Bula, Ma’lelei, Talofa and Welcome to Season 07 Episode 22 of Breakfast Bites, by TeivovoSports.com – a wrap of Pasifika people’s sports news, on a bright and sunny Monday morning 23 October 2023.

Coming to you with tons of hanisi from the 180th meridian in the middle of the Blue Continent - the Pacific Ocean.

In rugby union: South Africa just beat England 15-16 in their RWC2023 semi-final clash in Paris yesterday morning, thanks to the trusty boot of Andre Pollard cool under pressure. So, after New Zealand bounced Argentina 6-44 we march on to the RWC2023 finals this weekend.

Meanwhile, in WXV1 in Wellington, New Zealand: France upset the world champion Black Ferns 17-18, England 42-7 Australia, Canada 42-22 Wales.

Catching up with WXV2 in Stellenbosch, South Africa and WXV3 in Dubai there are already some huge mis-matches and with two wins each already, it looks as if Italy and Scotland will play for top spot in WXV2, while Spain and Ireland are top dogs in WXV3.

Why? Because same old same old - World Rugby has poured more money and resources into European women’s rugby than anywhere else in the world.

Other key results: USA 36-26 Samoa and Japan 32-10 Samoa and Spain meanwhile beat Fiji 19-26.

In rugby league: Tonga's history-making touring team, full of NRL talent, have given England a scare in the first of three rugby league Tests before falling to a valiant 22-18 defeat at St Helens.

Kristian Woolf's touring side; the first tier-two rugby league side to play a full series in Britain, were still forging forward in the dying minutes overnight as they tried to record a landmark victory.

A late try from Manly's Tolutau Koula had set up a grandstand finish but England held out for the four-point win.

The NRL Dally M Rookie of the Year, Penrith Panther Sunia Turuva scored a late try to help Fiji to a 22-18 “get out of jail” win against a brave Cook Islands side in their Pacific Championship Test in Port Moresby yesterday.

Down 16-18 with just over five minutes to play, Turuva danced through a gap and pinned his ears back from 10 metres out to score a brilliant individual try and give Fiji the win.

In SportsBiz: In only its second year, the Amazon & NFL 11-year rights bet, in excess of US$11Billion, against traditional linear television, is looking good: Amazon is averaging 13.6 million viewers through its first five “Thursday Night Football” live streams — 26% above its comparable average to start the 2022 season and 42% higher than the full-season average of 9.6 million last year.

Those increases bring Amazon and “TNF” streaming nearer to the NFL’s overall per-game average of 17.3 million so far in 2023 — itself up 4% from last year.

The league’s digital growth also extends to YouTube, in its first year running NFL Sunday Ticket after years of satellite-based distribution on DirecTV.

In Combat sports: All it took was one head kick to dash Australian Alexander Volkanovski’s dreams of double-champ status, with Islam Makhachev extending his reign on top of the Lightweight division.

The undefeated Russian superstar closed the chapter on the rivalry with Volkanovski – claiming a first-round TKO win in the pair’s highly-anticipated rematch at UFC294.

Undefeated middleweight rising star Khamzat Chimaev has put himself in a position for a shot at Sean Strickland and the title after a majority decision victory over Kamaru Usman.

UFC CEO Dana White bet his house on UFC294 outperforming Tyson Fury versus Francis Ngannou on pay-per-view next Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

And that’s a wrap!

For TeivovoSports.com I’m Culden Kamea – please hit the like and subscribe buttons below if you want to receive more Pasifika sports highlights on Breakfast Bites.

Mahalo, Kakite and tank you all too mas for all your love and support.

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