Kia ora, Talofa, Ma’lelei, Bula, Aloha and Welcome to Season 10 Episode 51 of Breakfast Bites, by TEIVOVOdigital.com – a wrap of Pasifika people’s sports news, on Thursday morning 22 August 2024.
 
Coming to you with tons of hanisi from the 180th meridian, in the middle of the blue continent, where it is a warm 22 degrees Celsius at 5am this morning.
 
In Rugby Union: Fiji holds a slight edge in their Pacific Nations Cup encounters against Manu Samoa, having won 9 of their 15 Tests, compared to Samoa’s 6 wins. The Flying Fijians will be keen to build on their win at Apia Park last year, when they clash in Suva tomorrow night.

Josh Lord and Harry Plummer will remain in the All Blacks squad for their Rugby Championship tour of South Africa as the injury struggles continue for Blues pair Patrick Tuipulotu and Stephen Perofeta.

All Blacks medical staff also cleared loose forward Luke Jacobson and prop Ethan de Groot for the tour. 

And in Rugby League: The 14th rugby league Immortal is legendary Rabbitohs and Roosters forward Ron Coote.

Coote won six premierships across the 1960s and 70s, played 148 NSWRFL games for South Sydney and 109 games for Eastern Suburbs.

He also played 23 times for Australia, was the recipient of the 1971 Clive Churchill Medal and won three World Cups in 1968, 1970 and 1975.

Coote was the NSWRL Player of the Year in 1969, 1970, 1975 and 1977.

He also won the 1970 and 1974 Harry Sunderland Medals for the best player of the Ashes series against England.

What’s more, his nine grand final appearances came in the space of 11 seasons and he was also the first player to feature in 100 games for two seperate clubs.

“I’m a bit taken for words at the moment,” Coote said.

“I never thought I’d be crying at 80, but I am. To me it’s just sensational, I never thought it’d happen.
“I’ve been at this function a few times and this time I got the gong, so that’s really good to me, I really appreciate it. Thank you.”

In Football: Former Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo, who currently plies his trade with Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia, raked in over 5.8 million subscribers within hours of opening a YouTube account on Wednesday.

In UFC: Less than a month before their Las Vegas Sphere event on Mexican Independence Day, one of the main event fighters - Merab Dvalishvili of Georgia has revealed a cut under his eye, which is worrying fans about his availability to take on Sean O’Malley next month.

And in Sportsbiz: NBA franchises, as with most major sports teams, have skyrocketed in value over the past decade as league revenue has shot up.

The biggest revenue driver has been the media-rights deals, which went from less than US$1Billion per year from 2007 to 2016, to about US$2.7B per year from 2016 to 2025, to what will be around US$7B annually from 2025 to 2036.

It’s all about scale and money honey!

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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