The Blues might have been “feeling sorry” for their muddling mates from down south, but not enough to stop them piling on the misery with a 26-6 win over the freefalling Crusaders. –Nine Wide World of Sport

By Roger Childs

Five weeks into the Trans-Tasman rugby competition there is only one unbeaten team – the Hurricanes and only one team without a win – the Crusaders. The latter won last year, but have a number of players currently out for various reasons, but mainly injuries.

The Hurricanes have won all their games convincingly and could afford to virtually play B team last Friday against the Rebels and still win 54-28. Last year’s runners-up, the Chiefs are second on the table, the Blues are fourth and the Highlanders sixth. 

The beleaguered Crusaders

The red and blacks have a number of frontline players injured in addition to Will Jordan and Braydon Ennor who are out for the season. On the list are captain Scott Barrett, Ethan Blackadder, Tamaiti Williams, Welshman Leigh Halfpenny, Fergus Burke, Rivez Reihana and Brodie McAlister. All Black hooker Codie Taylor is on sabbatical and Owen Franks was suspended for a head charge in the game against the Hurricanes. Consequently, it’s a tough time for new coach Rob Penny, however Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge has endorsed the coaching group, 

But it doesn’t get any easier for the under-strength Southerners as next weekend they play the Chiefs who were the beaten finalists last year. 

Ups and downs for the Aussie teams

Just two of the Australian teams feature in the top six – the Brumbies who have ranked highly for a number of years, and the Reds who are fifth. The latter were expected to be third equal with the Brumbies after the weekend, but surprisingly lost to the Western Force giving the Perth-based franchise their first win of the season 40-31. 

The Waratahs are a better team than their tenth place on the table suggests having lost three matches by only two or three points. In the remaining rounds they are likely to improve their ranking.

Savea claims the try scoring record

Former All Black Julian Savea moved from the Hurricanes this season to play for Moana Pacific where he is guaranteed match play each week. He had shared the record of 60 tries in Super Rugby with former Wallaby star Israel Folau.

 However, earlier in the month against the Rebels in Hamilton he scored his 61^st try to become the solo record holder – a great achievement.

Things that make you go hmm…

“Volod old buddy, someone from your country steered a big ship into our bridge. I need a loan to rebuild it.”

“Joe, listen: you gib mir moar mahney or I knock another one down.”

The British High Court has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may potentially get a final appeal against extradition to the United States, but only within a very limited scope and only if specific conditions are met.

The court ruled that Assange may appeal only on the grounds that his freedom of speech might be restricted in the US, and that there is a possibility he could receive the death penalty. If the US provides “assurances” that neither of these things will happen, then the trial moves to another phase where Assange’s legal team may debate the merits of those assurances. If the US does not provide those assurances, then the limited appeal will move forward.

Absurdly, the court determined that Assange’s lawyers may not argue against extradition on matters as self-evidently critical as the fact that the CIA plotted to assassinate him, or on the basis that he is being politically persecuted for the crime of inconvenient journalism.

Read more

You may wonder how the British are being ‘nice’ to Assange by having kept him in solitary confinement for 5 years so far. —Eds

from the Morgans on Facebook

“Well known sculptor Phil Price (who did the Needle on Cobham Drive) produced a cool kinetic addition to our sculpture collection last week. While it was becalmed for three days as we waited for Wellington’s beloved breeze to return, the 70 km/h gusts of the last couple of days have given it a great workout as the video illustrates. The dynamics of the piece delivers no-end of different shapes as it whirls and twirls, it being more than double-jointed. As with Morpheus the god of dreams, this piece delivers endless forms for the onlooker to imagine. Thanks Phil for a fantastic contribution.”

50 second video

Readers will likely have seen the feather, the giant seat and the rainbow bridge.

See yesterday’s post.

One basic mistake was fleeing their crime by the same route from Ukraine they entered it; carrying Ukrainian passports to prove to Zelensky forces at the border that they are who they say they are, but instead got apprended by the Russians — oh dear, the CIA and MI6 agents responsible for this Stuff-up are going to have some explaining to do to their masters in Washington and London.

ukrainian passport captured on one of the Moscow terrorists credit: x

Russian President Putin says that “Radical Islam” is responsible for the terror attack in Moscow this weekend and he implicates Ukraine for facilitating it.

“This attack was carried out by radical Islamists,” Putin said in the opening remarks of a video call with law enforcement officials, according to RT.

This leaves us to pull the thread of who funded Islamic radicals and for what purpose. This is something the West has done repeatedly in order to sow discord in Syria, Somalia, Iraq.

Colonel Douglas MacGregor, who was the former Pentagon advisor to President Trump, told Redacted that the CIA was directly involved in the operation. 

Meanwhile The White House said that, “There is absolutely no evidence that Ukraine was involved.” Yeah right — this is the same White House that said Russia blew up its own Nord Stream pipeline and the U.S. border is secure.