Here are the latest rugby evening headlines on Thursday, March 24.
URC announce sacking over appalling video
United Rugby Championship bosses have sacked the agency it used to run its TikTok account after an awful video was posted making light of a Cardiff star losing consciousness. You can see the video here.
A video clip was shared of Cardiff winger Aled Summerhill suffering a blow to the head amid a challenge during South African side Lions' win earlier this month. The clip's caption said "goodnight" alongside sleeping and laughing emojis, and "ZZZ" over Summerhill's body as he lay on the ground.
The post was met with uproar, attracting criticism from the player, his region and lobby group Progressive Rugby, and now URC bosses have sacked the agency they had used and apologised.
A statement said: "Injuries, and in particular head injuries, are always a serious matter requiring sensitivity and this post was in contravention of the URC’s values and editorial guidelines. The oversight processes around publishing to our official channels have rigorous protocols but in this instance unfortunately they were not followed as a result of an individual error. The post has been removed and actions have been taken to ensure this never occurs again.
"As a professional rugby union competition the URC applies the Head Injury Assessment processes, which are set out by World Rugby. Alongside our clubs and unions, the URC takes the physical wellbeing of players extremely seriously and this is always of the highest priority. The URC would like to extend its apology to Aled’s family, friends, team-mates, his club and anyone else who rightly found the relevant post to be inappropriate. The URC has investigated the events that led to this post with the content agency contracted to post to the URC TikTok account and as a result the supplier’s relationship with URC has been terminated."
England respond to Sam Warburton's claim of 'dishonest' statement
Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney has responded to claims from Sam Warburton and Ugo Monye that the Union statement backing Eddie Jones was dishonest. Sweeney acknowledges that England's failed Six Nations fell below expectations but remains convinced Jones is the right man to guide the side into the World Cup.
England finished third in the table after slumping to three defeats for a second consecutive year, yet the RFU's initial reaction was to state that "we are encouraged by the solid progress the team has made". It was an attempt to end any uncertainty over Jones' future, but it provoked an outcry with former England wing Monye and retired Wales captain Warburton accusing Twickenham of being "dishonest". The Welshman told the 5 Live Rugby Union Daily Podcast: "Apart from Italy none of the [other] five nations will see two wins in the Six Nations as progress. It’s just to try to get the press off Eddie’s back. Don’t lie to us. Give us honesty."
Now Sweeney has responded, saying: "The feelings were genuine. Really disappointed, massively frustrated. Should we have said that more up front on Saturday? Yes, probably, recognising fans' disappointment as well. We are all, as an organisation and to a person, incredibly disappointed with what happened this year in the Six Nations.
"You'd expect more from England and we demand more in terms of our results and our performances. Our emotions have been running very high. It still feels quite raw. Winning two this year compared to winning two last year is not progress and that's a fair criticism. But in terms of how we feel the team is progressing and how it's developing, in the context of where we want to get to, we feel we're heading in the right direction, hence we were OK with that statement."
Wales name team for Ireland Six Nations opener
Wales captain Siwan Lillicrap will lead her side out to face Ireland in Saturday's Women's Six Nations opener after recovering from Covid (4.45pm kick-off). The No. 8 had tested positive for coronavirus last Wednesday but returned to training on Monday this week.
It means 58-cap Sioned Harries, who made her return to the Wales set-up after two and a half years in a Six Nations warm-up this month, has to make do with a place on the bench. Rising teen talent Sisilia Tuipulotu is in line for her first Wales cap if she comes off the replacements bench. Read more about her remarkable rise here, and get the full team news bulletin here.
New north v south hemisphere plan
A new north v south championship model is reportedly being discussed after the shelving of plans for a global champion to be crowned every two years. Under the fresh plan, there would be no promotion and relegation from the Six Nations and Rugby Championship, while the proposed World Nations Championship has been scrapped.
Australia media outlet The Age say the new competition would ring-fence the Six Nations and Rugby Championship and instead run a two-division, 12-team tournament throughout the three-week Test windows in July and November. The top six southern hemisphere nations would host three northern hemisphere nations in July, then travel to Europe to play the remaining three nations. The top-performing team from the north on points would then take on its southern counterpart in a final at the end of November. A division two championship final would happen in the same week
The suggestion is that with the Six Nations and Rugby Championship being unaffected, there was "broad support" for the idea of promotion and relegation under the north v south scheme.
SANZAAR’s chief Brendan Morris told The Age meetings in Ireland had seen every nation’s commitment to the idea. “We had some really positive meetings and there was a commitment from everyone to keep working towards a solution,” Morris said.
The devil is always in the details, though. There were positive noises over the World Nations Championship, but achieving agreement to get such a concept off the ground proved elusive.
Dragons hit by Covid issues
The Dragons have been hit by Covid issues as they prepare for their two United Rugby Championship games out in South Africa. Dean Ryan’s men take on the powerful Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday and are then away to the equally challenging Sharks in Durban six days later.
They have made the daunting trip out to the Rainbow Nation with a group depleted by the Covid pandemic.
Director of Rugby Dean Ryan: “Covid has impacted the travelling party. There are a number of people who aren’t travelling in the first week that would have been travelling, because of the need to be PCR clear before getting on a flight. We all know the challenge now, where we are still restricted by travel, and so there’s a number of people not here for that reason.”
The Dragons will also be without Wales back row trio Taine Basham, Aaron Wainwright and Ross Moriarty for the game against the Bulls, although they will fly out this weekend to join the group.
