back hard early in the second half to hit the front and open up a bit of a lead on the scoreboard. But those last 13 minutes from the Kiwis were brutal. England went from having conceded just two penalties in the whole match to conceding back to back to back penalties in the final couple of minutes as the visitors stepped up the intensity and really started to string some big phases together down in the right areas of the pitch.
England were excellent on defence throughout the match, with great line speed putting huge pressure on New Zealand and preventing the visitors from being able to get onto the front foot when they had ball in hand. Some absolutely brutal tackles from the Roses as well, forcing the All Blacks onto the back foot and forcing a couple of knocks as a result as well to break any momentum the visitors were able to build up.
The set pieces were messy throughout the game. New Zealand conceded a couple of scrum penalties in the first half, but once the replacements came on they got the upper hand on the shove and won a couple back. The lineouts, however, were problematic throughout. A knock here and there in the air, but mostly the ball was thrown straight over the top of the jumper and resulted in loose ball that everyone scrambled to clean up at the back. The All Blacks scuppered more than a few opportunities with their poor lineout form, and gave England the opportunity to put them straight back under pressure.
New Zealand's handling really left something to be desired today. While a couple of knocks can be attributed to some epic tackling from England, there were plenty of knocks that were just... unnecessary. Passing too quickly, passing in front of the support player, trying to offload when the better option would have been to take the contact and recycle the ball cleanly. Some of those knocks cost them some great opportunities to score points.
England capitalised well on penalties conceded by the All Blacks, with Marcus Smith on point off the tee to keep England in touch with New Zealand on the scoreboard. They didn't really get themselves too close to the tryline, opting instead to take points on offer whenever they were in range in that first half when the Kiwi discipline slipped. It was in the second half before they got themselves over the chalk, and it was very much against the run of play as Smith intercepted a pass down on his own 22 to create that opportunity for the home side.
New Zealand will be relieved to have come away with this win after a bit of a wobble in that second half, but they have a tonne they will need to do before they face Ireland on Friday night. The handling, the lineouts, and, possibly most importantly, their discipline will be key areas Scott Robertson will want to focus on this week, because Ireland will punish them if they play like they did today.
England were absolutely gutted when that drop-goal from George Ford didn't go over at the death, but they will take plenty of positives from this clash. Their line speed on defence was brutal, their discipline was excellent until those final couple of minutes, and their scrums were putting New Zealand under enormous pressure in the first 60 or so minutes. They need to convert all that into more points, but they will be revving to go when they come up against the Wallabies next weekend!
And what do I think of the test? It was absolutely spot on from Wallace Sititi who was one of the best performing rookies for the All Blacks as he made searing breaks through the defence, but what about Mark Tele'a, how good? As he bagged in for a double, including his 2nd try he scored in the corner with the scores locked up at 22 with a kick to come, before Damian McKenzie slotted in to nail that conversion from the sideline that potentially was the match winner before George Ford missing both the penalty goal (After Anton Lienert-Brown who got originally sin binned for a tackle off the ball as he repeatedly infringed before being given a card under review for taking out English reserve hooker Theo Dan on purpose with high contact which was at fault) & drop goal attempts that went astray that derailed England's chances for a win in which they didn't get the result, but bring on Ireland (Whose last win against the AB's was back in 2022 where the Irish (Who is currently the reigning Six Nations champions) made history to win a test series against the All Blacks on New Zealand soil during the professional era, as well as the first visiting team to triumph a test series against New Zealand in NZ since France in 1994 which was during the amateur days) as we have not met them since the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarterfinal in which we beat them, & there was bad blood brewing between them such as the scuffle between Jonny Sexton (Who played his last game of his rugby career before falling victim to those toxic, abusive silly threats by the All Black fans for not shaking Ioane's hand post match) & Rieko Ioane after the game, but the AB's are without 2 frontline players for this clash such as Beauden Barrett & Codie Taylor who both succumb to head knocks during the test against England, compared to the Irish bringing back these 3 frontline players such as Jamison Gibson-Park (Who Pops alluded to me on