The 2023/2024 season kicked off in style with rugby’s premier event – the Rugby World Cup. After the ‘Boks secured glory in France it was back to normality; league campaigns, cup competitions and the Six Nations.
All of these tournaments, from the grassroots all the way up to the Gallagher Premiership, rugby has produced some quite astounding moments in the last 10 months.
The World Cup was an entity of its own, and we could quite easily do a list of amazing moments from that tournament (which you can read here, we’ve already done it!), but in order to spread things out, we’ve selected moments from wide-ranging places of the game.
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Here are 13 of the most outrageous moments from the 2023/2024 season.
Joe Marler scraps with Faf de Klerk
The first on the list took place at the start of the campaign, during the Rugby World Cup.
It was the semi-final of the competition in France, with South Africa taking on England at Stade de France. The Springboks secured a 16-15 victory against the English, and eventualy went on to win the tournament.
One of the stand-out moments from the match, which caught the attention of social media, was an altercation between little Faf de Klerk and big Joe Marler.
The ‘Bok scrum-half tried to hit Marler early, and got nowhere. From there, the English funnyman ragged him around while holding his shirt, with the entire scenario playing out exactly how you would expect when a prop clashes with a scrum-half.
It racked up 16m views on TikTok.
Mass brawl in French rugby match
Shortly after the Rugby World Cup, a mass brawl took place between French Pro D2 teams Grenoble and Valance Romans.
Wales international Sam Davies had smashed six kicks over from the tee for Grenoble, and could be seen at the edge of the scuffle but didn’t get involved.
The referee was unable to calm things down as players went hell for leather into one another. Two red cards were eventually brandished – one to Valance’s Andrea Pontanier and another to Thibaut Martel of Grenoble.
A brawl like this is known as a ‘bagarre’ by French rugby fans.
Northampton Saints’ jaw-dropping try
Moving on from chaotic physical acts now, and Northampton bagged arguably the try of the season just a few weeks into the Gallagher Premiership.
They went on to win the competition last weekend, and there’s no surprise give how well they performed throughout the 2023/2024 campaign.
This try is undoubtedly the icing on the cake for the team, epitomising their synchronicity and skill.
Ridiculous airborne finish
Harlequins full-back Tyrone Green executed perhaps the finish of the season, or even the decade, with this one.
Marcus Smith shaped up for the cross-kick in the process of getting absolutely nailed by a Tigers player. The effort looked to have overshot Green’s path out on the right flank, but awe-inspiringly the England-South Africa-qualified man dived into the air, caught the ball while airborne and dotted down simultaneously.
Commentator Rupert Cox was completely baffled. “Change of direction here, the cross-kick is on. Marcus Smith is hit hard… Ooooh! Tyrone Green, hands in the air,” he said.
“If this goes down it’s an absolute worldie! What have we just seen?!”
Owen Farrell tells off referee
Owen Farrell is never far away from controversy, and this one is a particularly brilliant moment from the British & Irish Lion.
Referee Luke Pearce had pointedly said: “Thanks, I can count,” to Farrell after the England star had pointed out that there had been three infringements at the maul in a match between Saracens and Bristol Bears.
Farrell was not happy, sternly telling Pearce: “Don’t be rude to me. There’s no need to be rude to me.”
Later, fans questioned whether Pearce would have said the same to a different player. Nevertheless, it made for quite a memorable exchange on the pitch.
Steward gets flattened
This rare moment took place at the Dubai Sevens and saw a South African rugby player completely wipe out a steward.
Unbeknownst to what was transpiring behind him, the steward calmly watched the crowd as Rosko Specman attempted a jaw-dropping airborne effort in the corner.
The steward’s legs were effectively clothes-lined from underneath him by Specman in what makes for quite the clip.
Dragons coach nails ‘outrageous’ piece of skill
One from the Welsh game now, and it comes from Dragons RFC coach and Welsh Premiership star Matt O’Brien.
Turning out for Newport against Bridgend back in December, O’Brien capped off a player-of-the-match performance with a truly incredible reverse pass.
Phil Steele, who commentated on the match, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: “I’ve just seen one of the most complete fly-half performances for several seasons tonight. Matt O’Brien for Newport RFC v Bridgend Ravens in their 57-27 win in the Indigo Premiership – hands and a boot so sweet they could have put Willy Wonka out of business.”
Hardest rugby tackle of the season
Another season, another hardest hit. It’s completely legal, too. But somehow it seems like it shouldn’t be!
This one comes from Tariq Sims in the Betfred Super League, when Warrington Wolves faced Catalan Dragons. The hit was viewed well over a million ti