Sunday Social: Bledisloe, election and Parisse magic

Colin Newboult
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It is time for Planet Rugby’s Sunday Social, your quirky recap of the serious and not so serious talking points from the past week’s action.

We of course start with the Bledisloe Cup as the Wallabies stunned the All Blacks to emerge victorious in Brisbane. The players and staff were unsurprisingly jubilant and celebrated by belting out the national anthem.

Australia played with far more intensity but they were also accurate in attack and they created this superb try for debutant Tom Wright.

Noah Lolesio was one of those to pay the price for last weekend’s record defeat, but he came on and impressed in the latter stages. The 20-year-old certainly has his fans as this great photo shows.

There were several impressive individual performances from the Wallabies but Marika Koroibete was particularly excellent, leading some to suggest his all-round skill set can be used elsewhere.

For the All Blacks, despite playing in his favoured position, Beauden Barrett struggled in their defeat, but he managed to show his ability in training during the week.

Elsewhere in New Zealand, congratulations to ex-All Blacks Kane Hames, who is making his way in refereeing and made his debut as an assistant in the Mitre 10 Cup.

Meanwhile, the American election result was finally announced on Saturday and there were plenty of rugby-themed tweets mocking Donald Trump, including this from a Bath fan account…

https://twitter.com/BathBytes/status/1324385179897573380

…And this from their West Country neighbours, Bristol.

Ireland legend Rob Kearney also got in on the act, congratulating distant cousin Joe Biden for becoming the President-elect.

Squidge, in his own inimitable fashion, put the election in rugby terms.

Elsewhere, although the Six Nations ended last weekend, there was still the player of the championship to decide and it deservedly went to Antoine Dupont. This video shows why.

Finally, the Top 14 continued where Toulon put together an outstanding move from deep inside their own half. It ended with Sergio Parisse producing a wonderful cross-field kick for Erwan Dridi to score.

Australia