November 8th last year that he's originally a Kiwi because he comes from Great Barrier Island which is near Waiheke), Mack Hansen (Aussie born ex-Brumbies player because his mother is from there as I heard a story before) & Hugo Keenan as all of the 3 players that didn't feature in the tour to South Africa, but the Ireland-AB's test (For which will be our most difficult as well as demanding but toughest rugby test of our lives (AKA the heavyweight championship of the rugby world, the green & white of the Emerald Isle, the All Black of New Zealand) since the 2023 Rugby World Cup final against the eventual world champions the Springboks of South Africa (Who will square off against Scotland at Scottish Gas Murrayfield in Edinburgh during their opening match of the tour while England lock horns with against the struggling Wallabies outfit at Allianz Stadium London) is our biggest test match of the year, as well as the biggest day of last year since the US elections is taking place on the 5th of November (And the former US president of Donald Trump is in front as he is ahead of current US vice president Kamala Harris according to the live updates (Even through with the American people who live abroad are still holding their breath), but I fear that if Trump loses that the violence might spread between the supporters of Trump by starting riots all over the place, & if they do, cops would be sent in to disperse the crowds (But this is like a cyber-Pearl Harbor invasion as well as a cyber-9/11 & then, the Troubles that took place in Northern Ireland, UK in the 70s (In which a truce deal had struck in April 1998 after 30 years of infighting betwen Catholic Ireland & Protestant England), but they'll declare martial law if the violence continues to spread between them similar to the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 (In which the year was marred by the global COVID pandemic), a year before the US Capitol riots on January 6th, 2021 which took place 3 years before Trump (Who was a former president at the time) surviving the assassination attempt from the clutches of a deceased 20 year old gunman named Thomas Crooks which triggered the most serious incident in the United States during the 2020's decade since the Insurrection on January 6th).
And the latest in the cricket as the Black Caps make history as they beat India by 26 runs in the 3rd test in Mumbai (The birthplace of Black Caps player Ajaz Patel (The hero for New Zealand as he is the highest wicket taker by a visiting bowler in India with 22 before getting his player of the game honours in the 3rd test compared to Rachin Ravindra in the 1st test & Mitchell Santner in the 2nd test while player of the series went to Will Young) before he & his family moved to New Zealand at the age of 4) to secure an unlikely series win against India (They'll be gutted that they lost the series before embarking on a tour to Australia against the Aussies for the Border-Gavaskar trophy, while New Zealand will be stoked before their preparation against England in our next test series (But they will head back to Sri Lanka first in a T20 series before heading back home to prepare a test series against the English), therefore bouncing back from disappointment against Sri Lanka before the series began in India against the Indians (And it was a feel good time of sport on the previous weekend of the 2nd to 3rd of November, but I prefer the England - AB's test as the most exciting part of sport) 3 - 0 on Indian soil with a stunning clean sweep as well as a whitewash by a visiting team in India for the first time ever which was the greatest test series victory according to our former players about captain Tom Latham & his team earn sweeping praise after creating history in India.
And also the latest in Formula One such as Max Verstappen who finally had his winless streak broken with a win at the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos in Brazil after he started 17th in the grid but going all the way forward where the race was held in the miserable conditions in which the Grand Prix was chaotic which was the first win for the 3 time defending world champion racing for Red Bull since the Spanish Grand Prix (Although Max (Who finished 3rd behind his championship rival Lando Norris who had covered him throughout the entirety of the sprint race which went to Norris's Aussie McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri (Who has a manager in the form of Mark Webber (An ex-Formula One driver) who I saw on TV during the Australian Open this year when he attended a tennis match) was winless for 10 races stretching from Spain until finally in Brazil that he triumphed, finally that his winless streak has ended in which his chances of becoming world champion for the 4th time in a row, is on & well in truly alive), but there's 3 races left in the season beginning with Las Vegas, Nevada at the Las Vegas Grand Prix then Qatar & the season finale in Abu Dhabi (And I don't know his rivals said such as McLaren's Lando Norris is hoping to bounce back to keep his quest of winning his maiden world championship alive, but 10 races ago that Ferrari was McLaren's biggest threat of winning the constructors championship (Which is currently led by McLaren at the moment).
