Sunday Social: Pre-match antics and milestones

Adam Kyriacou
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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 start off at the La Défense Arena in Paris where the crowd were kept busy with some amusing pre-match entertainment in the form of a Bubble fight ahead of Racing 92’s Top 14 encounter with La Rochelle.

On a more serious note, Harlequins and former Wales hooker Scott Baldwin revealed earlier this week that he has been battling gambling issues for periods during his life and that it’s proven to be a very costly problem.

In Super Rugby action, Sunwolves inside centre Shogo Nakano found out the hard way that you don’t go front on to Ngani Laumape when the Hurricanes and All Blacks centre is at full tilt on one of his barnstorming runs.

https://twitter.com/SuperRugbyNZ/status/1233616224845627392

The Hurricanes turned on the style in Napier in a one-sided 62-15 victory in that match and scored this superb try early in the second half.

Elsewhere, it was a momentous occasion for the USA’s Men’s team on the opening day of the inaugural Los Angeles Sevens, as Carlin Isles crossed for his 200th try on the World Rugby Sevens Series.

A few hours later there were more celebrations in the USA camp when Perry Baker also hit the milestone.

Young second-row Ryan Baird showed his class as he crossed for a hat-trick of tries in Leinster’s 55-19 PRO14 win over Glasgow Warriors at the RDS Arena. His second try was the best of the lot and got the Leinster faithful out of their seats.

Former Ireland wing Tommy Bowe is a fan and wants Baird fast-tracked into his country’s senior Test team.

In the Premiership, Sam Simmonds was in full flow and proved difficult to stop for Exeter Chiefs in their encounter against Harlequins.

Harlequins’ players were in a celebratory mood after claiming a deserved victory over that tournament’s table-toppers at Twickenham Stoop.

Finally, despite hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons in recent weeks, Scotland fly-half Finn Russell was on song for Racing 92 in their 49-0 thrashing of La Rochelle.

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