URC sacks its social media agency after appalling concussion gaffe
The United Rugby Championship (URC) has sacked the social media agency responsible for posting a TikTok on its official account mocking a concussion suffered by Cardiff’s Aled Summerhill. A video showing Summerhill being knocked out – and suffering a concussion – following a heavy collision against the Lions alongside a caption that said “goodnight” with sleeping and laughing emojis as well as “Zzzz” next to the winger’s body was posted on the account.
The concussion post caused outrage, with Summerhill himself highlighting it on Twitter, with the URC apologising and launching an investigation into the incident. As a result, the content agency’s contract with the competition has been terminated.
A statement on the URC website read: “The United Rugby Championship has apologised to Aled Summerhill of Cardiff Rugby after a social media post focusing on an incident that led to a concussive injury was posted to our official TikTok account. 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.
“The URC would like to extend its apology to Aled’s family, friends, teammates, 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.”
The URC also reiterated its commitment to the welfare of its players and their wellbeing. “As a professional rugby union competition the URC applies the head injury assessment processes, which are set out by World Rugby,” the statement continued. “Alongside our clubs and unions, the URC takes the physical wellbeing of players extremely seriously and this is always of the highest priority.
“Over recent seasons the URC has facilitated a number of trials and used medical technology to allow medical personnel to identify injuries in real-time in order to improve player welfare. Such examples are the Hawk-Eye medical surveillance technology implemented at league games since 2017, trials of gum shields that relay data on head collisions and the trial of Eye Guide, an eye-tracking technology aimed at diagnosing concussive injuries.”
Cardiff Rugby condemned the post, saying in a statement: “The video post made light of a collision against Emirates Lions in which Summerhill lost consciousness and was subsequently stood down from the following URC fixture. As soon as the club was made aware of this post, senior URC officials were contacted, who were equally appalled and immediately removed the post.
“The URC have been in contact with the club and Summerhill to offer their unreserved apologies and are now investigating the post and reviewing their processes. Player welfare and safety is of paramount importance and the post was not in line with the core values of the URC or Cardiff Rugby. We thank URC for their swift manner in dealing with this lack of judgement, their subsequent actions and apologies to the player.”
Comments on RugbyPass
I guess we may all agree on the fact, that the ABs and Boks are the two in contest for No 1 in rugby history (the triple-A sort of) …. the Wallabies, England and France are the next tier, with Ireland being the new kid in town (AA) …. in my view it makes little sense creating imaginary competitions (unless you have too much time to waste)
43 Go to commentsWhat a joke. Total joke and the pundits commentating, all of whom know a bit about the game, could barely disguise their contempt. Reaching for the card then pulling back when he realised a red card would carry further match suspensions is simply not his decision to make. A clear and obvious influence on the outcome of this match and indeed, the championship path.
2 Go to commentsI like the idea, in NZ the Ranfurly Shield and NPC coexist, both having their own bragging rights. The World Cup would be the pinnacle, but the competition and travels of these trophies would be interesting.
43 Go to commentsDon’t worry Sonny bill Williams leave that awkward situation about the curfew in the pass whoever it was it doesn’t matter its no big deal we back our All Blacks through the storm and the thunder until we see the Sun light again.
42 Go to commentsWho listens to this retard? He was a massive liability as a player but obviously a media sensation
42 Go to commentsI’m not surprised by such ‘virtue signalling’ by Sonny Boy. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He’s such a pious Islamic muppet, imo.
42 Go to commentsI’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
43 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
2 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
5 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
5 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to comments