The most outrageous and eye-opening acts that happened on a rugby field this season

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 times on social media.

It was 34-year-old Sims' debut match for Dragons too. That's some way to announce your arrival.

Stunning try-saving tackle

Another one from Newport RFC here, with a sublime try-saving tackle from Lloyd Lewis.

Also a presenter on S4C, Lewis used his electric pace to chase down and tackle Cole Swannack, who was looking likely to dot down for Merthyr RFC.

It was branded as 'heroic' at the time, and funnily enough, the pair were actually Sevens team-mates for Wales on the 2022 circuit.

'The best rugby try ever scored'

Stade Francais surprised many rugby fans after finishing second in the Top 14 last season and have even booked themselves a place in the semi-final by default.

The crowning glory on the field so far has to be their length-of-the-field try, which has been touted as being the greatest try ever scored.

Now, whether this beats Gareth Edwards' iconic effort for the Barbarians in 1973 remains to be seen, but it certainly deserves to be up there.

This one is purely a solo score, and all the praise must go to Peniasi Dakuwaqa, who uses a combination of skill, speed and power to drive through for a tremendous effort.

Player makes hash of certain try

One from the English amateur game here sees one rugby player make a complete hash of a certain try.

Guernsey St Jacques Vikings put together a lovely move, but instead of culminating in a lovely score and simple put-down, the player inexplicably drops the ball as he crosses the whitewash.

The footage was posted to the official England Rugby social media accounts, and the players was visibly distraught after fluffing his lines.

Lifetime ban as referee flattened

This is arguably the most outrageous of the lot, and not in a good way.

A Namibian rugby player got a lifetime ban from playing after brutally tackling the referee in the middle of a game. The referee ended the match early because he was concerned for his safety.

The bans were handed out by Namibia Rugby: "1 - A lifetime ban from playing rugby. 2 - A 156-week ban from all forms of rugby, including coaching, refereeing and administration, effective from 30 May 2024. The ban will end on 31 May 2027, contingent upon clearance by the NRU for participation in non-playing roles."

Worst tackle ever

They say you should end on a high note, but we're not so sure this is the one. However, that depends if you find absolutely awful tackles hilarious. In that case - you are in for a treat. When you think of the Top 14, you think of its likeness to international rugby, and the huge, shuddering collisions. And despite all that, the league recently produced perhaps the worst ever attempt at a tackle in rugby history.

It took place in a match between Bayonne and Castres last week, and saw towering Castres lock Leone Nakarawa break down the left flank. Bayonne fly-half Camille Lopez comes flying into frame, and flings his arms in the air, tapping Nakarawa either side of his shoulder.

That's it. That's the tackle. It was a simple try for Nakarawa after that cruising over the whitewash for a simple touch down.

It doesn't get much worse than this!