Sunday Social: Reverse Samson and Steve Smith’s rugby skills

Colin Newboult

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 with Ireland’s victory over Wales where a number of second-string players impressed for Joe Schmidt’s men. However, one of their stars, who received plenty of criticism following the England game, shone as Jacob Stockdale regained his form, coincidentally after getting his hair cut. It was like Samson in reverse.

Ireland have been criticised for their one-dimensional approach and lack of creativity over the past year and, judging by this pass from cricketer Steve Smith, they could perhaps look to see if he has Irish ancestry.

Schmidt’s side, alongside the likes of Wales, England, New Zealand and South Africa, remain one of the favourites for the World Cup, but Fiji have surely joined that select group after this seemingly impressive victory.

One of the stories of the past couple of weeks has been Wales’ rise to number one in the world, but it didn’t last long…

Onto Wales’ arch-rivals England and they have been putting together a hugely entertaining series of videos, named ‘Rising Sons,’ and this was another funny moment from the latest episode.

Elsewhere, the French thrashed Italy on Friday and it has been confirmed that it was Louis Picamoles’ and Guilhem Guirado’s final game for the national team in France. They will retire from internationals at the end of the World Cup following distinguished careers for Les Bleus.

Interestingly, there is plenty of rugby going on in France at the moment following the start of the Top 14 and this was a wonderful piece of skill by Clermont wing Remy Grosso.

That was matched by Canterbury in the Mitre 10 Cup, however, after All Blacks centre Ryan Crotty finished off this brilliant move.

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