Well, welcome to all our readers here in New Zealand & around the world, I'm Whetu Ngapo & you're tuning in to my KiwiAvenger blog here on blogger but first in the Six Nations rugby as France win the title after their emphatic victory against Scotland (For whom I was rooting for due to our family being of Scottish descent) in that epic round 5 finale with French second five Yoram Moefana scoring both tries at the Stade de France in Paris that set the tone of going into their 3 match test series against the All Blacks in July, with a Six Nations championship for the first time since 2022 (While Ireland & England win both of their matches against Italy & Wales, but they could not catch France of securing the crown) & for the 7th time overall during the Six Nations era (They joined England with 7 Six Nations titles (France won it in 2002, 2004, 2006-07, 2010, 2022 & this year (2025) while England became champions in 2000-01, 2003, 2011, 2016-17 & 2020) apiece, then Ireland who won it 6 times (2009, 2014-15, 2018, 2023 & last year (2024) along with Wales (2005, 2008, 2012-13, 2019 & 2021), while both Italy & Scotland (Who last became champions way, way back in 1999 which was during the Five Nations era) have none), but they had to do it without one of their main man of Antoine Dupont who was ruled out of that game altogether through injury sustained in the Ireland test (And he could possibly miss that 3 match test series against New Zealand in an effort to take his time of recovering that injury), but there has been similarities between both of the Super Rugby games with last year's Northern Tour & a men's Six Nations matches respectively such as Sam Gilbert having the chance to win the game for the Highlanders against the Hurricanes (Who clinged on to the end, but there was controversy whether Umaga-Jensen's tackle had slipped up or should I say, crept up high on a Highlanders player, but the ref says that there was no foul play to start with, while there was Ngane Punivai who thought he got away with a yellow card for a dangerous tackle on Highlanders captain Timoci Tavatavanawai (Who is described by former All Black turned commentator Justin Marshall as Ma'a Nonu on steroids, but he argued with referee Angus Mabey after the game whether he was asking for a yellow card against Umaga-Jensen, but that's not the case even though with the TMO who couldn't afford to intervene about the foul play incident (And during the game that one of New Zealand's best halfbacks of Cam Roigard (The Hurricanes star man) did an evasive pick & go move during the game which is inspired by the Frenchman of Dupont (One of the world's best rugby players as of today) & his maneuvers of sniping past the defence in which he always does that a lot) in which Punivai had asked to leave the field to get checked for a head knock according to the protocols whilst being sin binned in which was one of the most controversial decisions in the history of Super Rugby Pacific, & I believe so) in Dunedin not once, but twice with a missed penalty & a missed drop goal which was shades of Englishman George Ford missing both a penalty & a drop kick against the All Blacks (Who just had to win) last year in November in which me, Pops & Carole were at least holding our breaths according to the previous blogs that I did, while Xavi Taele's missed conversion that sailed wide which would've put the Blues in front against the Chiefs (Who won anyway by a whisker, but the match had taken place after the Crusaders had a convincing win over the Western Force in Christchurch which is during kids round after Marvel Comics had recently signed a partnership with New Zealand Rugby to make superhero type kits that is appealing to the children who watch comics & stuff, with Sevu Reece getting a hat-trick, & Macca Springer becoming the 2nd player to score 5 tries in a Super Rugby game in which he equalled the all-time record along with the late Sean Wainui who was the first Super Rugby player to dot it down, & score 5 tries which was against the Waratahs for the Chiefs in 2021) in Hamilton that was reminiscent of Finn Russell & that unsuccessful conversion that would've put Scotland in the lead against England (Who ended up winning of course) during a Six Nations test in London, meanwhile that there's 11 teams in the Super Rugby Pacific competition now (And is it good for the Aussie teams to start finding their competitiveness? They hope so according to the rugby followers in Australia) since the Melbourne Rebels left last year (Compared to 17 in the NRL since the Dolphins joined the comp since 2023, but me & Pops aren't always league followers because it is stop start (And we're mainly rugby (Which has rucks & mauls) aficionados, but we support 3 teams in Super Rugby Pacific such as the Hurricanes (Our main franchise here because of Whanganui (In which me, Pops, Carole, Dad & Raewyn still live) being part of the Hurricanes region as well as Jansen (Jansi Jans) who still lives in the Hawke's Bay province with Bernard (Bernie), & my biological aunty of Cathey Middelplaats, my cousin Paige Ahearn (Whose birthday is coming up on the 5th of April as she turns 31 & she wasn't married when little Norah was born, even though Paige has since been married to her husband Jarrod, then they went on a honeymoon to Japan like last year (2024) as I saw a picture from Pops phone), & my first cousin once removed of Norah who are living in the Wellington province), the Highlanders (Mainly due to one of Pops old pupils during Aramoho School days of Jona Nareki playing for them, but I have been to Southland & Otago provinces before back in 2019 with Pops, Aunty Tan & Rejean, & I have never been to Dunedin for my entire life (Pops went there once also back in 2014 with the late Nan) & the Blues (Also mainly because of Stephen Perofeta who was an old boy of Whanganui City College here in Whanganui, as well as Pops who once lived in Waiheke Island & of course, Kathryn who currently resides in Northland with Ken as well as Andy who currently lives in the North Harbour province with his wife Kelsey, but they failed to get a new house when they attended the auction because the price was set higher recently), only Dad is since he is a die-hard Warriors fanatic).
