Sunday Social: The Waterboy, title banter and cards

Date published: January 3 2021 - Adam Kyriacou

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 begin with recognition for Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter and captain Joe Simmonds, who were named in the New Year’s Honours list on Wednesday.

Unsurprisingly, the banter began pretty quickly for young fly-half Simmonds as England second-row and Chiefs team-mate Jonny Hill changed his contact details.

We all waited with bated breath to see if the Chiefs would include the number 10’s new title in their team news and low and behold, the MBE was there on Friday.

Speaking of squad news, England’s U20 head coach Alan Dickens announced his Elite Player Squad this week and there was one name that jumped out from the list.

It was mission impossible for referee Nigel Owens over the weekend as he couldn’t dish out a yellow card…because he had forgotten to put them in his shorts.

In the Premiership there was a moment of magic from Bristol Bears against Newcastle Falcons and it’s just a crying shame that this amazing score was chalked off.

Elsewhere in England there has been confusion as to why this unnecessary and dangerous tackle on Chris Harris resulted in him having an HIA but wasn’t punished.

That only added to the frustrations between Gloucester and Sale Sharks and it all boiled over with a water carrier and Cherry and Whites replacement Billy Twelvetrees.

Sale would hold on to win the game 22-19, which brought an end to their recent losing run. Jokingly, flanker Ben Curry was quick to praise the man in question.

Back to the PRO14 action and Leinster’s 26-game winning streak in the competition was finally ended as a Jack Carty-inspired Connacht impressed in a 35-24 victory.

There is always a significant statistic to be found but we reckon this one about Leinster from Graham Love is a touch over the top. We know he is joking of course.