Sunday Social: Nicknames, characters and a video call

David Skippers

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.

Although there is still no rugby action on the cards, and despite news from World Rugby that the July internationals have been postponed, the game’s roleplayers are still coming up with clever ways to boost their morale.

We start in the southern hemisphere where the best Super Rugby Nicknames XV was revealed.

Included in that list is former All Blacks centre Conrad “Snakey” Smith, who proves in this clip that he was a tad quicker than his long-time centre partner Ma’a Nonu.

Continuing Down Under, where Wallabies fly-half Quade Cooper caught our attention once again with this unbelievable offload.

In Wales, Scarlets have announced that several of their players and backroom staff will be leaving the region. Amongst them is head coach Brad Mooar, who is returning to New Zealand to join the All Blacks coaching staff, and he bid farewell to the Scarlets faithful with this classy message.

It was legendary All Blacks wing Jonah Lomu’s birthday last week and, along with millions around the world, we celebrated it with this brilliant video from World Rugby.

We also turned back the clock to celebrate this outstanding five-pointer from the Stormers – one of the best team tries in Super Rugby history.

Meanwhile, Bristol Bears shared this moment of magic from their flyer Luke Morahan during his time with the Reds.

BBC rugby commentator Andrew Cotter and his dogs, Olive and Mabel, are back again, after amusing us with commentary over their dinner and a battle for a rubber bone in previous weeks. This week, Cotter keeps us entertained with this hilarious online meeting between him and his furry friends.

https://twitter.com/MrAndrewCotter/status/1259931151403290624

Elsewhere, the World Rugby guys came up with this brilliant TikTok video to illustrate some of the characters of the game.

Former Wales centre Tom Shanklin and ex-England front-row David Flatman shared some hilarious stories about their international call-ups on World Rugby’s Between The Lines podcast with Sean Maloney.

While the guys at the Eggchasers podcast believe former England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson will be a dead ringer for Metallica singer James Hetfield in 20 years time.

And finally, kudos to Harlequins and England front-row Joe Marler, who made this Quins supporter’s day when he called her during lockdown.

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