Well, welcome to 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 onto the rugby stuff as I was watching the 2005 All Blacks Grand Slam tour doco on Sky Sport NZ last Friday that for which is really about the AB's successful grand slam tour against all of the 4 home unions, such as Wales (Whose national sport is rugby over there just like our country), Ireland (Their main sport is Gaelic games such as Gaelic football & hurling), England (For which we had a close one as we played with 13 men after both AB's sent from the field for a 10 minute suspension) & Scotland (Their main game over there is golf) despite overcoming challenges such as Graham 'Ted' Henry's rotation policy came into play for that was damn ridiculous, then tensions with fans about the Irish rugby community showing hostility towards our captain at the time of Tana Umaga (Who is a fan of the late Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley because of his trademark dreadlocked hair that he always have been that inspired of him immortalising the late Marley) for deliberately taking the British & Irish Lions captain also at the time of Irishman Brian O'Driscoll out of commission with a sickening, illegal lifting tackle that triggered an incident that he was involved with like no other, along with Keven Mealamu during the first test against the B&I Lions in Christchurch at Lancaster Park in which they could've cried red card, & for Umaga who should've been suspended for that along with Mealamu as Tana received death threats, therefore prompting a beefed up security presence when they arrived in Ireland as sports writer Jim Kayes said that there's security managers (AKA protectors) everywhere, & of course 'T' & his retirement rumours that the reason why he wanted to retire is to spend more time with his family, especially his wife Doreen & his kids, as well as his body not feeling right for that next men's Rugby World Cup way back in 2007 in France (With some matches held in both Scotland & Wales), in which we were gutted about it after being beaten by the French, especially in the quarterfinal in Cardiff.
And secondly in the league department that the 3 teams competing in this years Pacific Rugby League Championships (Who were established in 2019 as a replacement for the ANZAC test which was last held back in 2017) are New Zealand (Who are the favourites of winning the Pacific Cup 1 since Australia chose to go to England), Samoa (One of the best international rugby league teams outside of the big 3 of Australia, England & New Zealand) & Tonga (Another one of the best international teams along with Samoa outside of the major 3 international sides), but it will not feature Australia who'll embark on a tour to England to take on the English in a 3 match Rugby League Ashes test series, & I managed to create the 8 national teams such as the Cook Islands (Who'll have their League World Cup inter-confederation qualifying playoff in hand against South Africa due November 9th), France (Who qualified by annihilating Jamaica 36 - 0 in an inter-confederation playoff round), Lebanon (Who appeared in the quarters twice in both 2017 & at the delayed 2021 tournament in 2022), New Zealand (Whose best result was champions way back in 2008 after an historic upset win in the League World Cup final against the tournament favourites of the Aussies in Brisbane), Papua New Guinea (Whose national sport is rugby league over there), Samoa (Who had their best result of runners up where they missed out on their golden chance after losing to Australia in the 2021 final which was played in 2022 after their semifinal win against England (Who had one of the English players passed that ball forward allowing Samoa to sniff a chance to nail that field goal by former Penrith Panther turned Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs player Stephen Crichton in one of the best League World Cup games of all time, compared to their quarterfinal encounter against Tonga which was their 2nd best) on golden point) & Tonga (Who thought that they reached the final in 2017, but fell short against England due to a controversial decision that they should've gone upstairs whether the ball had been stripped illegally, but the ref ruled it as a knock on that robbed the Tongans a place) in the Rugby League 26 game along with Australia (The most successful side (AKA the Springboks of rugby league) in League World Cup history with 12 to their name) & England (Who last appeared in a final back in 2017 where they lost against the Aussies just like way, way back in 1995, & way long ago in 1975) who appear already via update.
And thirdly, onto the motor racing stuff as there are 4 races left in the Formula One season such as Sao Paulo in Brazil followed by Las Vegas, Nevada, for the Las Vegas Grand Prix as part of the 3rd stop to the United States, as well as Lusail in Qatar will host the penultimate round of the championship, & then they head to Yas Island in the UAE for the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Britain's Lando Norris (Who is the world championship leader after 20 rounds, but there hasn't been a British Formula One world champion for 5 years in 2020 where Lewis Hamilton who was the 10th & last different British F1 world champ (The 1st was the late Mike Hawthorn once (1958), then the late Graeme Hill twice (1962 & 1968), the late Jim Clark twice (1963 & 1965), the late John Surtees once (1964), Jackie Stewart 3 times (1969, 1971 & 1973), the late James Hunt once (1976), Nigel Mansell once (1992), Damon Hill once (1996), Jenson Button once (2009), & Hamilton 7 times (2008, 2014-15, & 2017-20), but will Lando become the 11th different world champion from the UK according to the previous blogs that I did? We'll see, but the season's not over yet) in the McLaren (Who retained the constructors title at the Singaporean Grand Prix (Won by Brit George Russell in the Mercedes-AMG), meaning that they've gone back to back as the Papaya rules the roost again) who desperately wants to end the utter dominance of Dutchman Max Verstappen & his world championship reign that stretches back to 2021 (In that the '21 season was considered to be the best Formula One seasons of all time in all of above the rest of them) in which he beat Lewis Hamilton (Who narrowly missed out on becoming an 8 time world champion that eluded them, & if he'd won, he would've become one of the all time greats of the sport) in a dramatic season ending Grand Prix race in Abu Dhabi to claim his maiden world championship, then in 2022 where he won the race in a single season 15 times, followed by a record breaking season in 2023 where Max notched up 19, & last year where Red Bull were usurped by McLaren (Who began their pathway to success to the constructors crown with Norris winning in Miami, therefore making gains in terms of their performance) in terms of the constructors championship, but the drivers world title was won by Verstappen himself.
And finally the latest in rugby such as the All Blacks get the job done against Scotland (Who scored 17 unanswered points after the break when they were 17 - 0 down) therefore maintaining our Grand Slam chances alive as we managed to overcome 3 yellow cards (Including one from Leroy Carter for foul play, then our stand in captain Ardie Savea for collapsing the maul, & Wallace Sititi for an intentional knock-on) in the test at Murrayfield in Edinburgh that went down to the wire, & it could have gone either way (Including reserve back Damian 'D Mack' McKenzie who came off from the pine with a Los Angeles Dodgers (Led by the best baseball player in the world of Japan's Shohei Ohtani (A now twice World Series winning player) who would gone on to retain MLB's prestigious World Series (Just like the Florida Panthers who would retain the Stanley Cup against the Edmonton Oilers again) for the first time since the New York Yankees did it in 1999 as part of their threepeat from 1998 to 2000, against the Toronto Blue Jays in the decider in game 7) inspired performance to score a try which was unconverted, then kick a long range penalty goal to put the Scots out of reach in which he was the standout player of the game for his contributions that made us the difference of remaining unbeaten against the brave Scottish side, compared to Dutch born AB's lock forward Fabian Holland who dominated against Ireland in Chicago), but bring on England as we square off against them in our toughest test of the Grand Slam tour at Allianz Stadium Twickenham in London for that the English would be much difficult as well as demanding compared to Scotland who were competitive throughout for that the Scottish-All Blacks test was the best rugby game I have ever watched in 2025 for which I'm thrilled & stoked about the result, & it was better than the Ireland-New Zealand one from last week.
So that is my 636th blog of the year 2025 (MMXXV) & my 60th of this year, viva Ukraine.
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