And in news throughout the United States, as the greatest comeback in politics is complete, with Donald Trump winning against Kamala Harris (Who'll be heartbroken after losing to Trump who was overwhemingly dominant throughout the entirety of the election which had to be fair & square (First it was Hillary Clinton in 2016 who missed out to Donald Trump, now it's Harris who suffered the same fate as Hillary last year but what a disappointing end for Kamala Harris as she was attempting to become the 1st female president of the United States, but Donald Trump's win in the election last year is similar to the Springboks winning the Rugby World Cup again in 2023) to be elected President of the United States again for the first time since he left office on January 20th, 2021, by therefore thanking his supporters for voting him during the torrid elections because this year will indeed be Trump's year (Just because of him winning against Harris which was inevitable (But I wonder the headlines would say: REDEMPTION 4 YEARS IN THE MAKING FOR DONALD TRUMP, or probably more like: TRUMP OUTLASTS HARRIS TO WIN US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, or more appropriately: DONALD TRUMP RETURNS TO THE WHITE HOUSE TO SECURE GREATEST POLITICAL COMEBACK, & especially: HARRIS DOWN & OUT AFTER LOSING US ELECTION TO TRUMP), But it just had to be, although he intends to stop both wars such as that dreadful invasion which has been going since 2022 & Israel's war on both Gaza & Lebanon which is exactly located in the Middle East that are likely to end due to Trump's victory in the US elections (And many leaders who congratulated Trump including the President of China Xi Jinpeng, but there was joy, jubilation & elation (Absolute elation) throughout the Trump camp & their supporters who were voting by barracking/rooting for him throughout the entire election), but I'm gutted that Trump won (I'm sick of him winning the election, don't do that), & let's hope that the Ireland rugby team doesn't provide the moment inspired by Donald Trump if they beat the All Blacks on the 8th of November (That's November 9th New Zealand time) in Dublin) as he begins his 2nd & last term which starts on Inauguration Day on January 20th next year).
And continuing on to the rugby stuff as the AB's (Who have 5 players part of the casualty ward such as Ethan Blackadder, Luke Jacobson, Dalton Papali'i as well as new additions to the injury list (IL) such as Beauden Barrett & Codie Taylor who are both unavailable as they go through the return to play protocols + Ethan de Groot who is still missing after sitting out the previous test against England due to breaking internal standards) name our team to play against Ireland (Who haven't played since the 2nd test against the world champion Springboks team at Kings Park in Durban which resulted victory to Ireland with a match winning drop goal provided by Ciaran Frawley, but the Irish haven't beaten us since 2022 in Wellington in the 3rd & deciding test in which New Zealand has had last lost a test series for the 1st time since against France in 1994 which was during the amateur era at Eden Park in Auckland where the last time we lost a test at Eden Park as well as the city of Auckland courtesy from the try from the end of the world by one of the French players that famously took victory in the test) at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin (Our most recent meeting between the 2 sides was in 2023 during the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal where the All Blacks managed to ease past the Irish to go through to the semifinal against Argentina after Sam Whitelock provided the winning turnover that broke Irish hearts, & after the game that Sexton was involved in a altercation with Rieko Ioane, then he got abused by the New Zealand fans on social media for not shaking Ioane's hand post-match, but we haven't played at that ground since 2021 in which we lost the test against Ireland (Who have always been competitive since their first win against us in Chicago, Illinois in the United States back in 2016 in which we were heartbroken thus creating a new rivalry between both sides in international rugby, but it's been 3 years since the last time Ireland tasted defeat at that ground, & it was against France in the Six Nations which was during the COVID era, & they haven't been defeated at that ground since 2021) a year before they went on to win the 3 match test series on New Zealand soil after being 1 - 0 down, & become the first side to win a test series since the beginning of the professional era) in the most difficult, but demanding as well as the toughest rugby test match of our lives since last year's Rugby World Cup final against South Africa which ended in defeat, so here's 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): 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): Mark Tele'a (Blues/North Harbour)
& 15 (Fullback): Will Jordan (Crusaders/Tasman)
& REPLACEMENT PLAYERS
16 (Reserve hooker): George Bell (Who returns to the side to replace Asafo Aumua who is elevated to the run-on XV as the starting hooker as part of the 2 injury enforced changes being made by the AB's)
17 (Reserve loose head prop): Ofa Tu'ungafasi
18 (Reserve tight head prop): Pasilio Tosi
19 (Reserve lock): Patrick Tuipulotu
20 (Reserve loose forward): Samipeni Finau
21 (Reserve half-back): Cam Roigard
22 (Reserve midfielder): Anton Lienert-Brown
& 23 (Reserve back): Stephen Perofeta (Who is called up to replace Damian McKenzie who is elevated to the starting lineup, starting at first five in another of both injury enforced changes that New Zealand have made)
So that is my 580th blog of the year 2025 (MMXXV) & my 4th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.
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