Kia ora, Talofa, Ma’lelei, Bula, Aloha and Welcome to Season 09 Episode 60 of Breakfast Bites, by TEIVOVOdigital.com – a wrap of Pasifika people’s sports news, on a sunny and bright Thursday morning 06 June 2024.
 
Coming to you with tons of hanisi from the 180th meridian, in the middle of the blue continent.
 
In rugby league: Joseph Sua’ali’i’s ORIGIN dream turned into a nightmare, with the young centre sent off after just seven minutes of ORIGIN 01 for a brutal high tackle on Maroons star Reece Walsh.
 
The incident is the earliest send-off in ORIGIN history and Sua’ali’i was also the first-ever debutant to be given his marching orders.
 
This flicked the switch for flyer Queensland, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow who scored a treble for the Queensland Maroons, beating the NSW Blues 10-38 at Accor Stadium last night.

The 38 points tied the most Queensland had scored in NSW, and it was the biggest win for the Maroons since their 52-6 Suncorp smashing of the Blues in 2015.

In rugby union: The Super Rugby Pacific quarterfinals this weekend kicks off with the Chiefs vs Reds in Hamilton on Friday at 7pm, the Hurricanes vs Rebels in Wellington on Saturday at 4.35pm, followed by the Blues vs Fijian Drua at 7.05pm at Eden Park, Auckland and the Brumbies vs Highlanders at 9.35pm.

In Football: Portugal will arrive in Germany with serious hopes of winning the European Championship, just as they did eight years ago.

Roberto Martinez's team come into the tournament after qualifying with the best record of any team, winning all of their games while scoring the most and conceding the least.

They are clearly the team to beat in Group F, having been drawn alongside Czechia, Turkey and Georgia. 

In SportsBiz: Ippei Mizuhara the former interpreter and friend of Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, has pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return.
 
Mizuhara admitted that he stole nearly US$17Million from Ohtani to support his illegal gambling addiction and did not reflect his betting income on his tax return.

“I worked for victim A and had access to his bank account and had fallen into major gambling debt,” Mizuhara told the federal court in Santa Ana, Calif. “I went ahead and wired money … with his bank account.”

Mizuhara agreed to a plea deal in early May. He faces up to 33 years in federal prison, five years of supervised release and a US$1,250,000 fine.
 
He will also be required to “pay full restitution” to Ohtani.
 
Mizuhara never bet on baseball, and he accumulated total losses of nearly US$41M.
 
And only in the USA: ESPN host Pat McAfee, has been heavily criticized, and later apologized, for calling WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark a “white bitch.”
 
The blowback on Clark from some quarters, seems to be about the fact that she is white and coloured girls on the WNBA have been doing it tough for years without much hype from anyone – fans, media and sponsors!
 
So now that she has finally landed – why kill the goose that’s laying the golden eggs for everyone in the WNBA?
 
And that’s a wrap!
 
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Mahalo and Ka kite; for TEIVOVOdigital.com, I’m Culden Kamea tanking you all too mass for all your love and support.
 
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