Sunday Social: A record breaker, debutant and Halloween

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.

Where else to begin but at Parc y Scarlets? It was a momentous occasion for Wales captain and second-row Alun Wyn Jones as he broke ex-All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw’s record for most Test appearances in his side’s loss to Scotland. And to celebrate that feat, former Scotland forward and motor neurone disease sufferer Doddie Weir sent Jones a special congratulatory message.

Jones’ entrance was a memorable one and there was a fantastic build-up before he entered the Test arena for the 149th time.

Of those 149 Test appearances nine were for the British & Irish Lions and the famous touring team celebrated the 35-year-old’s feat with this beautiful graphic.

While the guys at World Rugby also paid tribute to Jones’ phenomenal achievement with a video of some of his best moments in a Wales shirt.

On the other end of the scale, Bath hooker Tom Dunn made his Test debut for England in their victory against Italy and after the game he showed how much playing at the highest level means to him.

The Wales v Scotland match was not of a high standard and Scotland fan Graham Love summed up the ‘quality’ of that Test with this funny tweet.

Meanwhile, kudos to the Welsh Rugby Union who used plenty of innovation to select their Halloween XV.

Heading Down Under, where All Blacks wing Sevu Reece couldn’t hide his delight after his team’s 43-5 triumph against trans-Tasman rivals the Wallabies in Sydney.

It was all smiles in New Zealand’s camp as their emphatic victory means they lifted the Bledisloe Cup for the 18th successive year.

In other news, there’s always the comparison between American Football and Rugby, but let’s not even put the numbers next to each other for the NFL and MLR. It would make the average MLR player cry. Even an All black.

We end off with legendary All Black – and Test rugby’s leading points-scorer – Dan Carter, who showed his appreciation for this great piece of skill from American Football player Skyler Davis.

 

British and Irish Lions