Kia ora, Talofa lava, Ma’lelei, Bula, Aloha and Welcome to Season 11 Episode 19 of Breakfast Bites, by TEIVOVOdigital.com – a wrap of Pasifika people’s sports news, on Wednesday morning 23 October 2024.
 
Happy birthday Jon Apted!
 
Coming to you with tons of hanisi from the 180th meridian, in the middle of the Blue continent, where it is a cool 22 degrees Celsius at 5am this morning.
 
In Rugby Union: The All Blacks team to take on Japan on Saturday 26 October at 6.50PM (NZST) features 11 players of Pacific Islander or Maori heritage in their starting XV:

1. Tamaiti Williams, 2. Asafo Aumua, 3. Pasilio Tosi, 4. Sam Darry, 5. Patrick Tuipulotu (C), 6. Samipeni Finau, 7. Sam Cane in his 100th Test (VC), 8. Wallace Sititi, 9. Cam Roigard, 10. Damian McKenzie, 11. Mark Tele’a, 12. Anton Lienert-Brown (VC), 13. Billy Proctor, 14. Sevu Reece and 15. Stephen Perofeta

Reserves: 16. George Bell, 17. Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18. Fletcher Newell, 19. Josh Lord, 20. Peter Lakai, 21. TJ Perenara, 22. David Havili and 23. Ruben Love

In Rugby League: Life won't get any easier for Tonga when they face the defending champions New Zealand Kiwis in Auckland next Saturday 02 November in Round 3 of the Pacific Championships, getting a chance to right some of the wrongs of their first-up loss to the Kangaroos.
 
Meanwhile, when the Kangaroos take to the field in Christchurch, it will be almost a year to the day since they were humbled 30-0 by the Kiwis in the 2023 Pacific Championships final, but Tom Dearden is adamant that the new-look Australians won't need to use that loss for motivation.
 
In Football: Key UEFA Champions League games today: Milan vs Club Brugge, Paris vs PSG, Juventus vs Stuttgart, Arsenal vs Shakhtar, Aston Villa vs Bologna and Real Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund.
 
In the NBA: October is arguably the month for sports - with the NFL and US College football in full swing, MLB’s two biggest teams facing off in the World Series, the NHL’s opening weeks, and the rise of the WNBA - the NBA season tips off tonight with the Boston Celtics hosting the New York Knicks.
 
In Sports Biz: No. 1–ranked Men’s tennis player, Jannik Sinner won US$6Million at the Six Kings Slam exhibition tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
 
That’s more than any tennis Grand Slam paid out this year - the highest being at the US Open, where Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka won US$3.6M each.

The other five players at the Six Kings Slam—Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Holger Rune and Daniil Medvedev—each banked US$1.5M appearance fees for the weekend.

Finally, only in the USA: Jonquel Jones was born in the Bahamas, moved to the US as a teenager, and lived with strangers to pursue a basketball career. On Sunday night, she won her first WNBA Championship with the New York Liberty, where Jones was named Finals MVP.

And that’s a wrap peeps!

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Mahalo and Ka kite; for TEIVOVOdigital.com, I’m Culden Kamea tanking you all too mas for all your love and support.
 
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