URC parts ways with social media agency over Aled Summerhill concussion video

The United Rugby Championship has sacked the social media agency responsible for posting a TikTok on its official account mocking a head injury suffered by Cardiff’s Aled Summerhill.

A video showing Summerhill being knocked out – and suffering 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 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 URC’s 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, 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.”

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