And secondly onto the political stuff that things have still gone wrong in the 2020s decade such as COVID first, then the Black Lives Matter protests, followed by the riots on the US Capitol buildings, then that dreadful prolonged invasion that has been going since 2022 that I'm still not mentioning it because of Pops wishing me to keep it clean, followed by there used to be that horrendous war between Israel & Hamas in Gaza which lasted 15 months from October 2023 until January this year (And now the war has been restarted in Gaza between Israeli & Hamas forces with 60 Palestinians being reported as casualties, 60! And I mean, this is disheartening & saddened by it, especially for Carole who always watches Al Jazeera, is getting sick of this invasion (And the 1st Israel - Hamas war is bad, now the 2nd one is about to get worse) just because she's mainly a bit upset about it due to the fact that the war is back on (And the police shooting (Or police shootout I should say) stuff that I mainly do in either the GTA IV or GTA V games that I always play, reminds me of both terrible wars such as the one that has been going since 2022, & the second invasion in Gaza between Israel & Hamas forces (They used to have the first) that they're currently having for, is known as Israeli Protocol 66 which is one of the top-secret contingency orders that identified all Gazans as traitors) since the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu who is dissatisfied of not trusting about Hamas for failing to release the remaining 65 hostages (Who all of them demanded the invasion to stop whilst in Hamas custody), although it looks like the ceasefire deal has been backfired & fallen through), then Trump surviving a certain assassination attempt not once including at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, but twice, & now the trade war between the United States that the current president Donald Trump (I think he is still, a flop & a disaster should I say in terms of his leadership about the tariffs had already been in effect as of today (I'm absolutely sick of this tariff stuff because tariff is the word that Trump loves to trend about it especially his right wing supporters, but I still haven't watched CNN (Which is the left wing news channel compared to Fox which is usually a right wing news channel) & Al Jazeera since Trump took charge as the US president again), resulting in a price hike to foreign goods, especially from my point of view, but I'm still voicing my disapproval by cringing about Trump who I described him as a greedy man by mainly criticizing the President of the United States a lot, just that the fact he is an idiot, lame!) is currently using against the rest of the world such as Canada, China & Mexico in a bid to stamp out the immigration & prohibited drug stuff in which thousands protest against the US President, as well as especially his biggest supporter of South African born American Elon Musk (The world's richest person who I thought I once was telling Carole that he only had sons, but he has adoptive children such as girls that he's having) & his Tesla electric car company that he founded in which the stocks had gone down recently due to the protests that they're currently dealing with, had been worked (And Tesla has recently is about to pull out of the auto show in Vancouver, fearing for its safety towards the attendees).
And thirdly in the rock music industry such as legendary NZ rockers Shihad performing their final ever concert at Homegrown in the band's hometown in Wellington before sadly, that they had to retire from then on following that gig (And the first song I heard since their retirement was 'Everything' that I heard on Brian on the 16th of March), but I started to follow Crowded House (Which is an Aussie rock band, but the lead singer is a Kiwi of Neil Finn (Formerly from Split Enz which is easily one of our country's best bands ever, damn that, they do it all) who has his sons Liam & Elroy are in fact band members still) now (However it is not one of my main rock bands & musicians list that I follow because it's still Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne, Michelle Branch, Evanescence, Linkin Park, U2 & last but not least, Nickelback (And it used to be Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as the Foo Fighters, Incubus, A Perfect Circle, Shihad & Filter) because it is my fave New Zealand rock band from now on since Shihad called time on their career which lasted 37 years (And they have released 10 studio albums that they had during their career, but I own 6 out of the 10) while the band had humble beginnings in 1988 where the lead singer Jon Toogood & drummer Tom Larkin were both AC/DC & Metallica fanatics back then (And the highlights of their career were playing in front of 60,000 people opening for AC/DC at Western Springs Stadium in Auckland back in 2010 for which I have not mentioned in my blogs before, up until now compared to changing their band name to Pacifier following the 9/11 tragedy way back in 2002 which was their low point as I twice mentioned a story about it on my blog).
And finally that the brand spanking new Formula One season is underway as the clear favourite to win the world championship this year of McLaren's Lando Norris, has taken the victory to open proceedings down under at the season opening race of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia (And it has been all McLaren so far as they dominated qualifying, then they had converted from a pole, to a certain race win with Norris crossing the line (And it just had to be), to be on the top step as Lando draws first blood of the first Grand Prix of the year, meaning that for the first time since 2012 that a driver racing for McLaren takes the lead of the championship after the season opener, & it was Jenson Button), therefore setting the tone with his chance to dethrone the defending 4 time world champion Max Verstappen on top of the F1 world, is well & truly on (And there has been an update as one of Norris's McLaren teammates of Aussie Oscar Piastri who had taken victory at the most recent Grand Prix in China (While the sprint race went to multiple world champion of Britain's Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari) to go 2 & 0 this year for McLaren who remain undefeated (And it's one wins apiece for both Norris (Australia) & Piastri (Who dominated China), meanwhile our own New Zealander Liam Lawson has lost his race seat at Red Bull after 2 races in which he had a mediocre season that he is having since being promoted to the main team this year (And Dad was telling me about it during our phone conversation on March 27th when Lawson had been given the sack from Red Bull) from RB (It's Racing Bulls as of today).
So that is my 602nd blog of the year 2025 (MMXXV) & my 26th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.
P.S. And also that the rugby community is in mourning as former New Zealand rugby player & coach Alex 'Grizz' Wyllie (The one who was born during the war which was World War II making him as one of the wartime babies being born (Compared to Pops who was born 2 years following the war had been complete in 1947) who played for both Canterbury & the All Blacks as well as he coached both of these sides that he played as well as he was once the Argentina rugby team coach way, way back at the 1999 men's Rugby World Cup, has passed away, so all thoughts, prayers & condolences to his loved ones for this emotional but difficult, tough time, rest easy.
Alex 'Grizz' Wyllie
1944 - 2025
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